Final answer:
Band-level political organization is associated with a subsistence system of gathering and hunting, characterized by small, mobile groups with informal leadership and consensual decision-making.
Step-by-step explanation:
Band-level political organization is most often associated with a subsistence system of gathering and hunting. Anthropologist Elman Service categorized societies into four main forms of social organization: band, tribe, chiefdom, and state, with bands being the simplest form characterized by a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle and lack of formal political structure. Members of band societies typically number around 50 people, ideal for their mobile life where they follow herds and utilize foraging to sustain themselves. Gathering and hunting is a mode of subsistence that allows these small groups to move seasonally across territories, often creating networks of cooperation with neighboring groups through cross-band marriages and friendships.
These societal structures have evolved over time and are part of the broader spectrum of human cultural adaptation to the environment, which involves direct application of human labor to natural resources. Such modes of subsistence are found in societies that have not developed substantial surplus production, while more complex political organizations arise with the advent of surplus goods and the ability to trade. Band societies reflect an evolutionary stage in which leadership is informal and decision-making is often done on a consensual basis.