Chapter 12, Political Organization Key Terms

Social differentiation The relative access individuals and groups have to basic material resources, wealth, power, and prestige. Egalitarian society A society in which no individual or group has more privileged access to resources, power, or prestige than any other.

Rank society Society characterized by institutionalized differences in prestige but no important restrictions on access to basic resources. Stratified society Society characterized by permanent social and economic inequality, in which some people are denied access to basic resources.

Achieved status A social position that a person chooses or achieves on his or her own. Ascribed status A social position that a person is born into.

Power The ability to control resources in one’s own interest. Authority The ability to cause others to act based on characteristics such as honor, status, knowledge, ability, respect, the holding of formal public office.

Political ideology The shared beliefs and values that legitimize the distribution and use of power in a particular society. Political process The ways in which individuals and groups use power to achieve public goals.

Factions Informal systems of alliance within well-defined political units such as lineages or villages. Leadership The ability to direct an enterprise or action.

Rebellion The attempt of a group within society to force a redistribution of resources and power. Revolution An attempt to overthrow an existing form of political organization.

Law A means of social control and dispute management through the systematic application of force by those in society with the authority to do so. Political organization The patterned ways in which power is legitimately used in a society to regulate behavior.

Social complexity The number of different groups and their interrelationships in a society. Band Small group of people, related by blood or marriage, who live together and are loosely associated with a territory in which they forage.

War A formally organized and culturally recognized patterns of collective violence directed toward other societies or between segments within a larger society. Tribe Culturally distinct population whose members consider themselves descended from the same ancestor.

Age set A group of people of similar age and sex who move through some or all of life’s stages together. Age grades Specialized hierarchical associations based on age, which stratify a society by seniority.

Segmentary lineage system A form of sociopolitical organization in which multiple descent groups form at different levels and function in different contexts. Complementary opposition A political structure in which higher-order units form alliances that emerge only when lower-order units come into conflict.

Bigman A self-made leader who gains power through personal achievements rather than through political office. Mediation A form of managing disputes that uses the offices of a third party to achieve voluntary agreement between disputing parties.

Compensation A payment demanded by an aggrieved party to compensate for damage. Chiefdom A society with social ranking in which political integration is achieved through an office of centralized leadership called the chief.

Acephalous Lacking a government head or chief. State A hierarchical, centralized form of political organization in which a central government has a legal monopoly over the use of force.

Citizenship Membership in a state.