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King Philip's War (1675-1676): Interactions and Transformations of Typologically Different Societies in the Colonial Context
This chapter examines the interaction between homoarchical and heterarchical societies on the
example of colonial New England in the XVIIth century. The key event of the period, in which
the cultural transformations of the previous decades culminated, was King Philip’s War, a large-
scale conflict between English colonists and their allies and the alliance of several Native groups
led by the Wampanoag sachem Metakom. The drastically different cultures which interacted and
sometimes clashed in New England were both undergoing significant changes, which, in the
terminology adopted in this collective work, can be characterized as appearance of heterarchical
(among the colonists) and homoarchical (among the Native Americans) elements in societies
previously largely shaped by the opposing, homoarchical and heterarchical respectively,
principles.
Declining influence of nobility, growing influence of bourgeoisie, economic changes,
emergence of the civil society and other changed generally associated with the transition from
medieval to early modern society began in England long before the start of colonization, but in
New England colonies, due to their specific social structure and ideology, the rate of this
transformation was much higher and the changes themselves were more prominent by mid-
XVIIth century than in England itself, due to the influence of the colonial environment itself and
the presence of Native American neighbors. For the Native Americans, the colonial expansion
was a challenge, confronting which successfully (that is, preserving as much political and
cultural autonomy as possible) required centralization of power in the hands of high-ranking
sachems, to much higher degree than in the pre-contact period, curtailing the traditional
autonomy of individual communities. The case of early New England showcases the variety of
possible trajectories and outcomes of interactions between typologically different societies. No
matter what trajectory such an interaction follows, the societies involved inevitably undergo
certain changes, the scale of which can, however, vary, and in the case of New England the
changes both in colonial and Native societies were considerable, determining their political and
social development for decades, if not centuries to come.
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