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  Image GalleryIn hunter-gathering and farming villages, people shared the responsibility for making community decisions. But group decision-making can be inefficient, especially when tackling big jobs like managing resources, waging war, or building large community structures. To streamline the process, some societies gave the responsibility for community decision-making over to certain individuals or small groups. How do archaeologists know when a society has given up individual authority to strong centralized leadership? They find certain clues: monumental architecture that served the entire community; exotic goods indicating a well organized exchange network; and symbols of rank that demonstrated the status of leaders in the community. To learn more about a few of the many societies that authorized powerful leaders to make decisions, select a culture below:
Continue to Colombian Societies. >> |
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