Week 8 (Political system & Social order) Flashcards
Political Anthropology
Relationships
* Between people
* Between people and political
institutions
Maintaining social order and resolving conflicts.
Power
Power/coercion
* Ability to bring about results with potential or use of force.
* Backed up by violence.
* Need no respect, or reputation.
Transformative capacity (Giddens)
Authority
* Ability to bring about results based on one’s status, respect and reputation in the community.
Influence
* Ability to bring about results by exerting social or moral pressure
Power II
Power is ALWAYS relational
* Individuals relate to other individuals
* Hierarchical relations between groups.
Political Organization
* Groups within cultures that are responsible for decision making and leadership, maintaining social cohesion and order, protecting group rights and ensuring from external threats.
* 4 Major categories of different political
organization.
* Connects with modes of livelihood.
Bands
Associated with foragers groups.
Flexible membership.
* Always possibility to leave the group.
No formal leaders.
* Context depended.
20 – a couple of hundred people
* All kin.
Constant migration
* Between seasons.
* Ritual schedules.
Bands II
Egalitarian
* Equal access to leadership.
* NO political class or bureaucrats.
* No coercion.
Group decision.
* Communal decision.
* Economic system based on sharing.
Tribe
Associated with horticulturist or pastoralists
Several bands/linages.
* Share ancestry
* Language
* Territory
Membership
* Hundred to thousands of people
* Kinship
Headman
* Lead by example
* Generous
* Part time
* Authority or persuasion.
Big Man System
Big man/woman
* Build authority through social relations.
* Redistribution.
Melanesia
Moka
* Exchanging favors
* Gift giving
* Pigs
* More wives.
Chiefdoms
Permanently allied tribes and villages under a chief.
Large population
Central leadership
* Unequal access to political office.
* Chief and his/her linages.
* No marriage between different strata.
Central redistribution
* Chief redistribute goods and services.
* Can arbitrary exclude people
Chiefdoms II
Expanded chiefdoms
* Confederacy
* “Big Chief”
Hawaii
* Pre-European contact.
* Many smaller chiefs.
* One “Big Chief”
State Formation
Many communities
* Coervice power
* Police, army, courts etc.
Centralized leadership and markets.
* Redistribution of goods through markets.
* Economic system not based on
sharing/reciprocity
* Highly interdependent
Full-time politicians
* Inequality in access to political office
* Gender quotas (Gender essentialism)
Bureaucrats
* Hierarchical organization
State Formation II
Define citizenship
* Rights & responsibilities
* Rewards
Surveillance of their citizens
* Learn about age, gender, location and
wealth.
* Manipulate information.
Cautions of Generalizing Political Organization
Not a linear progress
* The idea of complexed society is an illusion.
* Reciprocity never disappear.
No society fits perfectly in each category
* Many societies exist between bands and tribes
* States in the past do not fit the idea of modern state.
Not every Egalitarian societies are egalitarian
* Chewong & Netsilik people
* Min people of New Guinea
* Metahumans
- Complete authority
- Enforcer of rules.
Cautions of Generalizing Political Organization II
Hawaain chiefdoms
Sahlin (1967)
* Chief use power to boost one’s office
* Overuse of power, undermined the chief.
* Revert to tribe
Heuristic way to understand the difference in political organization
* Illustrate how power is being employed in a different context.
* Hierarchical relations are not natural.
Social Control & Violence
Social norm
* Accepted behavior
* Informal enforcement
* Global norm (Believe it should be universally held and enforced).
* Women’s equality
Law
* Binding rules
* Religion
Difference between small and large societies.
* Conflict resolution.
* Social order
* Punishment.
Small vs. Large societies
Conflict resolution in Bands
* Kin
* Interpersonal level
* Discussions or one-on-one
* Shaming and ridicule
* Elders like a court.
Supernatural forces
* Indonesian island of Sumba.
* Failure to keep a promise.
* Damage to crops, illness or death
