Chapter 8: Political Systems

Question 1

Political Regulation

Answer 1

Decision making, dispute management, conflict resolution

Question 2

Political Organizatiom

Answer 2

1. Band
2. Tribe
3. Chiefdom
4. State

Question 3

1. Band

Answer 3

Small kin-based groups among foragers
> No formal, central government
> Organized into autonomous extended family groups
> Decisions by adult members
> Leaders lead by virtue with community confidence
> Nuclear families

Question 4

2. Tribe

Answer 4

Non-intensive food production
(horticulturalists and pastoralists)
> Organized by decent groups
> Lack formal classes and formal government
> Village heads, “Big men”
> Pantribal sodalities
> Egalitarian, but with marked gender stratification
> Horticultural societies

Question 5

Pantribal Sodalities

Answer 5

Groups that extend across tribes, spanning several villages

Question 6

Big man

Answer 6

Like a village head, except his authority is regional and may have influenced over more than one village (regional authority)

Question 7

3. Chiefdom

Answer 7

Intermediate form between tribes and states
> Under paramount control of a paramount chief
> Social relation based on kinship
> Permanent regional political system
> Chief position is permanent, full-time specialist
> Status of a chief is ascribed

Question 8

Weber~

Answer 8

3 related dimensions of social stratification
1. Economic status
2. Power
3. Prestige

Question 9

1. Economic status

Answer 9

Wealth, material assets, income, land, property

Question 10

2. Power

Answer 10

Ability to exercise one’s will over others

Question 11

3. Prestige

Answer 11

Basis of social status

Question 12

Population Control

Answer 12

Fixing of boundaries, establishment of citizenship categories, censuring

Question 13

Judiciary Control

Answer 13

Legal procedures and judges

Question 14

Law Enforcement

Answer 14

Permanent military and police forces

Question 15

Fiscal Systems

Answer 15

Taxation

Question 16

Social Control Methods

Answer 16

Hegemony + Shame and Gossip

Question 17

Hegemony

Answer 17

Internalization of a dominant ideology to maintain power of the elite

Question 18

Shame and Gossip

Answer 18

“Informal” control through fear, stigma, shame, and gossip key in small-scale societies

Question 19

The Makua

Answer 19

3 sanctions for social control:

1. Cadeia (jail) - last phase of an extended political/legal process
2. Enretthe (sorcery attack) - was believed such a punitive sorcery attack would kill the thief or make him extremely ill
3. Ehaya (shame) - thief would experience an extended feeling of disgrace