1. Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity17
Political Systems
Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity
11th Edition
Conrad Phillip Kottak

2. Political Systems What is “The Political”? Types and Trends
Bands and Tribes
Chiefdoms
States
Social Control: Politics, Shame, and Sorcery

3. What is “The Political?”
Political organization is sometimes just an aspect of social organization
Sociopolitical organization preferred in discussing regulation or management of interrelations among groups and their representatives
Many correlations between economy and social and political organization

4. Types and Trends
Service (1962) listed four types, or levels, of political organization
Band—small kin-based group found among foragers
Tribe—economies based on nonintensive food production
Chiefdom—intermediate form between tribe and state
State—formal government structure and socioeconomic stratification

5. Types and Trends
Many sociopolitical trends reflect the increased regulatory demands associated with food production

6. Bands and Tribes Foraging Bands
In foraging societies, only two significant social groups are nuclear family and band
Membership in groups is fluid and can change from year to year
Kin networks, both real and fictive, created and maintained through marriage, trade, and visiting

7. Bands and Tribes Foraging Bands Foraging bands egalitarian
All differences in status are achieved
Foragers lack formal law
Conflict resolution embedded in kinship and social ties
Prestige refers to esteem, respect, or approval for culturally valued acts or qualities

8. Bands and Tribes Tribal Cultivators
Tribes usually have horticultural or pastoral economy and are organized by village life and/or descent-group membership
Social classes and formal government are not found in tribes
Small-scale warfare or intervillage raiding commonly found in tribes

9. Bands and Tribes Tribal Cultivators
The main regulatory officials are village heads, “big men,” descent-group leaders, village councils, and leaders of pantribal associations
Officials have limited authority
Lead through persuasion and by example, not through coercion

10. Bands and Tribes Tribal Cultivators
Like foragers, tribes are egalitarian
Often have marked gender stratification
Status in tribes based on age, gender, and personal traits and abilities
Horticulturalists are egalitarian and tend to live in small villages with low population density

11. Bands and Tribes The Village Head
The Yanomami believe position of village head is achieved and comes with very limited authority
Cannot force or coerce people to do things
Can only persuade, harangue, and try to influence people to do things

12. Bands and Tribes The Village Head
Village head acts as mediator in disputes but has no authority to back his decision or impose punishments
The village head must lead in generosity
In the last decade, Yanomami suffered greatly from violence and disease, both of which have come from the encroaching mining and ranching industries of Brazil

13. Bands and Tribes The “Big Man”
Like a village head, except his authority is regional and may have influence over more than one village
The big man is common to the South Pacific.
In order to be a tribal leader, a big man, or village head, a person must be generous.

14. Bands and Tribes The “Big Man”
The big man is a temporary regional regulator who can mobilize supporters from several villages for produce and labor on specific occasions

15. Bands and Tribes The “Big Man” among the Kapauku
Among the Kapauku, the big man is the only political figure beyond the household
The position achieved through generosity, eloquence, bravery, physical fitness, and supernatural powers
His decisions binding among his followers
Important regulator of regional events

16. Bands and Tribes
Location of the Kapauku
Insert Figure 17.2

17. Bands and Tribes Pantribal Sodalities and Age Grades
Sodalities—non-kin-based organizations that may generate cross-societal linkages
Often based on common age or gender
Some confined to a single village
Some span several villages
Called pantribal sodalities

18. Bands and Tribes Pantribal Sodalities and Age Grades
Tend to be found in areas where two or more different cultures come into regular contact
Especially where warfare is frequent
Since pantribal sodalities draw their members from several villages, they can mobilize large number of men for raids

19. Bands and Tribes Pantribal Sodalities and Age Grades
Pressure from European contact created conditions which promoted pantribal sodalities (age sets are one example) among groups of the North American Great Plains of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

20. Bands and Tribes Pantribal Sodalities and Age Grades
Age sets are sodalities that include all of the men born during a certain time span
Similar to cohort of class of students
Members of age set progress through a series of age grades together

21. Bands and Tribes Pantribal Sodalities and Age Grades
Secret societies are sodalities with secret initiation ceremonies
Sodalities create nonkin linkages between people based on age, gender, and ritual and create a sense of ethnic identity and belonging to the same cultural tradition

22. Bands and Tribes Nomadic Politics
Nomads must interact with variety of groups, unlike most sedentary societies
Powerful chiefs commonly found in nomadic groups that have large populations (e.g., the Basseri and the Qashqai of southern Iran)

23. Bands and Tribes Nomadic Politics
Basseri have smaller population and their chief, khan, similar to village head or big man
Position achieved
Allegiances are with person, not office

24. Bands and Tribes Nomadic Politics
The larger Qashqai have multiple levels of authority and more powerful chiefs
Authority can be more coercive
Allegiances are with office, not person

25. Chiefdoms
Transitional form of sociopolitical organization between tribes and states
Carneiro (1970) defines the state as “an autonomous political unit encompassing many communities within its territory, having a centralized government with the power to collect taxes, draft men for work or war, and decree and enforce laws”

26. Chiefdoms Political and Economic Systems in Chiefdoms
Unlike band and tribal political systems, chiefdoms and states are permanent
Offices outlast the individuals who occupy them

27. Chiefdoms Political and Economic Systems in Chiefdoms
Office is permanent position of authority that exists independently of person who occupies it
Must be refilled when vacated
Offices ensure sociopolitical organization endures across generations

28. Chiefdoms Political and Economic Systems in Chiefdoms
Chiefs play an important role in the production, distribution, and consumption of resources
Chiefs collect foodstuffs as tribute
Chiefs later redistribute these collected foodstuffs at feasts

29. Chiefdoms Social Status in Chiefdoms Based on seniority of descent
All people in chiefdom believed to have descended from group of common ancestors
Closer the chief is related to founding ancestors, the greater his prestige
Continuum of prestige with the chief at one end and the lowest ranking individuals at the other
The Chief must demonstrate his seniority of descent

30. Chiefdoms Status Systems in Chiefdoms and States
Unlike tribal and band organizations, there are systemic status distinctions in chiefly and state societies

31. Chiefdoms Status Systems in Chiefdoms and States
State and chiefdom status systems based upon differential access to wealth and resources and differential allocation of rights and duties
States characterized by much clearer class divisions than chiefdoms
Social stratification one of key distinguishing features of states

32. Chiefdoms Weber’s Dimensions of Social Stratification
Wealth or economic status
Political status based upon power
Social status based upon prestige
In chiefdoms, three dimensions tied to kinship and descent
In the early states, distinctions in three dimensions appeared between endogamous groups for first time

33. Chiefdoms
In archaic states there were contrasts in wealth, power,and prestige between groups
Superordinate stratum was elite or higher class
Had privileged access to wealth, power, and other valued resources
Subordinate stratum was lower or underprivileged class

34. Chiefdoms Max Weber’s Three Dimensions of Stratification
Insert Table 17.1

35. Chiefdoms
Economic Basis of and Political Regulation in Bandu Tribes, Chiefdoms, and States
Insert Table 17.2

36. States State Specializations Population control Judiciary Enforcement
Fiscal

37. States Population Control
States use administrative divisions to control populations
Displace the role and importance kinship has in bands, tribes, and chiefdoms
Foster geographic mobility and resettlement
Assign differential rights to different status distinctions

38. States
Judiciary
Laws are explicit codes for behavior, issued by the state, and are distinct from the consensual mores and expectations that exist in nonstate societies
The state is unique political system in that it governs family affairs
The presence of laws has not reduced violence

39. States
Enforcement
Judiciary obligates existence of system of enforcement
Judiciary and enforcement typically work to control internal and external conflict and preserve existing state hierarchy

40. States
Fiscal Systems
State rulers typically perform no subsistence activities
Fiscal system serves to support rulers and ruling structure by collecting portion of that produced by other members of state
Fiscal systems of archaic states also worked to maintain and elaborate class distinctions

41. Social Control: Politics, Shame, and Sorcery
All groups studied by ethnographers, like the Makua, live in nation-states
Individuals have to deal with levels and types of political authority and experience forms of social control

42. Social Control: Politics, Shame, and Sorcery
Makua used three main sanctions for social control
Ehaya (shame)—thief would experience extended feeling of disgrace
Enretthe (sorcery attack)—believed such punitive sorcery attack would kill thief or make him extremely ill
Cadeia (jail)—last phase of an extended political and legal process

43. Social Control: Politics, Shame, and Sorcery
Shame can be powerful social sanction
“Informal” processes of social control include gossip, stigma, and shame
Beliefs in sorcery facilitate social control
Efficacy of social control depends on how clearly people envision sanctions that antisocial act might trigger