Early Political Systems during Hunting-Gathering period

By: Lou Zerda

Political systems first developed during the early Paleolithic period by means of small groups of people indulging to communication, beliefs, power, and workforce. People during this era were developing their social skills and thus invented language as well as gestures. Scientists can infer the early use of language from the fact that humans traversed large swaths of land, established settlements, created tools, traded, and instituted social hierarchies and cultures. Without the aid of language, these things would likely have been impossible. Early communication of humans suggests that through social skills, they would be able to understand clearly on what each have in common and can be beneficial in terms of hunting and gathering, establishment of societies, and most importantly the stage of human evolution.

Human societies of the Paleolithic Era are dependent on hunting and gathering activities for their family and tribes to survive. Throughout this period, there were no evidences of an establishment of states and organized governments, until the emergence Neolithic Revolution thousands of years later. Humans began to produce the earliest works of art and began to engage in religious and spiritual behavior such as burials and rituals.

The emergence of tribal organizations and other indigenous groups began in this era, consist of only two or three villages. Tribes, like bands, tend to be egalitarian, that is, there is an equal distribution of resources, goods and authority. Their leaders, have no true authority, and have no power to enforce any of their requests except by persuasion and the respect they gain from their followers. Hence, they are often highly verbal and charismatic people on the decision-making process for their survival.

A great example of this system are the Khoisan people of the African Kalahari Desert of southern Africa that consist of indigenous tribes such as Khoekhoen and San people in which they still practice on hunting and gathering activities for survival with their ancestors date back to more than 200,000 years ago according to some findings and archaeological discoveries by various researchers and archaeologists. Today, the surviving tribes of Khoisan still practices chiefdoms although with some portions of their population are now being civilized.

Their way of life by these kinds of systems have been helping them maintain their rich culture and society until today after several hundreds of years of global development and industrialization. It had also paved the way for researchers to fully understand their way of life and further unlocking the details of the hunting and gathering period, which they were one of the early humans to emerge during this era.

The Philippines’ prehistory of the oldest political system dates back to the early Paleolithic period. One of the first Filipinos were the Negritos in which they migrated to the Philippines about 30,000 BC with the help of ancient geological bridges that linked the islands to the mainland. Afterwards, the Malays and Indonesians migrated carrying with them the cultures and ways of living on the country and gradually made their small settlements each with their own tribes and their own ways of survival.

These settlements had led to the creation of bands and then tribes in which they practice hunting and gathering foods and resources to survive. Some early humans invented tools and weapons such as bows, arrows, spears, and hand-made objects that is used for carving and slicing. These people are sometimes hunt in groups and work to attain meat that will be fed to tribes or a group of people like their families as well as maintaining social relations within the group and other groups by trade and support. It is also evident for clashes with these tribes due to resource shortages, misunderstanding, and even because of land areas.

Currently, few Filipino tribes that exist as of today were still dependent on hunting and gathering such as the Batak tribes of Palawan in which they are the only indigenous groups in the Philippine that were untouched by civilization.