Frontmatter -- 1. 'Sacred kingship' and formation of the state / Abélès, Marc -- 2. Traditional Rwanda: deconsecrating a sacred kingdom / Back, Lucien R. -- 3. Kinship and politics. The formation of the state among the pastoralists of the Sahara and the Sahel / Bonte, Pierre -- 4. Specific features of the African early state / Claessen, Henri J.M. -- 5. Evolution, fission, and the early state / Cohen, Ronald -- 6. The structure of the Mamprusi kingdom and the cult of naam / Drucker-Brown, Susan -- 7. Social function and political power: a case study of state formation in irrigation society / Gunawardana, R.A.L.H. -- 8. The early state among the Eurasian nomads / Khazanov, Anatolii M. -- 9. The legitimation of early inchoate states / Kurtz, Donald V. / Showman, Margaret -- 10. Warfare and the origin of the state: another formulation / Lewis, Herbert S. -- 11. West African kingdoms and the early state: a review of some recent analyses / Lloyd, Peter -- 12. 'Divine kingship' in chiefdoms and states. A single ideological model / Muller, Jean-Claude -- 13. The Kusha¿a state: a preliminary study / Narain, A. K. -- 14. The pre-colonial Indian state in history and epistemology. A reconstruction of societal formation in the Western Deccan from the fifteenth to the early nineteenth century / Perlin, Frank -- 15. Ways of state formation in Africa: a demonstration of typical possibilities / Sellnow, Irmgard -- 16. Kalinga and Andhra: the process of secondary state formation in early India / Seneviratne, Sudharshan -- 17. Some additional thoughts on the concept of the early state / Skalník, Peter -- 18. From 'empire' to state: the emergence of the kingdom of Bunyoro-Kitara: c. 1350-1890 / Steinhart, Edward I. -- 19. Terrestrial deities and celestial bureaucrats: transformation of the state and local communities in the Asiatic mode of production in Japan / Sugita, Kurumi -- 20. The state as a problem of jurisprudence / Tamayo y Salmorán, Rolando -- 21. The state as empire / Thapar, Romila -- 22. The army and the formation of the states of West Africa in the nineteenth century: the cases of Kenedugu and Samori state / Tymowski, Michal -- 23. Marx and Weber on the primary state / Vitkin, Mikhail A. -- 24. The study of the Southeast Asian state / Winzeler, Robert L. -- 25. Ubi sumus? The Study of the State conference in retrospect / Claessen, Henri J.M. / Skalník, Peter -- Biographical notes -- Index of names -- Index of subjects