They may or may not exist in high degree in given localities. What is true of popular attitudes pertains also to rural leadership. Generalities are easy to make but misleading. Some of the elements of such an analysis are contained in the paragraphs to follow. Hereditary connections of the rural elite.
Hereditary elites springing from urban societies are rare.
The most abundant provider of nobility is a feudal system, such as most of Europe possessed in medieval and earlier modern times. A hereditary monarchy itself does not ipso facto signify a nobility extending beyond the monarch's immediate family or person. Manchu China, with its emperor and his bureaucracy exemplifies this condition. Also, titles of hereditary nobility nowadays do not necessarily signify present or former land-holding. In other cases, titles are granted for exploits or aid to the ruler and land ownership may occur subsequently.