"I think that is different to village justice, where the headman only rules with the consent of his tribe. I think it is closer to robber barony (or any other form of tyranny) where the leader remains the leader for as long as he is *strong* enough to do so."
I'm not sure that a "robber barony" isn't an extreme & in the long term self-destructive form of a village system. In both the village & robber barony, there is no higher authority than the headman/chief elder, or else the higher authority is too remote to be very relevant in local matters--the latter situation was the case during the European conquest/colonization of the Americas. To some extent, even the robber barony is governed by consensus, even if it's only that the "baron's" people will go along with him because he'll kill anyone who doesn't. & the village headman must be "strong", ie, able to convince his people that he can cope with any situation that arises & make the correct decisions, otherwise he'll be replaced one way or another.
I agree that it's probably too much to believe there was a consistent theme running through the series; actually, it seemed to me that the writers were floundering at times.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-09 08:24 pm (UTC)I'm not sure that a "robber barony" isn't an extreme & in the long term self-destructive form of a village system. In both the village & robber barony, there is no higher authority than the headman/chief elder, or else the higher authority is too remote to be very relevant in local matters--the latter situation was the case during the European conquest/colonization of the Americas. To some extent, even the robber barony is governed by consensus, even if it's only that the "baron's" people will go along with him because he'll kill anyone who doesn't. & the village headman must be "strong", ie, able to convince his people that he can cope with any situation that arises & make the correct decisions, otherwise he'll be replaced one way or another.
I agree that it's probably too much to believe there was a consistent theme running through the series; actually, it seemed to me that the writers were floundering at times.