Chapter 7: Political Anthropology - A Cross-Cultural Comparison

Question 1

Affinal

Answer 1

Family relationships created through marriage.

Question 2

Age grades

Answer 2

Groups of men who are close to one another in age and share similar duties or responsibilities.

Question 3

Age sets

Answer 3

Named categories to which men of a certain age are assigned at birth.

Question 4

Band

Answer 4

The smallest unit of political organization, consisting of only a few families and no formal leadership positions.

Question 5

Big man

Answer 5

A form of temporary or situational leadership; influence results from acquiring followers.

Question 6

Bilateral cross-cousin marriage

Answer 6

a man marries a woman who is both his mother’s brother’s daughter and his father’s sister’s daughter.

Question 7

Bilateral Descent

Answer 7

Kinship (family) systems that recognize both the mother’s and the father’s “sides” of the family.

Question 8

Caste system

Answer 8

The division of society into hierarchical levels; one’s position is determined by birth and remains fixed for life.

Question 9

Chiefdom

Answer 9

Large political units in which the chief, who usually is determined by hereditary, holds a formal position of power.

Question 10

Circumscription

Answer 10

The enclosure of an area by a geographic feature such as mountain rangers or desert or by the boundaries of a state.

Question 11

Codified law

Answer 11

Formal legal systems in which damages, crimes, remedies, and punishments are specified.

Question 12

Egalitarian

Answer 12

Societies in which there is no great difference in status or power between individuals and there are as many valued status positions in the societies as there are persons able to fill them.

Question 13

Feuds

Answer 13

Disputes of long duration characterized by a state or recurring hostilities between families, lineages, or other kin groups.

Question 14

Ideologies

Answer 14

Ideas designed to reinforce the right of powerholders to rule.

Question 15

Legitimacy

Answer 15

The perception that an individual has a valid right to leadership.

Question 16

Lineage

Answer 16

Individuals who can trace or demonstrate their descent through a line of males or females back to a founding ancestor.

Question 17

Matrilineal cross-cousin marriage

Answer 17

A man marries a woman who is his mother’s brother’s daughter.

Question 18

Matrilineal

Answer 18

Kinship (family) systems that recognize only relatives through a line of female ancestors.

Question 19

Nation

Answer 19

An ethnic population.

Question 20

Negative reinforcements

Answer 20

Punishments for noncompliance through fines, imprisonment, and death sentences.

Question 21

Oaths

Answer 21

The practice of calling on a deity to bear witness to the truth of what one says.

Question 22

Ordeal

Answer 22

A test used to determine guilt or innocence by submitting the accused to dangerous, painful, or risky tests believed to be controlled by supernatural forces.

Question 23

Patrilineal

Answer 23

Kinship (family) systems that recognize only relatives through a line of male ancestors.

Question 24

Peasants

Answer 24

Residents of a state who earn a living through farming.

Question 25

Poro and sande

Answer 25

Secret societies for men and women, respectively, found in the Mande-speaking peoples of West Africa, particularly in Liberia, Sierra Leon, the Ivory Coast, and Guinea.

Question 26

Positive reinforcements

Answer 26

Rewards for compliance; examples include medals, financial incentives, and other forms of public recognition

Question 27

Proletarianization

Answer 27

A process through which farmers are removed from the land and forced to take wage labor employment.

Question 28

Raids

Answer 28

Short-term uses of physical force organized and planned to achieve a limited objective.

Question 29

Ranked

Answer 29

Societies in which there are substantial differences in the wealth and social status of individuals; there are a limited number of positions of power or status, and only a few can occupy them.

Question 30

Restricted Exchange

Answer 30

A marriage system in which only two extended families can engage in this exchange.

Question 31

Reverse dominance

Answer 31

Societies in which people reject attempts by any individual to exercise power.

Question 32

Segmentary lineage

Answer 32

A hierarchy of lineages that contains both close and relatively distant family members.

Question 33

Social Classes

Answer 33

The division of society into groups based on wealth and status.

Question 34

Sodality

Answer 34

A system used to encourage solidarity or feelings of connectedness between people who are not related by family ties.

Question 35

State

Answer 35

The most complex form of political organization characterized by a central government that has a monopoly over legitimate uses of physical force, a sizeable bureaucracy, a system of formal laws, and a standing military force.

Question 36

Stratified

Answer 36

Societies in which there are large differences in the wealth, status, and power of individuals based on unequal access to resources and positions of power.

Question 37

Sumptuary Rules

Answer 37

Norms that permit persons of high rank to enjoy greater social status by wearing distinctive clothing, jewelry, and/or decorations denied those of lower rank.

Question 38

Tribe

Answer 38

Political units organized around family ties that have fluid or shifting systems of temporary leadership

Question 39

Unilineal Descent

Answer 39

Kinship (family) systems that recognize only one sex-based “side” of the family.