This groundbreaking study provides broad insights into the changes Igbo history and political systems have undergone since the Late Stone Age. It discusses important methodological problems in African historiography, questioning the views of synchronists, who create the misleading impression that the Igbo have always lived in a static, kinship-orientated, and stateless society throughout their history. Adopting a diachronic and comparative approach, author John N. Oriji explains how the interplay of economic, social, technological, and other factors have changed the history of the Igbo and their politico-religious organizations over time. In doing so, he raises critical questions about social stratification, cosmology, gender, and the existing typologies of African political systems.