segmentary

Segmentary refers to a form of social and political organization in which a society is composed of a succession of nested kin-based segments—households, lineages, and clans—that operate in a bilateral kinship framework. Segments are largely self-sufficient but can cooperate with other segments at the same level or mobilize to form higher-level coalitions to meet collective needs. A defining characteristic is flexibility: there is no fixed centralized authority, and leadership is situational and contingent on intersegment networks of obligation and influence.

In a segmentary system, conflicts are resolved by mobilizing members of the relevant segments; a dispute at one level may provoke parallel mobilizations at neighboring segments, producing a cascading pattern of segmentary opposition. Alliances shift according to the perceived interests of lineages and households, and the same kin group may support different sides in different conflicts. Because of this mobility and redundancy, segmentary organization can maintain social order without a centralized state, and it has been used to analyze certain stateless societies, especially among Nilotic and other African groups studied by anthropologists such as Evans-Pritchard.

The concept has been influential but also controversial. Critics argue that it can overstate coherence and downplay power asymmetries, coercion, and external pressures. Nevertheless, the segmentary framework remains a useful descriptive and comparative tool for examining how kin-based affiliation, reciprocity, and alliance networks shape political organization and conflict in the absence of a centralized state.