The Variability of the Human Experience: Marginal People and the Creation of Power

Abstract

Archaeologists often characterize small scale societies as egalitarian and uniform. We tend to see the experiences of the people who made up these societies as similar. I argue instead that most small scale societies contained people of a variety of statuses, including those whose social position was marginal. I examine one such category of social person, captives, who were common in small scale societies worldwide. I suggest that their lives could be significantly different from those of other group members and that their presence, labor, and skills could create status and power for their captor and other group members.