Nerd Pride Radio

State and Society are not synonyms. They are related, but they are not the same thing, repeated. A State is a compulsory construct, with a limited bounds in geographic era, as well as possibly ethnic make up, monopolizing the use of force within it's bounds. A society or "nation" is not bounded by geography, it may constitute different ethnicities*, but it will have common cultural practices such as language, religion, laws and social mores. For example, there is no one Arab State, but Arabs have shared cultural structures that are, if not the same, extremely similar through what is known as the "Arabic" world.

Or, to make this about the somalis: There are something like 23 Somalis in the world. Just over half of them live within the boundaries of the State of Somalia(And about a third of those live in Somlialand), with the rest living in neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. And yet, despite four or even five different states, with different governments, laws and institutions, the Somalis have maintained a remarkably consistent society and legal system that has enabled them to function without a state government for prolonged periods of time.

Every society, everywhere, has rules and shared cultural values. They may have informal or informal positions or practices for enforcing those. But these are things all societies, even stateless societies, must have.

*This gets REAL tricky. Some ethnic groupings have a very definite "hereditary" function, where you must be born a member of them, and often where you must exhibit some physical trait. Some ethnic groupings allow people to freely join them by observing the ethnic culture. Many are a fusion, where people may freely join, but "true" members are born into it(and often of a specific lineage)

So is this about having a "state" vs. having small, limited forms of rule over small groups, that doesn't rise to the level of a "state"? I don't mean to be rude here but I would not use Somalia as an example of how this works well.