社会階層
Societies from the earlier Mesolithic period were composed of hunter gatherer tribes that also had no social stratification. Later societies of the Bronze Age had noticeable social stratification, developed occupational specialization, the sovereign state, social classes of individuals who were of the elite ruling or religious classes, full-time warriors, and wealthy merchants. Bronze Age societies also had individuals on the other end of the economic spectrum, who were poor, enslaved, and hungry. In between these two economic models (the hunter gatherer tribes and Bronze Age civilizations) we find the later Neolithic and Eneolithic societies such as the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, where the first indications of social stratification begin to be found. However, it would be a mistake to overemphasize the impact of social stratification in the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, since it was still (even in its later phases) very much an egalitarian society. Social stratification was just one of the many aspects of what is regarded as a fully established civilized society, which began with the Bronze Age.