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""Law" is the human principle involved in organization, not a State, though in practice Law pretty much does mean government." -exodus

I don't understand this.

"There has never, and never will be, a "functional" anarchy. Anarchy is chaos, not civilization. Any period of anarchy has always, and will always be, followed closely by the organization of the weary survivors, tired of the brutality they had been exposed to by evil men, those who are always ready to take advantage of those weaker than they are." -exodus

I think you are right about that. But many libertarians, disagree. Unless you are asserting that a stateless society is not necessarily an anarchy...?

(Are you) asserting that a stateless society is not necessarily an anarchy...?
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I'm saying that there has never been a system of government that could be called anarchy.

I can't think of a single instance where anarchy "functioned" within a nation; not even a part of a nation; not even a single town or village. There might be anarchy (by that I mean lawlessness) for a short while, but within a very short while the citizens of the area will organize some form of Law, even if it's nothing more involved than allowing a local strong man to become a dictator.

Anarchy is not a "society." Anarchy is the short period between one society and the next, and it is always the result of the violent overthrow of the previous society.

exodus - ""Law" is the human principle involved in organization, not a State, though in practice Law pretty much does mean government."
Ruadh - I don't understand (what you mean by that).
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A simple explanation is that "Law" is our rules for getting along with other people.

Humans are social animals; we require others in order to feel complete. When alone, we feel lonely. Even when we're "tired of all these people," we mean that we're tired for now, not forever. None of us would choose to be without other humans around.

That presents a problem, in that while being around other people, sometimes what they want conflicts with what we want. If it's just you and one other guy, whoever is stronger gets his way. If it's a large group, what everyone collectively considers "fairness" comes in. Being stronger than another individual isn't quite so great an advantage when twenty-five or a hundred people beat you up because you aren't playing "fair," or in other words, "by the rules of acceptable behavior."

Those rules are Law without "official" structure.

"Rules to live by" become officially agreed-upon Law that is enforced by the community as a whole, and those same rules eventually become Law that is enforced by leaders in our "government."

When I said "though in practice Law pretty much does mean government," I wasn't very precise; I should have said that government, being the enforcer of Law, is easily seen as the personification of Law.