It extends beyond the historical record and likely arose alongside the ascent of human society. The Indo-Europeans (5000 BCE), for example, divided society in that kings and poets were in the upper class, the warrior was beneath them, and then the rest of society, which was likely ranked by wealth measured in cattle (called the 'fee,' cf. Old English feoh "cattle"). This social classification later spread throughout Europe, the Middle East, and India.

• The Indic and Iranian people shifted the elite class of poets to a more religious office (e.g., the Brahmin ~ cf. Latin flamen "priest", Middle English flamyn). The Indic people, as they migrated southward, assumed the conquered Dravid peoples into an even lower class than typical folk (e.g., the dalit).

• In Northwestern Europe, the invasive Indo-European religion was adapted to local European customs; the poet maintained a unique position in society (e.g., the scop and the bard), but his spiritual role transferred to the women spiritual leaders (Old European religion only permitted women as priests/shamans) in Celtic, Germanic, and Balto-Slavic cultures (e.g. the Icelandic tunrida "hedge-rider"). This is a survivor in the Northwestern European region of the older, pre-Indo-European religion; Indo-European religion had male spiritual heads.