Richard Thurnwald, “Politische Gebilde bei Naturvölkern” (1919)

Thurnwald’s text is a single-authored systematic essay in comparative ethnology, sociology, and legal history, based chiefly on South Sea fieldwork. Its scope is the “beginnings” of the state among Papuan, Melanesian, and Micronesian/Polynesian peoples, but “beginning” is methodological rather than chronological: contemporary societies are not fossils, yet they can discipline speculation about stateless and early-state forms.

Über Anfänge des Staates hat man mehr nachgedacht als geforscht.

English translation: About the beginnings of the state there has been more speculation than research.

Against speculative theories of state origin, Thurnwald proposes an inductive typology. His central thesis is that political organization develops logically from gerontocratic kin groups toward aristocratic and oligarchic formations, not through a simple universal history, but through recurring combinations of kinship, marriage exchange, migration, domination, property, and economic dependence. He repeatedly warns that empirical social life exceeds tidy doctrine:

Die Wirklichkeit ist aber immer viel weniger einfach als Gedankenkonstruktionen.

English translation: Reality, however, is always far less simple than conceptual constructions.

The first form, “papuanische Gerontokratie,” is a clan order founded on relative equality. The Sippe is at once political, religious, social, and economic unit; land and hunting grounds belong to it, while tools, weapons, planted trees, and some products can be individually held. Authority is not command backed by coercion but age, ritual knowledge, and personal standing:

Der Einfluß der Alten wird aber nur durch ihre „autoritas“ geübt. Strikten Befehl gibt es nicht.

English translation: The influence of the elders, however, is exercised solely through their "auctoritas." There is no strict command.

This is why Thurnwald calls the type a “gerontokratische Demokratie.” The elders guide but do not administer a state apparatus; sanctions, executive power, and impersonal office are absent. Marriage exchange binds sovereign clans into peace relations, but such ties resemble alliances more than government.

Eine politische Organisation, unabhängig von Gelegenheit und Person, reicht nicht über die Sippe hinaus.

English translation: A political organization independent of occasion and person does not extend beyond the clan.

The second, Melanesian form is “beginnende Ungleichheit.” Here Thurnwald’s decisive explanatory move is cultural collision: migration brings heterogeneous groups into contact, and from this contact emerge new social distinctions. Larger settlements, simplified marriage rules, secret societies, slavery, valuables, and prestige goods introduce ranking and aristocratic separation.

Erst die Berührung verschieden gearteter Menschen und ihrer Kulturen führt zu politischen und sozialen Neugestaltungen.

English translation: Only the contact of differently constituted peoples and their cultures leads to new political and social formations.

Yet the Melanesian “chief” is not a monarch. He is a war leader or dux, sustained by wealth, followers, slaves, and reputation rather than by fixed law. Political authority becomes more concentrated, but remains fragile and personal:

Die Häuptlingschaft besteht also nur scheinbar, sie verschwindet, wenn die Umstände sich ändern, und ist nicht traditionell festgelegt.

English translation: Chieftainship thus exists only in appearance; it disappears when circumstances change, and is not traditionally fixed.

The third form, Micronesian-Polynesian, is class or caste stratification. Here clans have become ranked “Geschlechter,” dispersed over territory, bound by descent, rank, myth, tribute, and control of land. Thurnwald sees in these formations the closest analogues to early Oriental states: oligarchic aristocracies whose power rests less on naked violence than on monopolizing subsistence.

Dieser Geschlechterstaat beruht also im wesentlichen darauf, daß ein oder einige wenige Geschlechter sich der Nahrungsquellen bemächtigt haben.

English translation: This lineage-based state rests essentially on the fact that one or a few lineages have taken possession of the sources of subsistence.

The work’s structure thus moves from Papuan clan equality, through Melanesian aristocratic differentiation, to Micronesian-Polynesian oligarchy. But its conclusion complicates any simple evolutionism. Thurnwald insists that the sequence is primarily logical and comparative, not a direct historical genealogy. The constant substrate is kinship:

Allen drei Formen liegt die Sippenverfassung mit ihrem gerontokratischen Aufbau zugrunde.

English translation: All three forms have as their foundation the clan constitution with its gerontocratic structure.

Its relevance lies in this double movement: it is an early political anthropology of state formation, but also a methodological essay on how typologies must be used. Thurnwald’s vocabulary of “Naturvölker,” racial layering, and cultural hierarchy belongs to its colonial-era intellectual setting; nevertheless, the text is notable for grounding state origins in observed institutions—marriage rules, kin names, property, trade, slavery, tribute—rather than in abstract contract or conquest myths. Its final caution is the governing principle of the essay:

Sie sind unvermeidlich, sie sind auch fruchtbar, solange wir des konstruktiven Charakters uns bewußt bleiben und den wirklichen historischen Werdegang, das Hin und Her des konkreten geschichtlichen Geschehens nicht damit verwechseln.

English translation: They are unavoidable, and they are also fruitful, so long as we remain aware of their constructive character and do not confuse them with the actual historical course of events—the ebb and flow of concrete historical happenings.