1. Anthropology 330
Political Systems

2. What is a Political System?
DEFINITION The rules and standards for obtaining social control and delegating authority in a society.
KEY COMPONENTS
A political system is one portion of the set of cultural rules/standards/patterns that a society uses.
A political system addresses ways to get people to conform to cultural rules.
A political system tells the society how it will delegate authority for individuals to make decisions or take actions on behalf of the group.

3. What is Social Control?
DEFINITION Social control means getting people to conform to cultural rules and norms within a society.
KEY COMPONENTS
Social control mechanisms can be conscious or unconscious.
Social control mechanisms can be formal or informal.
Social control can be enculturated or enforced.

4. What is Internal Social Control?
DEFINITION The mechanisms that cause individuals to monitor and police themselves to follow the cultural rules and standards. These are believed to be universal.
TYPES OF INTERNAL SOCIAL CONTROL
GUILT is the feeling a person has when they believe they have done something wrong, whether or not anyone else knows about it.
SHAME is the feeling a person has when something they have done wrong is known to others
The difference between guilt and shame is that one is a psychological reaction, and the other is a social reaction.

5. What is External Social Control?
DEFINITION The imposition of rules and standards from outside the individual. These are called sanctions.
TYPES OF EXTERNAL SOCIAL CONTROL
POSITIVE SANCTIONS are rewards for doing things according to the cultural rules, and particularly for doing them well.
NEGATIVE SANCTIONS are punishments or penalties for breaking the cultural rules. Penalties are sanctions like fines. Punishments involve incarceration or physical mistreatment.

6. Examples of External Social Controls
Song duel
A means of settling disputes over wife stealing among the Inuit involving the use of song and lyrics to determine one’s guilt or innocence.
Intermediaries
Mediators of disputes among individuals or families within a society.
Moots
Informal hearings of disputes for the purpose of resolving conflicts, usually found in small scale societies.
Council of elders
A formal control mechanism composed of a group of elders who settle disputes among individuals within a community.
Oath
The practice of having God bear witness to the truth of what a person says.
Ordeal
A painful and possibly life-threatening test inflicted on someone suspected of wrongdoing.
Law
A cultural rule that is enforced through coercive authority

7. There are two types of power:
What is Power?
DEFINITION: Power is the ability to get others to do what you want them to do.
There are two types of power:
1. persuasive power coercive power
KEY COMPONENTS
Anyone can have power.
Power can come from many sources including personality, money, respect, social influence and force.
One does not need the permission of others to use power.

8. What is Authority?
DEFINITION: Authority is the right given by society to exercise power on others.
KEY COMPONENTS
Authority is the use of power under special circumstances
Authority is delegated to certain individuals by society
Authority usually specifies what kind and under what circumstances an individual may exercise power.

9. What Kinds of Authority Are There?
Consensus
Situational Leadership
Mediate/Negotiate
Decide and Enforce
The first three authority types give the leader the right to use persuasive power. Only the last authority allows the leader to enforce with negative sanctions.

10. What Is Consensus?
Consensus is when a group comes to a decision without the use of a leader. Each individual reaches his/her own conclusion, and the group only acts when these conclusions are very similar. Consensus is usually found in small groups, the members of which know each other well.

11. What Is Situational Leadership?
Situational leadership occurs when people turn to different individuals to lead depending on the problem at hand. Again, situational leadership is usually found in small groups, the members of which know each other well.

12. What Is Mediation/Negotiation Leadership?
Mediation/Negotiation leadership means that a leader has the authority to make decisions and resolve conflict using persuasive power. In this case, there is a designated leader who leads in all situations.

13. What Is Decide and Enforce Leadership?
This is the only form of leadership in which the leader can force people to abide by his/her decisions and/or to follow the cultural rules. This type of leader has been given the right to use formal negative sanctions that punish or penalize.
When leaders can enforce cultural rules we call them laws

14. How Do Leaders Acquire Authority?
There are five general ways that leaders can acquire authority:
No Leader
Personal Qualifications
Membership in a high ranking Lineage
Hereditary succession
Force

15. When Does a Society Have No Leader?
In very small groups made up of mostly family members, a formal leadership position is not needed. People make decisions and enforce rules using consensus.

16. What Is Leadership by Personal Qualifications?
Leadership by personal qualifications occurs in societies that use situational, mediation/negotiation and decide and enforce authority. In societies where everyone knows everyone else, it is relatively easy to choose a person who is respected and admired for personal and social skills that fit the values of the society. In large scale societies like ours, we use elections to vote for leaders based on personal qualification.
A leader of this type is called a
“Headman” or “Bigman”
Or, if elected, by a variety of terms like President, Prime Minister, Senator, etc.

17. What Is Leadership by Membership in a High Ranking Lineage?
Some societies are what we call ranked. This means that they do not have complex social stratification, but they do have two or three different statuses depending on family/lineage membership. People choose leaders from among the members of one of the high ranking families/lineages. Membership in such a family is a prerequisite for leadership. Personal qualifications determine which of the high ranking individuals will be leader. The person who is leader may change if he/she is not doing a good job, but the leader will always be high ranking.
This kind of leader is called a Chief

18. What Is Leadership by Hereditary Succession?
In some societies, leadership does not depend on personal qualifications at all. The leadership position is passed through a single family according to a set of inheritance rules. Leaders can be babies, insane, incompetent or evil. They still inherit the leadership position. This type of leadership usually goes along with a belief that the “royal” family is related to god(s) or are, themselves, god(s).
This kind of leader is called a King or Queen

19. What Is Leadership by Force?
This kind of leadership occurs after a conquest, colonization or revolution, where the leadership is taken and maintained by force.

20. Levels of Sociocultural Integration
Anthropologists divide societies into five different levels of sociocultural integration based on political characteristics.
These are:
Bands
Tribes
Chiefdoms
States
Empires

21. What Is a Band? A Band usually has the following characteristics:
Consensus or situational leadership authority
Persuasive power is delegated
Small group (30 individuals)
Frequently mobile (nomadic or semi-nomadic)
Hunting and Gathering/Foraging Subsistence
Use reciprocity as primary distribution system
No surplus is produced

22. What Is a Tribe? Tribes usually have the following characteristics:
Mediation/Negotiation Leadership (Persuasive power through a Headman)
Leadership by Personal Qualifications
Population in the 100’s
May be mobile or sedentary
Pastoralist, Horticulturalist or Hunting and Gathering/Foraging Subsistence
Use reciprocity as primary distribution system
No surplus is produced

23. What Is a Chiefdom?
A Chiefdom usually has the following characteristics:
Decide and Enforce (leader called Chief)
Ranked society
Leadership selected from members of a high ranking lineage
Population in the 1000’s
May be mobile or sedentary
Pastoralist or Horticulturalist Subsistence
Use redistribution as primary distribution system
Some surplus is produced, but all surplus is in the same product or products)

24. What Is a State? A State usually has the following characteristics:
Authority to decide and enforce (coercive power)
Leadership selected by personal qualification election, hereditary succession or force.
Population in the 10,000’s , Sedentary (cities)
Agricultural Subsistence
Use market system as primary distribution system
Large surplus is produced in a wide variety of products)
Full-time economic specialization including political and military
Monoply of force
Control of society through ideology

25. The Modern Nation-State
A nation is a group of people who share a common symbolic identity, culture, history, and often, religion.
A state is a particular type of political structure distinct from a band, tribal society, or chiefdom.
The term nation-state refers to a group of people sharing a common cultural background and unified by a political structure that they all consider legitimate.

26. What Is an Empire?
An Empire is a state that has conquered and rules by force one or more other societies.

27. Study Guide Political system Authority
Internal social control Consensus
Guilt Mediation/suggestion
Shame Decide and Enforce
External social control Personal Qualifications
Song duels High ranking lineage
Intermediaries Hereditary succession
Moots Force
Council of elders Band
Oaths Tribe
Ordeal Chiefdom
Law State
Power Nation state
Persuasive power Empire
Coercive power