1. Political Organization
Chapter 12
Political Organization

2. Chapter Questions
What roles do politics, law and religion play in regulating human behavior?
What are the major forms of political organization and how are they related to other features of culture and society?

3. Egalitarian Societies
Access to resources, power, or prestige.
Number of social positions.
Bands and tribes.

4. Rank Society Institutionalized differences in prestige.
Kinship group- source for survival.
Horticulture or pastoral societies.
Chiefdoms
The Bigman

5. Stratified Society Social and economic inequality.
Denied access to basic resources.
Characterized by differences.
Organized by market systems.
Agriculture and industrialism.
State system

6. Power vs. Authority Political Ideology- reasons to conform:
Deep belief
Expected benefit
Fear
No alternative

7. Women and Political Offices
Multicultural differences in gender political power.
Yoruba of Nigeria
Nigeria - Igbo
Mende - women power in roles as mothers

8. Law Social Control & Conflict Management
Ways societies deal with abnormal behavior and conflict:
Internalization of norms & values
Stratified & chiefdoms
Informal mechanisms
Gossip and ridicule
Witchcraft accusations
Avoidance
Supernatural sanctions

9. 4 Types of political structures: Band Societies
Small group of people (20 to 50)
Related by blood or marriage
Live together- territory they forage
Egalitarian
Decision-making is by consensus.
Leaders- elderly.
Leaders- persuasion.
Sharing and generosity.

10. Band Societies: Social Order
Maintained by gossip, ridicule, and avoidance.
Violations of norms= sins.
Offenders controlled- ritual means (like public confessions).
Offender- a patient not a criminal.

11. Tribal Societies Members-same ancestor.
Pastoralists and horticulturalists.
Egalitarian
Leadership: Bigman

12. Chiefdom Societies Characteristics: Monumental architecture
Distinct ceremonial centers
Elaborate grave goods- social status
Larger settlements by smaller villages
Cultivators and pastoralists

13. State Societies
Central government with monopoly over the use of force.
More populous, heterogeneous, and powerful.
Able to organize large populations for coordinated action.
Defend against external threats.

14. Rise of State System Nation & State Childe’s voluntaristic theory
Carneiro’s coercive theory