Transegalitarian

Quick meaning: Transegalitarian is an adjective meaning (anthropology) Organized beyond the limits of an egalitarian society but lacking clear social stratification or political centralization.

Meaning

(anthropology) Organized beyond the limits of an egalitarian society but lacking clear social stratification or political centralization.

Example Sentences

These characteristics […] match those employed by anthropologists as M. Sahlins to explain the ‘big-man’ concept⁴¹—but see⁴² for a critique. This concept, together with that of ‘aggrandizers’ in transegalitarian societies⁴³ has been used within the context of Late Neolithic and Copper Age Iberia^(44,45).

Rather than attempt to revive these encumbered terms, I prefer to use Clark and Blake's (1989) term “transegalitarian” to refer to societies that are neither egalitarian nor politically stratified (“politically stratified” societies include chiefdoms with relatively fixed classes and a hierarchical settlement pattern).

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