Chapter 8 Flashcards
What is the focus of Political Anthropology?
Organized use of public power in society, human behaviour and thoughts related to public power, cross cultural modes of politics and political organizations.
What do political organizations maintain?
Social order, group right, safety from external threats.
What are the 5 forms of political institutions?
Band, chiefdom, tribe, state, nation.
What is a band?
Small group of linked households connected by kinship.
Do bands have leaders?
Not formal leaders, but some people may have influence or authority, not power
What is power?
Ability to bring about results with the potential or use of force.
What is authority?
Ability to bring about results based on status.
What is influence?
Ability to bring about results by exerting moral or social pressure.
What are tribes?
Social groups more formal than bands which are comprised of several bands/lineage groups.
Do tribes have leaders? What are their roles?
They have tribal headmen who have authority and influence. In charge of conflict resolution, migration, hunting, etc..
What is big-man/woman leadership?
Individuals build political base and prestige from personal wealth and then subsequent redistribution system (feasts).
What are the responsibilities of a big man or woman?
Internal/external affairs. crop cycles, feasts, trade, war, councils.
What is moka?
Strategy for developing political leadership in Papua New Guinea, involves gift giving, feasts, and having many pigs.
What is a chiefdom?
Centralized and socially complex social group that has permanently allied tribes and villages under one leader who possesses power.
How is chiefdom achieved?
Can be inherited or bc of social stratification.
What is the role of the chief?
Regulate production and distribution, solve internal conflicts and lead wars and raids.
What power did Iroquois women have in chiefdoms?
Since they controlled the maize production they could refuse to produce maize to support a certain war or raid, therefore vetoing it.
Who is in charge of connected chiefdoms?
“Big chief”
What is a state?
Centralized political unit with citizens that maintains a territory.
What does the state have the power to do?
Define citizenship (rights and responsibilities), maintain law, maintain social order, maintain armies, collect tax, keep track of citizens.
How does the state manipulate information?
Censorship, propaganda, control.
What is secularism?
Separation of church and state.
What is a nation?
Group of people who share language, culture, territorial base, political organization, but definitions can vary.
What are imagined communities?
Building a sense of belonging and commitment among diverse communities in order to make a nation. Ex. One national language, monuments, museums, unified media messages
What is the nation/state situation in Puerto rico?
Puerto rico is neither a full state of the us or an independent political unit. Difficult bc many puerto ricans life off the island and many people have migrated to P.R.
What is the nation/state conflict in kurdistan?
Kurdish people want to establish as an independent state, right now part of several different countries but race language restrictions in Turkey, oppression in Iraq and etc..
What are the three types of power defined by Eric Wolf?
Interpersonal power, organizational power and structural power.
What does Karl Marx say about Idxeology?
Ideology is a form of power.
How does Gramsci define domination and hegemony?
Domination: Physical and violent coercion
Hegemony: ideological control and manipulation
Normalization
Social process in which some practices are deemed normal and some aren’t.
What does Edward Syed say about Orientalism?
It’s the western style of thought that creates a false opposition between the east and west.
What does legal anthropology study?
Forms of social control, social conflict, social justice, and human rights, across different cultures.
How does social control function at a state level?
Increased specialization of roles, formal, based on codified law, use of capital punishment.
What is critical legal anthropology?
Approach that examines how law and justice institutions uphold systems of oppression and protect powerful people.
What are examples of weapons of the weak?
Desertion, false compliance, humour, foot dragging.
What is militarism? Where is it a big problem?
Dominance of military in administration of social control and state. Papua New Guinea
What is informal social control vs formal social control? (examples)
socialization, education, peer pressure (amis and mennonite) vs. codified rules
How is social control maintained in small scale societies?
Interpersonal resolution, shaming, ostracizing, elders as a court.
How do Sumba in Indonesia see breaking a promise?
Breaking a promise means that your ancestors are mad and they send damage to crops, illness or death of relative or destruction of property.
What is a global-local conflict?
Big and powerful country colonize smaller country, control their wars.
What are the theories as to why the Yanomami peoples in Amazonian rainforest were observed as violent by Napolean Chagnon?
Marvin Harris: Protein scarcity and population dynamics
Brian Ferguson: violence caused by western presence
Patrick Tierney: Chagnon’s presence caused the conflict and violence
What is democratization?
Process of transformation from authoritarian regime to democratic regime or just less authoritarian.
What is Carneiro’s theory about the future of state?
One superstate is the future of the world.
What are cultural anthropologists perspective of critical cultural relativism about the UN?
UN provides a place to air global disputes and support NGOs and grassroots, but those are doing the real work.
