Three Stages in the Evolution of Slavery in Precivilized Societies

Abstract

Analysis of a small sample of cross-cultural data suggests that slavery evolves through three stages in precivilized societies. At first, slaves are mainly war captives from other societies and serve primarily to symbolize the dominance of the victor over the vanquished: their economic func tion is minimal. Second, the importance of "dominance slavery" declines as the locus of the dominance struggle shifts to some extent from between to within societies, developing on a larger scale with a diversified struc ture and hierarchy. Finally, economic power becomes stratified until poverty forces an increasing proportion of the population into "economic slavery," the purpose of which is primarily productive exploitation, and which is ultimately codified in law along with other economic and au thority relationships in higher precivilized societies.