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. Chapter Questions
How do anthropologists explain warfare in tribal societies?
How have anthropologists contributed to alternative forms of conflict management in the united sates?
What does the prehistoric Asante state tell us about the connections between political power and social stratification?

4. Egalitarian Societies
No individual or group has more access to resources, power, or prestige than any other.
No fixed number of social positions for which individuals must compete.
Associated with bands and tribes.

5. Rank Society
Institutionalized differences in prestige but no restrictions on access to basic resources.
Individuals obtain what they need to survive through their kinship group.
Associated with horticulture or pastoral societies with a surplus of food.
Associated with chiefdoms.

6. Stratified Society Formal, permanent, social and economic inequality.
Some people are denied access to basic resources.
Characterized by differences in standard of living, security, prestige and political power.

7. Stratified Society Economically organized by market systems.
Based on intensive cultivation (agriculture) and industrialism.
Associated with form of political organization called the state.

8. Women and Political Offices
Yoruba of Nigeria - certain offices were reserved to represent women’s interests.
Nigeria - some Igbo groups had a female ruler and council concerned with women’s affairs.
Mende - women were paramount chiefs, who derived their power from their roles as mothers.

9. Social Control of Behavior
Ways societies deal with abnormal behavior and conflict:
Gossip and ridicule
Fear of witchcraft accusations
Avoidance
Supernatural sanctions

10. Law Law is found in every society.
In complex societies, functions of law belong to legal institutions, such as courts.
Law addresses conflicts that would otherwise disrupt community life.

11. Band Societies Small group of people (20 to 50)
Related by blood or marriage
Live together and are loosely associated with a territory in which they forage
Egalitarian

12. Band Societies: Leadership
Decision-making is by consensus.
Leaders are older men and women.
Leaders cannot enforce their decisions; They can only persuade.
Sharing and generosity are important sources of respect.

13. Band Societies: Social Order
Maintained by gossip, ridicule, and avoidance.
Violations of norms are sins.
Offenders may be controlled through ritual means such as public confessions.
Offender is defined as a patient rather than a criminal.

14. Tribal Societies
Members consider themselves descended from the same ancestor.
Found primarily among pastoralists and horticulturalists.
Egalitarian
Leadership: Bigman

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

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