Abstract: It is Shanghai's rich natural resources and excellent ecological environment that have supplied human beings with good survival conditions. It has also, for the region, bred advanced prehistoric civilization. As the early cultures of the Neolithic Age, both MaJiaBang Culture and SongZe Culture belong to the pedigree of prehistoric archeological culture, characteristic of clear development and orderly heritance. This essay, focusing on Shanghai's MaJiaBang Culture and SongZe Culture, and by analysis of the development of the early civilization in Shanghai, probes into the developing conditions and social forms of these two cultures, especially the evolution from equality to hierarchy. The author tries to prove that there is the "society of hierarchy" between the society of equality and the society of classes.

Key words: SongZe Culture, productive forces, equality, hierarchy, MaJiaBang Culture