Yesterday, predictably, someone popped into my mentions with sputtering objections to the idea that a human community—ANY community—could exist without a central, coercive authority to enforce rules. 

“Even social animals have a ruling hierarchy and structured defense against attackers.”

This is simply, empirically not true. People are perfectly capable of organizing themselves voluntarily to use violence cooperatively, both for defense and offense. The Haudenosaunee of what is now New York depopulated and conquered virtually the entire Ohio Valley without any semblance of a state.

1/several