[sourcery]

Any stateless society is an anarchy. Anarchy doesn’t mean there aren’t rules, it means there is no one with the monopoly power to make law, enforce law or judge compliance to any law. It means there is no monopolist of ultimate decision making.

[Sherman Logan]

Thanks for the clarification. By that definition, most North American Indian tribes, at least when the settlers showed up, were anarchic.

Men in tribes generally were very free, at least those who were big and strong enough to deter the inevitable bullies. Women, captives and slaves were not so free.

I’m not entirely sure we want to use pre-state tribal societies as our template for an ideal society. While there was no over-arching authority to enforce laws, this also meant there was no restriction on those who chose to oppress their neighbors.

For background on what such societies were like across the planet and across history, may I suggest:

http://www.amazon.com/War-Before-Civilization-Peaceful-Savage/dp/0195119126

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Before_Civilization

Such societies were generally hugely more warlike, with death tolls from war a large multiple of that in America and Europe during the 20th century.