Definition of "chieftainship" [chieftainship]

• The state of being a chieftain (noun)
• The area ruled by a chieftain (noun)

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• "You know you are born for chieftainship, that is a hereditary right."
• "In both capacities he actively opposed traditional institutions such as chieftainship, the ancestor cult, the practice of magic, polygyny and bridewealth, that kept tribesmen away from the church."
• "Some kind of chieftainship seems coeval with the first advance from the state of separate wandering families to that of a nomadic tribe."