“Early State” in Cross-Cultural Perspective: A Statistical Reanalysis of Henri J. M. Claessen’s Database

The authors reanalyze Claessen’s data set on the “Early States.” Though Claessen’s Early State typology is largely justified, we suggest some corrections and amendments to his typologization and his model of Early State evolution. We show that the development of personal ownership of land correlates rather weakly with the political development of the Early State, and that political development might be accompanied by the strengthening of communal ownership. We also examine the correlation between Early State political development and ruler sacralization. Though this correlation is insignificant for the whole sample, its insignificance is accounted for by two distinct evolutionary patterns. The pattern observed in the “axial age” zone is characterized by a strong negative correlation between political development and ruler sacralization, while the pattern observed throughout the rest of the world is characterized by a strong positive correlation between the two variables. The authors discuss possible causes of this difference.