1. Political Organizations

2. anthropology’s interest in power and maintenance of order
political organization refers to the way power is distributed and embedded in societies
who has power
how does power differ from authority
how is power organized and administered
How is order maintained
How is conflict organized

3. Political organizations and the maintenance of order
Social control needed for people to live together
Joking, ridicule and derision often used to keep deviant behavior in check
Song duels using derisive songs to solve conflicts between individuals
Ostracism - banning a person from a group
Judiciary systems

4. Eric Wolf: 4 Modalities of Power
Potency, capability, charisma (individual)
Ability of person to impose its will in social action upon another
Tactical or organizational power -- The instrumentalities through which individuals or groups direct or circumscribe the actions of others
Structural power – power that organizes and orchestrates the settings themselves & that specifies the direction & distribution of energy flows

5. distinction between power and authority
power: ability to bring about results
power may be informal and based on force
coercive power versus persuasive power
Symbolic power based on positive expectations of those who accede to it
authority is the socially recognized right to exert power
legitimacy - the socially recognized right to hold, use, and allocate power

6. political organizations: an early pre-occupation of anthropologists
British India and Africa: how are people ruled without a state
Victorian Europe and the appearance of the modern nation-state
idea of acephalous societies
without heads

7. early evolutionary scheme matched with subsistence strategies
band, tribe, chiefdom, state (Elman Service)
foragers, horticulturalists, agriculturalists, industrialists
different types of political organization related to
subsistence strategy
population density and heterogeneity
degree of hierarchy and social stratification
presence of bounded territory
degree of formalization of rule

8. Band, Tribe, Chiefdom, State

9. Band, Tribe, Chiefdom, State
sequence can be replaced with contrast between uncentralized and centralized political systems
Replace evolutionary perspective with:
ethnographic present
historical perspective

10. Bands and Tribes: Uncentralized political systems
associated with:
subsistence level economies such as foraging
small, homogeneous populations
little social stratification
relatively autonomous groups
often relatively mobile without strict territorial boundaries
formal leader or organization beyond kinship rare

11. Chiefdom & State: Centralized political systems
associated with:
intensive agricultural or industrialization
technology becomes more complicated
labour specialization increases
large, diverse population
less mobility
opportunity for control of resources appears
appearance of coercive force
Wolf’s 3rd modality
male leaders more frequent
political authority is concentrated in a single individual (chiefdoms) or a body of individuals (the state)

12. the band
small group of politically independent, though related, households
all social relationships based on kinship
least complex form of political organization
perhaps the oldest form as well
associated with foraging forms of subsistence
decisions made through consensus
disgruntled leave
no fixed leadership, only informal recognition of prowess
typically male, but females have power as well
most successful hunter and most senior woman

13. The band
Bands of generally less than 100 people tied by kinship and marriage
Membership fluid
Egalitarian with some gender and age differences
Conflict resolution by social means
Prestige based on ability

14. The Tribe tribal system consists of separate bands or villages
integrated through lineages, clans, age grades, or other associations cross-cutting kinship and territory
less autonomy for greater security
associated with farming or herding subsistence strategies
greater food production
greater population density

15. The tribe
consists of one or more autonomous communities which may then form alliances
may range across a broad territory
social stratification related to kinship and cross-cutting associations
needs for alliance
defense or raiding
pooling of resources
capitalize on a windfall
often return to autonomous communities

16. The tribe no centralized leadership
typically someone respected for wisdom or prowess – charisma & “big men”
Wolf’s first modality
group decisions by consensus
leaders may influence through oratory
decisions enforced through
withdrawal of cooperation
gossip
criticism
beliefs that anti-social actions cause disease -- witchcraft

17. What is kinship?
A system of social ties deriving from the recognition of genealogical relations
universally recognized
universally accorded social importance

18. KIN TYPES
Consanguineals
Affinals
Fictive kin
Lineals
Collaterals

19. Kinship Diagram

21. The tribe leaders of localized descent groups or a territorial group
authority is personal
not elected, no formal office
status result of personal behavior
status often achieved through exchange
Gift exchange
Redistribution – public exchange of scarce resources
Wolf’s 2nd modality

22. kinship and descent kinship as an idiom selective
a way of expressing social relations and the exchanges, rights, and obligations implied
selective
each system emphasizes different relations
kinship principles define social groups
produces forms of social stratification
locate people within those groups
position people and groups in relation to one another both in space and time

23. kinship & political organization in tribes
segmentary lineage system
maximal lineage, major, minor, minimal lingeage
all segments equal and no leadership above minimal or primary segments
form alliances to face threats

24. Descent Systems Rules that people in different cultures use to:
determine parenthood
identify ancestry
assign people to social categories, groups, and roles on the basis of inherited status
corporate = shares resources in common
own property
organize labour
assign status
regulate relations with other groups
endures beyond individual members

25. What is a descent group?
A group of people who recognize descent from a real or mythical ancestor - a criterion of membership
A publicly recognised social entity
everyone is unambiguously assigned to a group
Obligations and roles keeps group together
Citizenship derived from lineage membership and legal status depends on it
Political power and religious power derived from it
A strong effective base for social relations

26. DESCENT TERMS Unilineal Ambilineal Bilateral or Cognatic Matrilineal
Patrilineal
Ambilineal
Bilateral or Cognatic

27. Structures of Descent lineages (patri & matri) - common ancestor
clan – several lineages common ancestor, usually large groups that are associated with mythical ancestors
phratry - unilineal descent group composed of a number of supposedly related clans
moieties - means half, when an entire society is divided into 2 unilineal descent groups
many societies have 2 or more types of descent groups in various combinations
some have lineages & clans, others may have clans & phrateries but no lineages

28. Exogamy & Endogamy
Exogamy – seeking people to have sexual relations outside one’s group
Seeking others to become us
Endogamy – mating or marriage within a group to which one belongs
Most societies are endogamous groups
Exogamy links groups together
Endogamy keeps groups apart
Rules of endogamy help maintain social, economic, & political distinctions & preserve limitations to the access of wealth & resources

29. Insiders & Outsiders

30. The Lineage: Descent Groups as Political Organization
Lineal Kin - ancestors or descendants
Collateral Kin - sibling branches

31. Patrilineage: Male Ego

32. Patrilineage: Female Ego

33. Matrilineal and Patrilineal Kin

34. Tribe: segmentary lineage system

35. Tribes and Lineages maximal lineages (tribes)
major lineages (families)
minor lineages (fathers' houses)
minimal lineages (extended patrilocal households)

36. “Headless” (uncentralized) Political organization

37. Segmentray lineage system

38. Kinship Centered Political Organization

39. Us and Them Bedouin proverb:
I against my brother; I and my brother against our cousin; I, my brother and our cousin against the neighbors; all of us against the foreigners
based on complementary or balanced opposition

40. Sodalities Organizations that cross-cut kin ties
Often based on common age
Creates non-kin linkages and a sense of ethnic identity
May be confined to one settlement or be pantribal (include several settlements)
Pantribal sodalities can mobilize people for cooperative endeavors (hunting, warfare)

41. chiefdom
a regional polity in which one or more local groups are organized under a single ruling individual – the chief – who is at the head of a ranked hierarchy of people

42. The Chief Divine king – macrocosm and microcosm
status determined by closeness to chief
office of chief often hereditary
passing to son or to sister’s son
also based on talents
often conceived as a semi-sacred position
may amass personal wealth to add to power

43. Nana Osei Tutu II The King of Ashanti Photo credit: G. F
Nana Osei Tutu II The King of Ashanti Photo credit: G. F. Kojo Arthur Centre for Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Copyright© PT Sangga Sarana Persada, Designed by Sangga Web Team

44. chiefdom a true authority figure with a formal office
can distribute resources
associated with redistributive economies
chief controls surpluses and labour
may collect taxes or tribute
may recruit labour for community projects
irrigation, a temple, a palace
can conscript for military
recognized hierarchy linked to chief
tend to be unstable
may form confederacies
Iroquois League of Five Nation, Algonquin Confederacy

45. chiefdom
Rank society
do not have unequal access to economic resources or to power, but they do contain social groups having unequal access to prestige
unequal access to prestige often reflected in position of chief to which only some members of a specified group in the society can succeed
Ascribed status

46. Band & tribe vs. chiefdom
in band and tribal societies competitive displays & conspicuous consumption by individuals disappears & anyone foolish enough to boast how great he is gets accused of witchcraft & is stoned to death
reciprocity predominates, not redistribution

47. the state
the most formal of political organizations and is one of the hallmarks of civilization
political power is centralized in a government which may LEGITIMATELY use force to regulate the affairs of its citizens
Weber’s monopoly on the legitimate use of force

48. The state: associated with --
increased food production (agriculture and industry)
irrigation and transformation of landscape
increased population
fixed territory
developed market system
appearance of cities developed urban sector

49. The state: associated with --
appearance of bureaucracy
military
usually an official religion
delegation of authority to maintain order
within and without its borders
right to control information
authority is formal and impersonal
Holding office and the person

50. The state: associated with --
differentiation in population appears – social stratification
appearance of ethnicity
permanent, heritable inequality
slaves, castes and classes
social conflict increases

51. original states appeared 5000 years ago
primary states are agricultural
theories about their formation
military needs, irrigation needs, environmental conditions

52. why the state? from band to state
more wealth
more people
more sedentism
more inequality and ranking
less reliance on kinship
more internal and external conflict
increased power and responsibility to leaders
increased burden to citizens to support political organization
increased use of formal, legal structures for adjudication

53. The Nation (-State) modern nation-state a more recent phenomenon
most have appeared since the end of WWII
communities of people who see themselves as “one people” on the basis of common ancestry, history, society, institutions, ideology, language, territory, and (often) religion
anthropology questions this reality while recognizing the power of the idea
differences are suppressed in modern nation-states

54. NATION & NATIONALITY
nation was once a term that referred to tribe, indigenous people, or ethnic group - collectivity sharing single language, religion, history, territory, ancestry, kinship (Herder & volk)
nation comes to mean the state = a country
a sociopolitical form, the modern state composed of diverse ethnic groups

55. Nation as “Imagined Community”
"it is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion" (Anderson p.15)

56. imagined community A community that “imagines” itself
No possibility of face-to-face communication
Moments of simultaneity
Language & “print capitalism”
Monuments and memorials
Anthropology questions this reality while recognizing the power of the idea
Differences are marked and suppressed in modern nation-states
A form of amnesia?

57. The Nation, Social Structure & National Identity
based upon sentiments of prestige
extend deep into the masses of political structures (located in the field of politics)
groups who hold the power to steer common conduct within a polity
will most strongly instill themselves with this ideal fervor of power prestige
Those who think of themselves as being specific partners of a specific culture diffused among members of the polity

58. The State, The Nation, and Ethnicity
181 states but 5000 nations?
idea that nation and state coincide is rare
The appearance of ethnicity and the rise of the nation-state
(Nash) nation-state responsible for the rise and definition of social entities called ethnic groups - last 500 years
grew out of the wreck of empires, breakups of civilizations - disruptions of mechanic societies
within borders of nation-state - social and cultural diversity

59. Political Organization and Ethnicity
ethnicity is founded upon structural inequities among dissimilar groups into a single political entity
based on cultural differences & similarities perceived as shared
identification with & feeling a part of an ethnic group & exclusion from certain other groups because of this affiliation

60. Assimilation & Nation Building
increase in shared characteristics among social groups and an increasing social homogeneity are a key to nation building
erasure of differences (in ethnicity, cognitive orientations, patterns of social interactions, etc.) for the creation of a cohesive, productive, just and affluent society
various communication media assume an important role in providing information that facilitates key transformations in individuals and communities

61. Pluri-Ethnic States
Pluralist model treats groups as permanent and enduring
Group rights
Cosmopolitan model that accepts shifting boundaries, multiple affiliations, hybrid identities
Individual rights
Accommodation of immigrant ethnicity
Minority nationalism – nations within (indigenous peoples and Québécois)
Stateless nations, ethnic nationalism vs. indigenous groups
Nations within – groups that formed complete and functioning societies on their historic homeland before being incorporated into a larger state
Typically been involuntary – colonization, conquest, etc.

62. Ethnic Conflict
Assimilation
Apartheid
Diaspora
Ethnocide
Genocide

63. indigeneity
Nations within – groups that formed complete and functioning societies on their historic homeland before being incorporated into a larger state
Typically been involuntary – colonization, conquest, etc.
Indigenous groups around the world
Drive for recognition of rights
Sovereignty and self-governance

64. Anthropology of War The materialist/ecological school
causes of pre-state warfare are to be found largely in the material foundations of the cultural system
The biocultural school
causes of warfare are ultimately to be found in a combination of ecological and biological elements
The historical school
war is to be found in the specific historical context of the events in question and the personal motivations of the people involved in those events

65. Anthropology of Violence
The seventeenth century philosopher Thomas Hobbes -- violence is in the heart of all humans
Society as the alternative to violence
violence is an extremely wide and diverse phenomenon
insight in extremely specific, small-scale situations of the infliction, experience and justification of violence (in families, villages, neighbourhoods, gangs, combat groups, committees, presidential advisory groups); and
insight in the extremely general questions concerning humankind as a whole: what is it, in the make-up of humans that makes us violent animals given to intra-species aggression?

66. Violence
Violence, its forms and controls, is fundamental to human social existence and is central to theories regarding the nature of society.
Violence as cultural expression and/or performance
Scripted
From anthropology of identity (pol. org.) to experience, emotive forces, bodily practices
A discursive practice with rituals and symbols
Violence as cultural practice
Not just instrumental
A way of affirming and subverting “culture”