The Concept of Social Class Applied to Territorially Delimited Non-Specialized Tribes

At present, there is a large absence of work on social classes, especially in relation to territorially delimited societies that are not specialized in terms of labor. For a long time, studies concerning social classes were produced but, for the most part, they were applied to the post-industrial capitalist societies of Eastern Europe. The present research aims to expand the scarce existing knowledge on the possibility of applying the concept of «social class» to tribal societies. To achieve this objective, the historiography and the implications of the concept that accompanied its birth will be examined. Subsequently, its use will be examined with respect to the basic idea of conflict, and then the appropriateness of its use with respect to tribal societies will be contrasted. Finally, the hypothesis of the present research will be presented, whose basic idea indicates that there are similar features between social classes and tribal classes, that the use of the concept of tribal societies is inadvisable. Finally, the limits of the present proposal will be discussed.