Modelos políticos y sociedad en Arcadia

Abstract

The arcadian ethnogenesis, recently studied from a historical and anthropological perspective, was a process preceded by the construction of sub-ethnic identities during the formation of the different political organizations. Several of these political organizations behaved as tribal states drawing together a number of local communities and small poleis, at least until the starting of the synoecistic project of Megalopolis, in the iv Century BC. Others, on the contrary, evolved until developing into typical poleis, holding elaborated constitutions and playing a hegemonic role in their area, as it is the case of Mantinea. The Aristotelic «peasants democracy» that was developed in Mantinea in the classic period reflects the connection between the political model and the social composition of its civic body.