week 9: political anthropology

Question 1

chiefdom

Answer 1

tribes/villages under a chief - larger than egalitarian societies - unequal access to the power roles (inherited linages)

Question 2

tribe

Answer 2

population that involves shared ancestry among many linages

Question 3

proletarianization

Answer 3

process where farmers are removed from the land and forced to take wage labor employment

Question 4

reverse dominance

Answer 4

describes societies that rejected attempts by anyone to come to power

Question 5

legitimacy

Answer 5

perception that an individual has valid right to leadership

Question 6

bilateral cross cousin

Answer 6

marrying a cousin related on both sides, child of father’s sibling with mother’s sibling

Question 7

band

Answer 7

smaller population (20-200), no formal leaders with a flexible membership

Question 8

stratification

Answer 8

societies that have a large difference in wealth and status - ex. caste system

Question 9

codified law

Answer 9

a formal legal system that specifies damages, crimes, and punishments

Question 10

sumptuary rules

Answer 10

norms that allow higher ranking individuals to have a greater social status by enjoying clothing/jewelry denied of lower rank

Question 11

political organization

Answer 11

how societies structure themselves to maintain order - not linear and societies will vary

Question 12

social control

Answer 12

control by the social norms and laws - the accepted behavior and rules

Question 13

state

Answer 13

most complex form of political organization - has govern that uses force, a bureaucracy, formal laws, and a military force

Question 14

unilineal descent

Answer 14

family systems that only recognize one sex based side of the family

Question 15

ideologies

Answer 15

ideas that are made to reinforce the right of powerholders to rule

Question 16

affinal

Answer 16

family relationships made through marriage

Question 17

big man/woman system

Answer 17

form of temporary or situational leadership - acquired followers

Question 18

critical legal anthro

Answer 18

subfield that examines the role of the law in shaping social structures

Question 19

nation

Answer 19

ethnic population

Question 20

power

Answer 20

the ability to control people’s thoughts and actions

Question 21

social norm

Answer 21

the expected behavior, or the acceptable

Question 22

trial by ordeal

Answer 22

painful tests to determine guilt or innocence

Question 23

circumscription

Answer 23

enclosing an area by geographical features - ex. mountains, deserts, boundaries of a state

Question 24

matrilineal

Answer 24

family system that only recognizes relatives through female ancestors

Question 25

egalitarian

Answer 25

societies with little to no difference in power and status in individuals

Question 26

age grades

Answer 26

groups of men close in age that share similar duties or responsibilities - way that many pastoralists in east africa categorize individuals