Anthropology 152 Culture and Humanity

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Anthropology 152 Culture and Humanity

• Chapter 12
• Politics, Power, and Violence

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Ch. 12 What to know

• 1. The four major kinds of political
  organization
• bands
• tribes
• chiefdoms
• states
• 2. How internal political and social control is
  maintained in different systems.
• 3. How external affairs are conducted in
  different political systems.
• 4. How conflicts are resolved and the functions
  of law.
• 5. The impact of religion on social control.
• 6. The relation between ideology and legitimacy.

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Political organization

• Means by which a society maintains order
  internally and manages affairs with other
  societies externally.
• Set of customary procedures that accomplish
• Decision making
• Conflict resolution
• Social control
• Topics in the study of political organization
• Mechanisms of social control
• Levels of political integration
• Concentrations of power and authority

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Social Controls

• Internalized Externalized
• Internalized self-imposed (shame, sin)
• Externalized positive/negative sanctions
• Positive sanctions
• rewards, recognition
• Negative sanctions
• punishment, loss of face
• Formal Informal sanctions
• Formal actual laws (regulated)
• Informal social norms (reactions)
• Examples? (Formal Informal )

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Functions of Law

• Law Formal negative sanctions
• Defines relationships among a societys members
  and behavior under different circumstances.
• Allocates authority to employ coercion to enforce
  sanctions.
• Redefines social relations and aids its own
  efficient operation by ensuring it allows change.

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Varieties of Political Organization

• Political organization varies according to
• Degree of specialization of political functions
• Extent to which authority is centralized
• These vary with the degree of social complexity
• Four types of political organization
• Bands Tribes Chiefdoms States
• Uncentralized Centralized

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Band

• Small group of related households occupying
  particular region, that come together
  periodically but which do not yield their
  sovereignty to the larger collective.
• The least complicated form of political
  organization.
• Egalitarian nomadic hunter gatherers
• Small, numbering at most a few hundred people.
• Informal social control
• No need for formal political systems.
• Decisions are made with the participation of
  adult members, with an emphasis on achieving
  consensus.
• Leaders (usually elderly)
• No coercive force (scorn, gossip, ostracism)
• Those unable to get along with others move to
  another group where kinship ties give them rights
  of entry.
• No laws, no government, no war

!Kung-san Woman
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Tribe

• Tribes consist of small, autonomous local
  communities, which form alliances for various
  purposes.
• Economy based on crop cultivation or herding.
• Population densities generally exceed 1 person
  per square mile.
• Family units still autonomous egalitarian.
• Leadership among tribes is informal.
• Leaders (e.g. Big-Men) have no formal means of
  maintaining authority.

Melanesian Big Man
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Chiefdom

• A regional polity in which two or more local
  groups are organized under a single chief, who is
  at the head of a ranked hierarchy of people.
• Centralized leadership
• Power concentrated in single chief.
• Office of chief usually for life and often
  hereditary.
• Chiefs authority serves to unite his people in
  all affairs and at all times.
• Rank determined by relationship to chief.
• Highly unstable as lesser chiefs try to take
  power from higher ranking chiefs. (Hawaii)

West African Chief
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State Nation

• State a centralized political system that may
  legitimately use force to maintain social order.
  (large pop.)
• Legitimacy linked to values, religion.
• Examples?
• Many groups made to function together as
  integrated whole.
• Internally unstable
• Since first appearance 5,000 years ago, states
  have shown a tendency toward instability.
• Externally war
• Nation - Communities of people who see themselves
  as one people
• On the basis of common ancestry, history,
  society, institutions, ideology, language,
  territory and (often) religion.
• (200 states - 5,000 nations)

Kayapo leaders
The Kurds A Nation Without A State
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War common in multi-national states
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Types of Political Organization Membership
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Types of Political Organization Membership
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Types of Political Organization Government
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Types of Political Organization Society
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Types of Political Organization Society
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Legitimacy Religion

• Legitimacy The right of political leaders to
  govern - to hold, use, and allocate power - based
  on the values a particular society holds.
• Power based on legitimacy authority (? power
  based on force)
• Kapauku legitimacy wealth (pigs wives)
• Kings of Hawaii England legitimacy divine
  right to rule
• Dahomey (W Africa) legitimacy age (oldest)
• Religion is often intricately connected with
  politics.
• Religious beliefs may influence laws
• Frequently it is religion that legitimizes the
  political order
• USA In spite of official separation of church
  and state, religious legitimization of government
  lingers on Examples?
• Oath of office (Bible)
• Pledge One nation, under God
• Money In God we Trust
• Legal proceedings So help me God

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The Kayapo (Video 5297)

• Insights on nation vs state
• What other issues or problems does this film
  touch on ?