The Origin of the Inequality of the Social Classes by Gunnar Landtman

Author:Gunnar Landtman [Landtman, Gunnar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, Cultural & Social, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781317271284
Google: uURACwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-12-22T02:51:50+00:00

C. The Origin of Slavery

Chapter XIII

Theory—Intratribal Slavery

In a previous chapter we have indicated that, according to our opinion, the various ranks and subdivisions into which many peoples in different stages of culture are divided, can be classified into three main orders, the nobility (or upper free class), the free commonalty, and the slaves. In some communities there are only two main ranks, in which case one of them consists of the common freemen and the other either of the nobility or the slave class.

The common free class can be looked upon as the perpetuation of the primordial social state where no class inequality has yet arisen. This central class in a way represents the level of social equilibrium, inasmuch as during the course of evolution its position in society has not on the whole changed either upwards or downwards. In comparison with the middle class slavery has originated through a process of differentiation downwards.

It is evident that even among nature peoples with a plurality of ranks the lowest class does not necessarily consist of slaves, but that the applicability of this term depends upon the social conditions characterizing the lowest class. In many cases it is very difficult to decide whether the nethermost layer of a community should be set down as slaves or not. As regards the use of the terms of "slave" and "slavery" one cannot by any means always be guided by the meaning in which travellers and other chroniclers of native peoples often employ them.

What can be regarded as an illustrative feature of slavery is that wherever it is found it constitutes the lowest class in the community. There does not exist a lower social grade in any scale of ranks than slavery, nor any term which would imply a lower stage as compared with the other social classes. On the other hand, slavery does not always and everywhere denote an identical level or type, but includes a considerable range of different degrees of existence. The conditions of the lowest class particularly varies among peoples of different economic culture. No uniform type characterizes the slave class any more than it does the middle class or the nobility. The position of the subjugated social layers, moreover, is frequently de iure different from what it is in real life, which adds to the difficulty of determining their nature.

In theoretical literature the opinions regarding the essential attributes of slavery on the whole show a marked concordance. Most writers lay stress upon the ownership of the master with regard to his slave, other features being to a certain extent differently emphasized in the various definitions.

In his Politics Aristotle wrote that "a slave is a living possession", and that "he who is by nature not his own but another's and yet a man, is by nature a slave, and he may be said to belong to another".1 Ancient Roman law, according to Sohm, declared a slave to be " a human being who is, legally, not a person but a thing. He is exposed to the arbitrary power of his master.

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