Anthropological archaeology is well suited to pursue the study of chiefs, their leadership institutions (chiefdoms), and long-term historical processes. In this book Timothy Earle argues that studying chiefdoms is essential to understanding the role of elemental powers in social evolution. He studies chiefs and their power strategies, using as illustrations historically independent prehistoric and traditional societies; he discusses how chiefs continue to exist as powerful actors within modern states.

Chiefs are political operatives who hold titles of leadership over groups larger than intimate kin-based communities; although they rule with the consent of their group, they are all about building personal power and respect. Many scholars have viewed chiefs as problem solvers: defending groups against aggressors, resolving disputes, providing support under hardship, organizing labour for community projects, and redistributing goods among those in need. Chiefs do these things, but much of what they do is to accumulate benefits for themselves, staying in power and legitimizing control.

Earle expertly summarizes a career's worth of knowledge on the political and economic underpinnings of early complex societies. . . . as a primer on current social evolutionary thinking it is a highly accessible volume for interested scholars working in California, North America, and beyond.
--Mikael Fauvelle, Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology | Vol. 41, No. 2 (2021)

Given the scope and depth of Earle's work, this book can justifiably be described as a tour de force . . . Earle's comprehensive and well-researched work should be considered essential reading for those interested in understanding the processes that resulted in the advent of chiefdoms around the world."                          --Richard J. Chacon, Winthrop University, Latin American Antiquity, vol. 32, no. 4, 2021

Timothy Earle is Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University. He has conducted major archaeological field projects in Hawaii, Peru, Argentina, Denmark and Hungary; he believes that anthropological archaeology is a potent tool for investigating history in ways directly relevant to the modern world. His books on political economy include How Chiefs Come to Power and Bronze Age Economics.