Structural/ functionalist ethnographers recognized early the im- portance of acephalous or middle-range societies in Africa. Acephalous societies lacked hereditary leadership and rarely displayed obvious distinc- tions in status or wealth (Fortes and Evans-Pritchard 1958; Wiessner 2002, chapter 9, this volume). Distinct offices were vested in groups of people— including councils of elders, lineage elders, and age sets—rather than in individuals. These ethnographic cases have recently become grist for the archaeologists’ mill as comparative data (for example, McIntosh 1999b). Although anthropologists described the functions of acephalous or middle-range societies using many African case studies, they often ignored the flexibility in leadership offices, styles, types, and domains that can occur in these societies, probably because these emergent forms of leader- ship rarely led to structural change. For our part, it is the flexibility of lead- ership in acephalous societies that is most interesting (see also chapters 2, 6, and 9 by Bird and Bliege Bird, Arnold, and Wiessner, respectively, this volume). In some cases, local groups are organized into segments or nested hierarchies that provide a mechanism for supralocal organization in the face of broader threats, such as warfare (Southall 1999). Leaders might emerge in these times, but usually their temporary authority fades. In other cases, age sets or secret societies crosscut lineage organization and add 10 Leadership in Middle-Range African Societies Chapurukha M. Kusimba and Sibel B. Kusimba 223 EvoLead 10:Copan 01 11/23/09 3:52 PM Page 223