Collective Behavior and Social Movements in Stateless Societies

Abstract

This entry examines the relevance of concepts and theories in the social movement and collective behavior literatures in sociology for understanding and explaining social change in small‐scale human societies. We discuss and critique the reasons given by some social movement scholars to justify their focus on exclusively “modern” movements. We contend that collective behavior and social movements have been important causes of social change in small‐scale societies composed of hunter‐gatherers and horticulturalists, since before the emergence of sedentism in the Mesolithic Era.