Question

Assume you were able to suited the Lenape (the native people fo New Jersey at the time of European contact) in the year 1400 A.D. You would observe that there were no permanent leaders but the leaders were chosen for specific purposes. All people were born with more or less equal access to essential recourses though some people benefited from the reputations their parents had earned for excellence in some test or another. This benefit meant that individuals were well thought of at birth but had no special access to power or goods. This is an example of a _______________ society.

Answer 1

The Lenape society in 1400 A.D. with leaders chosen for specific purposes and equal resource access is an example of an egalitarian society, characterized by temporary leadership and collective ownership.

Step-by-step explanation:

The society of the Lenape people that you've described, where leaders were chosen for specific purposes and there was more or less equal access to resources with situational leadership and no permanent hierarchy, is an example of an egalitarian society. Egalitarian societies are characterized by a lack of rigid social hierarchies and formalized social stratification. Oftentimes, these societies exhibit patterns of equality regarding access to resources and political influence, and leadership roles are situational, selected based on skill or need for specific tasks rather than on an inherited or formal authority.

In this sense, acephalous or band societies are typical examples of egalitarian structures where decision-making is collective and consensus-driven, and no one individual wields absolute power or authority over others. The role of extended-family leaders, temporary leadership, and access to natural resources all reflect a society where the notion of collective ownership and community decision-making prevails over individual control.

Furthermore, the Lenape and other indigenous societies often had practices in place that prevented the hoarding of power and resources and emphasized community well-being over individual gain, contrasting significantly with European models of land ownership and governance introduced during colonization.