ANTH 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Extensive Farming, Slim-Fit Pants, Laura Nader
Political Anthropology addresses the area of human
behaviour and thought related to power - who has it and
who does not, degree of power, bases of power, abuses of
power, relationships between political and religious
power, political organization and government, social
conflict and social control, and morality and law
-
Legal Anthropology addresses issues of social order and
conflict resolution cross-culturally (How we resolve
conflict)
-
Political Organization
Groups within a culture that are responsible for:
Public decision making and leadership
○
Maintain social cohesion and order
○
Protect group rights
○
Ensuring safety from external threats
○
-
Sociopolitical typology
4 main types:
Band
Subsistence strategy – foraging
-
Membership – flexible, based on kinship
-
Size – between 20 people and a few
hundred at most (smallest political unit)
-
Leadership – informal. No ONE person is
named as permanent leader. Leadership
is situational. (If going on a hunt the best
hunter will be the leader but then when
it is over they go back to being a regular
person)
-
Political system – non-centralized with
decisions by consensus, leader has
influence, not power. External conflict is
rare. Acephalous.
-
Social structure – all members of the
group are social equals and a band
leader has no special status. Egalitarian
-
Economic exchange – reciprocity
-
Law/Legitimate Use of Force – no formal
laws
-
1)
Tribe
Subsistence strategy – horticulture and
pastoralism
-
Membership – several bands or lineage
groups. Kinship with groups connected
through clan structure with a common
ancestor
-
Size – 100 to several 1000 people
-
Leadership – tribal headman, usually
achieved status where they are known
as hardworking and generous.
-
Political system – non-centralized and
part time. Leader has authority not
power. Conflict resolution responsibility
of headman.
-
Social structure – may have special
status, largely egalitarian.
-
Economic Exchange – reciprocity
-
Law/Leg Use of Force – no formal, held
by lineage/clan association
-
2)
Chiefdom
Subsistence – agriculture
-
Membership – kin and non-kin
-
Size – large populations, in the 1000s
-
Leadership –chiefship is an "office"-
Chief regulates production,
redistribution, solves internal conflicts
and leads conflict–criteria included
ascribed and achieved qualities
-
Political System – permanently allied
tribes and villages under one chief,
possess limited power. Charismatic.
Centralized.
-
Social Structure –hereditary systems of
social ranking and economic
stratification. Chiefs and descendants
have higher status than other
“commoners”.
-
Economic exchange – redistribution,
reciprocity
-
Law/Leg – informal laws and specified
punishments
-
Several chiefdoms can join to create a
confederacy –Iroquois Leagues of 6
nations
-
3)
State
Subsistence – intensive agriculture
-
Provides large amount of surplus and
because of this it can support many
other people
-
Membership – all, stratified
-
Size – into the millions
-
Leadership – central individual or
government
-
Political System – centralized,
bureaucratic, with formal offices and
multiple governing bodies, power based
on law
-
Social Structure – clearly defined classes,
highly stratified (not egalitarian)
-
Economic exchange – markets and
trade; redistribution
-
Law/Leg – formal laws and punishments,
state holds all access to use of force
-
4)
○
Big-Man or Big-Woman
In between tribal and chiefdom
organizations
-
Political base, and gain prestige,
influence, and authority
-
Redistribution
-
§
-
Power/Authority/Influence
Power is the ability to make people think or act in certain
ways, through a range of techniques from physical force to
persuasion
-
Authority is the ability to take certain forms of action
based on a persons achieved or ascribed statues or moral
reputation
Authority differs from power in that power is backed
up by the potential use of force and power can be
wielded by individuals without their having authority
in the moral senses
Can have authority and no power, or you can
have power with no authority
§
○
-
Influence is the ability to achieve a desired end by exerting
social or moral pressure on someone or some group
Unlike authority, influence may be exerted from a
low-status, marginal position
○
-
Relational - a person's power, authority, or influence exists
in relation to other people
-
How Is Power Acquired and Transmitted in a Society?
Questions that are the focus:
Does every society have a government?
Some societies have centralized political
authority in the form of a government
§
Government is a separate legal and
constitutional domain that is the source of law,
order, and legitimate force
§
Others have historically lived in acephalous
societies
§
Acephalous societies are societies w/o a
governing head, generally with no hierarchical
leadership
§
○
What is political power?
Emphasis shifted from ordering societies to
exploring how individuals acquire and use
power within societies
§
Political power: the processes by which
people create, compete, and use power to
attain goals that are presumed to be for the
good of a community
§
For political power to be legitimate, it must be
based on a culturally recognized source:
deities, ancestors, hereditary transfer, legal
inheritance, or elected office
§
Power may also be drawn from material
resources, human resources, symbolic
resources, or ideological resources (Being able
to manage people properly, able to influence
others)
§
○
-
Power Distribution
Non centralized: a political system in
which power and control over resources
are dispersed between members of the
society
Bands and tribes
○
-
Centralized: A political system in which
certain individuals and institutions hold
power and control over resources
Chiefdomes and States
○
-
§
Structural Power: power that not only
operates within settings but also organizes and
orchestrates the settings in which social and
individual action take place
Best example of this is Global capitalism
-
§
Political Power
In non state societies
Leadership, if any, tends to be
temporary, informal, and based on
personal attributes (rather than
hereditary or rank)
E.g., the power of an
Amazonian headman ("a
first among equals") is based
on personal charisma and
persuasiveness
-
○
-
In state/chiefdoms societies
Controlled by officials and
hierarchical institutions
○
Formalized laws determine who
may hold office, for how long, and
the power that may be
legitimately wielded by an official.
○
-
§
State Power, Roles, and Responsibilities
Engagement in international relations
-
Monopoly in the use of force,
maintenance of law and order internally
through laws, courts and police
-
Maintain standing armies and police
-
States define citizenship and its rights
and responsibilities
-
Census systems - keep track of
demographics
Keep track of their citizens (health,
gender, etc.)
○
-
Taxation - power to extract resources
from citizens
States have power to extract
resources from citizens
○
-
Manipulate information - information to
protect the state and its leaders can be
controlled both directly and indirectly
Ability to control what citizens can
get a hold of within the state
○
-
Most states are hierarchical and
patriarchal
-
Exclude women and lower classes
-
Some exceptions
Margaret Thatcher (PM of Britain)
○
Queen Elizabeth
○
Hilary Clinton
○
-
§
Symbols of State Power
Some commonalities associated with top
leadership that can be seen as symbolic
-
Religious beliefs and symbols can be
closely related to the power of state
leadership (in some states)
-
Architecture and planning (often
manipulated in such a way to remind
population of the greatness of the state
ex: parliament hill)
-
Clothing (Certain robes are worn, wigs,
PM Trudeau was criticized for wearing
skinny jeans when he was running for
PM. President of the USA usually wears
US flag pin)
-
Objects (Mace- inherited from British
parliament as a symbol of authority of
the speaker in the Canadian house of
commons)
-
§
Nation-States: independent states recognized
by other states, composed of people who
share a single national identity
We might have a national identity of
Canadians but that does not necessarily
mean that we are all part of the same
nation. We are comprised of many
nations. Nation- group of people who
hare a culture, language, territory, etc.
They are homogenous
-
Of those contemporary societies
classified as bands, tribes, or chiefdoms,
most exist within the geographic borders
of a state.
-
States employ many forms of control
over their populations, from surveillance
of their activities to terror and outright
genocide
-
Post-colonial states
-
New forms of political organization
above the state
EU - European Union
○
United Nations
○
Political organizations that are
above the state and have
conditions between states and
may make policies that affect
states
○
-
§
Social Control and Instruments of
All cultures have norms; some also have
laws, especially states
-
Norm: typical patterns of actual
behaviour as well as the rules about how
things should be done
Enforcement of norms are usually
informal (someone giving you a
dirty look or commenting on
something)
○
-
Laws: sets of rules established by some
form of authority
Binding rule created by customs or
official enactment - punishment
for misbehavior
○
-
§
Social Control and Scale of Society
Systems of social control vary depending
on social scale
-
In small-scale, face-to-face groups, social
control is less formal, more likely based
only on norms
-
In large-scale societies, norms regulate
daily life but so do laws; punishment for
violation of laws can be serious including
death
-
§
Punishment for Norm Violation in Small-Scale
Societies
Often through ridicule and shaming; goal
is to restore normal social relations
-
Ostracism for serious offenders
(individual causing problems is asked to
leave to community)
-
Punishment is often legitimized through
belief in supernatural forces
-
Capital punishment is extremely rare
-
§
State Systems of Social Control
3 important factors in state systems of
social control:
Specialization of Roles
Policing -includes processes
of surveillance and threat of
punishment related to
maintaining social order
-
Also judges, lawyers, etc.
-
1)
Trials and Courts
Judicial system
-
Guilt by misfortune - guilty
b/c something bad
happened to you because
you were guilty of
something - b/c you broke
the law or maybe a norm
-
Trials by Ordeal - trial will
notify the community of
whether or not the person is
guilty
-
2)
Power-enforced forms of
punishment (i.e., prisons)
3)
-
US prison statistics
The US imprisons more people
that any other country in the
world (~1.6 million in 2004)
○
Highest incarceration rate
(number of people per 1000
people in the country are
incarcerated)
737 per 100,000
-
○
Marked ethnic differences
1 in 15 black men, 1 in 9
between the ages of 20-34 is
in prison
-
○
-
§
Prison rates in Canada
~34, 000 prisoners in custody
○
Incarceration rate is 131 per
100,000
○
Very marked ethnic differences
within prison population
First Nations are 4% of
Canadian population but
21% of all male prisoners
and 30% of all female
prisoners are first nation
-
○
In Saskatchewan, Indigenous
Peoples are
15% of the population BUT
-
Make up 79% of the male
prisoner population
-
87% of the female prisoner
population
-
○
-
Why? Poverty, education, family
separations, lack of opportunities, lack
of education, prostitution, etc.
-
Social Conflict and Violence
All societies experience conflict with
other groups and societies, though to
different degrees
Ethnic conflict
Genocide - killing large
numbers of a distinct ethnic,
racial, or religious group
(Rwanda)
-
Ethnocide - destroying the
culture of a distinct group
(Canada)
-
Sectarian Conflict - based on
perceived differences
between divisions or sects
within a religion (Ireland -
Catholics and Protestants)
-
○
-
§
Why do some societies seem more violent than
others?
Violence, like any form of power; is rooted in
cultural processes and meanings
§
Violence: the use of force to harm someone or
something
§
Culture shapes what people consider
"legitimate" violence and how, why, and when
they use it as a form of power relations
§
○
Violence is Not Inevitable or Senseless
Interethnic violence is not an inevitable
product of human nature, and
1)
Violence is not senseless but a highly
meaningful and even calculated political
strategy
Read about Bosnian civil war in
text (pg. 255)
For example, the Bosnian
civil war was included acts of
horrifying brutality and
interethnic cooperation -
this reality undermines any
simplistic narrative. Conflict
between Serbs, Croats, and
Muslims was not inevitable.
In this case, it was
manufactured to serve the
political and ideological
interests of political leaders
-
-
Read about Revolutionary United
Front soldiers in Sierra Leone in
text (pg. 256)
Violence is often used as a
strategic political tool. For
example, the almost
unbelievable cruelty of
revolutionary united front
soldiers in Sierra Leone was
systemically calculated to
prevent defections, stop
local harvests, and instill fear
-
-
2)
§
How do we avoid cycles of aggression, brutality,
war?
What do people fight about ? Political power,
material goods, property, decision-making,
social relations, etc.
§
North Americans are culturally primed to view
disputes (and sporting events) in terms of
winners and losers. In other cultures the
emphasis is on repairing strained relationships
or maintaining social harmony.
E.g., Trobriand Islander - the goal of
cricket matcher is to end with a tie—the
match is not about winning or losing but
about lessoning tensions between
villages—a tie allows both teams to
subjectively asserts that they played the
better game
-
§
Formal Dispute Management (Read about the
examples in the textbook)
Adjudication: the legal process by which
an individual or council with socially
recognized authority intervenes in a
dispute and unilaterally makes a decision
Example: moot court among the
Kpelle of Liberia
-
-
Negotiations: a form of dispute
management in which the parties
themselves reach a decision jointly
Example: Tanzanian land and
water rights negotiations
-
-
Mediation: entails a third party who
intervenes in a dispute to help the
parties reach an agreement and restore
harmony
Example- Native Hawaiian
mediation called ho’oponopono,
or “setting to right”
-
-
§
Agreeing to Disagree
Is harmony always the best result? It’s
easy to romanticize the ideal of
harmony, but this too is a cultural
ideology.
-
Anthropologist Laura Nader (1990)
suggests that many disputants prefer
fairness, justice, and rule of law to
harmony.
-
In some cases, conflict may be the only
feasible way to promote change for the
greater good.
-
There is not necessarily a “best way” to
solve a dispute. If there were, there
would be no more disputes!
-
§
Specific Types of Conflict - War
War is organized conflict involving group
action directed against another group
and involving lethal force
-
States have standing armies supported
by taxation
-
Cycle of power (greater the states power
is allows stronger army and the more
power the state has)
-
Common, underlying causes for why we
engage in warfare (Attempts to extend
boundaries, secure more resources,
ensuring markets for goods, supporting
allies, resist aggression from other
states, defending borders)
-
'Just wars'
-
§
Internal State Conflict
Legitimacy - right of political leaders to
obtain and use their power, linked to a
culture's values and ideologies
-
Can be lost
-
Uprisings, revolutions, reasonable
questioning through the law, anti-war
movements
-
Powerful attempts to remain in power
when their legitimacy is challenged react
against protesters with force
-
§
○
Politics is not just formal state institutions, but how people
manage their everyday social relations through persuasion,
force, violence and control over resources
-
Political organizations, however it manifests itself, is the
governing mechanism of all societies. A loosely structured band
or tribe may have less assets to protect and share than a highly
organized state but the basic questions of who gets what, when,
where and how are at the root of any political structure.
Audio 1 - 2 Audio 1
Band Tribe Chiefdom State
Type of Subsistence Foraging Horticulture and pastoralism Extensive agriculture,
intensive fishing
Intensive agriculture
Population Density Low Low to medium Medium High
Type of Economic Exchange Reciprocity Reciprocity and trade Redistribution through chief,
reciprocity at lower levels
Markets and trade; redistribution
through state based on taxation
Social Stratification Egalitarian Egalitarian Ranked Social classes
Ownership of Property Little or no sense of
personal ownership
Lineage or clan ownership of
land and livestock
Lineage or clan ownership of
land, but with strong sense of
personal ownership
Private and state ownership of land
Type of Leadership Informal and situational;
headman
Charismatic headman with
some authority in group
decision-making
Charismatic chief with limited
power, usually based on
giving benefits to followers
Sovereign leader supported by
aristocratic bureaucracy
Law and Legitimate Control of
Force
No formal laws or
punishment; right to use
force is communal
No formal laws or
punishments; right to use
force is held by lineage, clan,
or association
May have informal laws and
specified punishments; chief
has limited access to coercion
Formal laws and punishments; state
holds all access to use of physical
force
Some examples !Kung San (Southern Africa);
Inuit (Canada, Alaska);
Batek (Malaysia)
Yanomamo (South American);
Nuer (Sudan); Cheyenne
(United States)
Kwakiutl (Canada, Alaska);
Precolonial Hawai'i
Aztec (Mexico); Inca (Peru); Euro-
American monarchies and
representative democracies
Non-centralized Centralized
Week 6, Lecture 10/11
Thursday, February 9, 2017
2:28 PM
Political Anthropology addresses the area of human
behaviour and thought related to power - who has it and
who does not, degree of power, bases of power, abuses of
power, relationships between political and religious
power, political organization and government, social
conflict and social control, and morality and law
-
Legal Anthropology addresses issues of social order and
conflict resolution cross-culturally (How we resolve
conflict)
-
Political Organization
Groups within a culture that are responsible for:
Public decision making and leadership
○
Maintain social cohesion and order
○
Protect group rights
○
Ensuring safety from external threats
○
-
Sociopolitical typology
4 main types:
Band
Subsistence strategy – foraging
-
Membership – flexible, based on kinship
-
Size – between 20 people and a few
hundred at most (smallest political unit)
-
Leadership – informal. No ONE person is
named as permanent leader. Leadership
is situational. (If going on a hunt the best
hunter will be the leader but then when
it is over they go back to being a regular
person)
-
Political system – non-centralized with
decisions by consensus, leader has
influence, not power. External conflict is
rare. Acephalous.
-
Social structure – all members of the
group are social equals and a band
leader has no special status. Egalitarian
-
Economic exchange – reciprocity
-
Law/Legitimate Use of Force – no formal
laws
-
1)
Tribe
Subsistence strategy – horticulture and
pastoralism
-
Membership – several bands or lineage
groups. Kinship with groups connected
through clan structure with a common
ancestor
-
Size – 100 to several 1000 people
-
Leadership – tribal headman, usually
achieved status where they are known
as hardworking and generous.
-
Political system – non-centralized and
part time. Leader has authority not
power. Conflict resolution responsibility
of headman.
-
Social structure – may have special
status, largely egalitarian.
-
Economic Exchange – reciprocity
-
Law/Leg Use of Force – no formal, held
by lineage/clan association
-
2)
Chiefdom
Subsistence – agriculture
-
Membership – kin and non-kin
-
Size – large populations, in the 1000s
-
Leadership –chiefship is an "office"-
Chief regulates production,
redistribution, solves internal conflicts
and leads conflict–criteria included
ascribed and achieved qualities
-
Political System – permanently allied
tribes and villages under one chief,
possess limited power. Charismatic.
Centralized.
-
Social Structure –hereditary systems of
social ranking and economic
stratification. Chiefs and descendants
have higher status than other
“commoners”.
-
Economic exchange – redistribution,
reciprocity
-
Law/Leg – informal laws and specified
punishments
-
Several chiefdoms can join to create a
confederacy –Iroquois Leagues of 6
nations
-
3)
State
Subsistence – intensive agriculture
-
Provides large amount of surplus and
because of this it can support many
other people
-
Membership – all, stratified
-
Size – into the millions
-
Leadership – central individual or
government
-
Political System – centralized,
bureaucratic, with formal offices and
multiple governing bodies, power based
on law
-
Social Structure – clearly defined classes,
highly stratified (not egalitarian)
-
Economic exchange – markets and
trade; redistribution
-
Law/Leg – formal laws and punishments,
state holds all access to use of force
-
4)
○
Big-Man or Big-Woman
In between tribal and chiefdom
organizations
-
Political base, and gain prestige,
influence, and authority
-
Redistribution
-
§
-
Power/Authority/Influence
Power is the ability to make people think or act in certain
ways, through a range of techniques from physical force to
persuasion
-
Authority is the ability to take certain forms of action
based on a persons achieved or ascribed statues or moral
reputation
Authority differs from power in that power is backed
up by the potential use of force and power can be
wielded by individuals without their having authority
in the moral senses
Can have authority and no power, or you can
have power with no authority
§
○
-
Influence is the ability to achieve a desired end by exerting
social or moral pressure on someone or some group
Unlike authority, influence may be exerted from a
low-status, marginal position
○
-
Relational - a person's power, authority, or influence exists
in relation to other people
-
How Is Power Acquired and Transmitted in a Society?
Questions that are the focus:
Does every society have a government?
Some societies have centralized political
authority in the form of a government
§
Government is a separate legal and
constitutional domain that is the source of law,
order, and legitimate force
§
Others have historically lived in acephalous
societies
§
Acephalous societies are societies w/o a
governing head, generally with no hierarchical
leadership
§
○
What is political power?
Emphasis shifted from ordering societies to
exploring how individuals acquire and use
power within societies
§
Political power: the processes by which
people create, compete, and use power to
attain goals that are presumed to be for the
good of a community
§
For political power to be legitimate, it must be
based on a culturally recognized source:
deities, ancestors, hereditary transfer, legal
inheritance, or elected office
§
Power may also be drawn from material
resources, human resources, symbolic
resources, or ideological resources (Being able
to manage people properly, able to influence
others)
§
○
-
Power Distribution
Non centralized: a political system in
which power and control over resources
are dispersed between members of the
society
Bands and tribes
○
-
Centralized: A political system in which
certain individuals and institutions hold
power and control over resources
Chiefdomes and States
○
-
§
Structural Power: power that not only
operates within settings but also organizes and
orchestrates the settings in which social and
individual action take place
Best example of this is Global capitalism
-
§
Political Power
In non state societies
Leadership, if any, tends to be
temporary, informal, and based on
personal attributes (rather than
hereditary or rank)
E.g., the power of an
Amazonian headman ("a
first among equals") is based
on personal charisma and
persuasiveness
-
○
-
In state/chiefdoms societies
Controlled by officials and
hierarchical institutions
○
Formalized laws determine who
may hold office, for how long, and
the power that may be
legitimately wielded by an official.
○
-
§
State Power, Roles, and Responsibilities
Engagement in international relations
-
Monopoly in the use of force,
maintenance of law and order internally
through laws, courts and police
-
Maintain standing armies and police
-
States define citizenship and its rights
and responsibilities
-
Census systems - keep track of
demographics
Keep track of their citizens (health,
gender, etc.)
○
-
Taxation - power to extract resources
from citizens
States have power to extract
resources from citizens
○
-
Manipulate information - information to
protect the state and its leaders can be
controlled both directly and indirectly
Ability to control what citizens can
get a hold of within the state
○
-
Most states are hierarchical and
patriarchal
-
Exclude women and lower classes
-
Some exceptions
Margaret Thatcher (PM of Britain)
○
Queen Elizabeth
○
Hilary Clinton
○
-
§
Symbols of State Power
Some commonalities associated with top
leadership that can be seen as symbolic
-
Religious beliefs and symbols can be
closely related to the power of state
leadership (in some states)
-
Architecture and planning (often
manipulated in such a way to remind
population of the greatness of the state
ex: parliament hill)
-
Clothing (Certain robes are worn, wigs,
PM Trudeau was criticized for wearing
skinny jeans when he was running for
PM. President of the USA usually wears
US flag pin)
-
Objects (Mace- inherited from British
parliament as a symbol of authority of
the speaker in the Canadian house of
commons)
-
§
Nation-States: independent states recognized
by other states, composed of people who
share a single national identity
We might have a national identity of
Canadians but that does not necessarily
mean that we are all part of the same
nation. We are comprised of many
nations. Nation- group of people who
hare a culture, language, territory, etc.
They are homogenous
-
Of those contemporary societies
classified as bands, tribes, or chiefdoms,
most exist within the geographic borders
of a state.
-
States employ many forms of control
over their populations, from surveillance
of their activities to terror and outright
genocide
-
Post-colonial states
-
New forms of political organization
above the state
EU - European Union
○
United Nations
○
Political organizations that are
above the state and have
conditions between states and
may make policies that affect
states
○
-
§
Social Control and Instruments of
All cultures have norms; some also have
laws, especially states
-
Norm: typical patterns of actual
behaviour as well as the rules about how
things should be done
Enforcement of norms are usually
informal (someone giving you a
dirty look or commenting on
something)
○
-
Laws: sets of rules established by some
form of authority
Binding rule created by customs or
official enactment - punishment
for misbehavior
○
-
§
Social Control and Scale of Society
Systems of social control vary depending
on social scale
-
In small-scale, face-to-face groups, social
control is less formal, more likely based
only on norms
-
In large-scale societies, norms regulate
daily life but so do laws; punishment for
violation of laws can be serious including
death
-
§
Punishment for Norm Violation in Small-Scale
Societies
Often through ridicule and shaming; goal
is to restore normal social relations
-
Ostracism for serious offenders
(individual causing problems is asked to
leave to community)
-
Punishment is often legitimized through
belief in supernatural forces
-
Capital punishment is extremely rare
-
§
State Systems of Social Control
3 important factors in state systems of
social control:
Specialization of Roles
Policing -includes processes
of surveillance and threat of
punishment related to
maintaining social order
-
Also judges, lawyers, etc.
-
1)
Trials and Courts
Judicial system
-
Guilt by misfortune - guilty
b/c something bad
happened to you because
you were guilty of
something - b/c you broke
the law or maybe a norm
-
Trials by Ordeal - trial will
notify the community of
whether or not the person is
guilty
-
2)
Power-enforced forms of
punishment (i.e., prisons)
3)
-
US prison statistics
The US imprisons more people
that any other country in the
world (~1.6 million in 2004)
○
Highest incarceration rate
(number of people per 1000
people in the country are
incarcerated)
737 per 100,000
-
○
Marked ethnic differences
1 in 15 black men, 1 in 9
between the ages of 20-34 is
in prison
-
○
-
§
Prison rates in Canada
~34, 000 prisoners in custody
○
Incarceration rate is 131 per
100,000
○
Very marked ethnic differences
within prison population
First Nations are 4% of
Canadian population but
21% of all male prisoners
and 30% of all female
prisoners are first nation
-
○
In Saskatchewan, Indigenous
Peoples are
15% of the population BUT
-
Make up 79% of the male
prisoner population
-
87% of the female prisoner
population
-
○
-
Why? Poverty, education, family
separations, lack of opportunities, lack
of education, prostitution, etc.
-
Social Conflict and Violence
All societies experience conflict with
other groups and societies, though to
different degrees
Ethnic conflict
Genocide - killing large
numbers of a distinct ethnic,
racial, or religious group
(Rwanda)
-
Ethnocide - destroying the
culture of a distinct group
(Canada)
-
Sectarian Conflict - based on
perceived differences
between divisions or sects
within a religion (Ireland -
Catholics and Protestants)
-
○
-
§
Why do some societies seem more violent than
others?
Violence, like any form of power; is rooted in
cultural processes and meanings
§
Violence: the use of force to harm someone or
something
§
Culture shapes what people consider
"legitimate" violence and how, why, and when
they use it as a form of power relations
§
○
Violence is Not Inevitable or Senseless
Interethnic violence is not an inevitable
product of human nature, and
1)
Violence is not senseless but a highly
meaningful and even calculated political
strategy
Read about Bosnian civil war in
text (pg. 255)
For example, the Bosnian
civil war was included acts of
horrifying brutality and
interethnic cooperation -
this reality undermines any
simplistic narrative. Conflict
between Serbs, Croats, and
Muslims was not inevitable.
In this case, it was
manufactured to serve the
political and ideological
interests of political leaders
-
-
Read about Revolutionary United
Front soldiers in Sierra Leone in
text (pg. 256)
Violence is often used as a
strategic political tool. For
example, the almost
unbelievable cruelty of
revolutionary united front
soldiers in Sierra Leone was
systemically calculated to
prevent defections, stop
local harvests, and instill fear
-
-
2)
§
How do we avoid cycles of aggression, brutality,
war?
What do people fight about ? Political power,
material goods, property, decision-making,
social relations, etc.
§
North Americans are culturally primed to view
disputes (and sporting events) in terms of
winners and losers. In other cultures the
emphasis is on repairing strained relationships
or maintaining social harmony.
E.g., Trobriand Islander - the goal of
cricket matcher is to end with a tie—the
match is not about winning or losing but
about lessoning tensions between
villages—a tie allows both teams to
subjectively asserts that they played the
better game
-
§
Formal Dispute Management (Read about the
examples in the textbook)
Adjudication: the legal process by which
an individual or council with socially
recognized authority intervenes in a
dispute and unilaterally makes a decision
Example: moot court among the
Kpelle of Liberia
-
-
Negotiations: a form of dispute
management in which the parties
themselves reach a decision jointly
Example: Tanzanian land and
water rights negotiations
-
-
Mediation: entails a third party who
intervenes in a dispute to help the
parties reach an agreement and restore
harmony
Example- Native Hawaiian
mediation called ho’oponopono,
or “setting to right”
-
-
§
Agreeing to Disagree
Is harmony always the best result? It’s
easy to romanticize the ideal of
harmony, but this too is a cultural
ideology.
-
Anthropologist Laura Nader (1990)
suggests that many disputants prefer
fairness, justice, and rule of law to
harmony.
-
In some cases, conflict may be the only
feasible way to promote change for the
greater good.
-
There is not necessarily a “best way” to
solve a dispute. If there were, there
would be no more disputes!
-
§
Specific Types of Conflict - War
War is organized conflict involving group
action directed against another group
and involving lethal force
-
States have standing armies supported
by taxation
-
Cycle of power (greater the states power
is allows stronger army and the more
power the state has)
-
Common, underlying causes for why we
engage in warfare (Attempts to extend
boundaries, secure more resources,
ensuring markets for goods, supporting
allies, resist aggression from other
states, defending borders)
-
'Just wars'
-
§
Internal State Conflict
Legitimacy - right of political leaders to
obtain and use their power, linked to a
culture's values and ideologies
-
Can be lost
-
Uprisings, revolutions, reasonable
questioning through the law, anti-war
movements
-
Powerful attempts to remain in power
when their legitimacy is challenged react
against protesters with force
-
§
○
Politics is not just formal state institutions, but how people
manage their everyday social relations through persuasion,
force, violence and control over resources
-
Political organizations, however it manifests itself, is the
governing mechanism of all societies. A loosely structured band
or tribe may have less assets to protect and share than a highly
organized state but the basic questions of who gets what, when,
where and how are at the root of any political structure.
Audio 1 - 2 Audio 1
Band Tribe Chiefdom State
Type of Subsistence Foraging Horticulture and pastoralism Extensive agriculture,
intensive fishing
Intensive agriculture
Population Density Low Low to medium Medium High
Type of Economic Exchange Reciprocity Reciprocity and trade Redistribution through chief,
reciprocity at lower levels
Markets and trade; redistribution
through state based on taxation
Social Stratification Egalitarian Egalitarian Ranked Social classes
Ownership of Property Little or no sense of
personal ownership
Lineage or clan ownership of
land and livestock
Lineage or clan ownership of
land, but with strong sense of
personal ownership
Private and state ownership of land
Type of Leadership Informal and situational;
headman
Charismatic headman with
some authority in group
decision-making
Charismatic chief with limited
power, usually based on
giving benefits to followers
Sovereign leader supported by
aristocratic bureaucracy
Law and Legitimate Control of
Force
No formal laws or
punishment; right to use
force is communal
No formal laws or
punishments; right to use
force is held by lineage, clan,
or association
May have informal laws and
specified punishments; chief
has limited access to coercion
Formal laws and punishments; state
holds all access to use of physical
force
Some examples !Kung San (Southern Africa);
Inuit (Canada, Alaska);
Batek (Malaysia)
Yanomamo (South American);
Nuer (Sudan); Cheyenne
(United States)
Kwakiutl (Canada, Alaska);
Precolonial Hawai'i
Aztec (Mexico); Inca (Peru); Euro-
American monarchies and
representative democracies
Non-centralized Centralized
Week 6, Lecture 10/11
Thursday, February 9, 2017 2:28 PM
Political Anthropology addresses the area of human
behaviour and thought related to power - who has it and
who does not, degree of power, bases of power, abuses of
power, relationships between political and religious
power, political organization and government, social
conflict and social control, and morality and law
-
Legal Anthropology addresses issues of social order and
conflict resolution cross-culturally (How we resolve
conflict)
-
Political Organization
Groups within a culture that are responsible for:
Public decision making and leadership
○
Maintain social cohesion and order
○
Protect group rights
○
Ensuring safety from external threats
○
-
Sociopolitical typology
4 main types:
Band
Subsistence strategy – foraging
-
Membership – flexible, based on kinship
-
Size – between 20 people and a few
hundred at most (smallest political unit)
-
Leadership – informal. No ONE person is
named as permanent leader. Leadership
is situational. (If going on a hunt the best
hunter will be the leader but then when
it is over they go back to being a regular
person)
-
Political system – non-centralized with
decisions by consensus, leader has
influence, not power. External conflict is
rare. Acephalous.
-
Social structure – all members of the
group are social equals and a band
leader has no special status. Egalitarian
-
Economic exchange – reciprocity
-
Law/Legitimate Use of Force – no formal
laws
-
1)
Tribe
Subsistence strategy – horticulture and
pastoralism
-
Membership – several bands or lineage
groups. Kinship with groups connected
through clan structure with a common
ancestor
-
Size – 100 to several 1000 people
-
Leadership – tribal headman, usually
achieved status where they are known
as hardworking and generous.
-
Political system – non-centralized and
part time. Leader has authority not
power. Conflict resolution responsibility
of headman.
-
Social structure – may have special
status, largely egalitarian.
-
Economic Exchange – reciprocity
-
Law/Leg Use of Force – no formal, held
by lineage/clan association
-
2)
Chiefdom
Subsistence – agriculture
-
Membership – kin and non-kin
-
Size – large populations, in the 1000s
-
Leadership –chiefship is an "office"-
Chief regulates production,
redistribution, solves internal conflicts
and leads conflict–criteria included
ascribed and achieved qualities
-
Political System – permanently allied
tribes and villages under one chief,
possess limited power. Charismatic.
Centralized.
-
Social Structure –hereditary systems of
social ranking and economic
stratification. Chiefs and descendants
have higher status than other
“commoners”.
-
Economic exchange – redistribution,
reciprocity
-
Law/Leg – informal laws and specified
punishments
-
Several chiefdoms can join to create a
confederacy –Iroquois Leagues of 6
nations
-
3)
State
Subsistence – intensive agriculture
-
Provides large amount of surplus and
because of this it can support many
other people
-
Membership – all, stratified
-
Size – into the millions
-
Leadership – central individual or
government
-
Political System – centralized,
bureaucratic, with formal offices and
multiple governing bodies, power based
on law
-
Social Structure – clearly defined classes,
highly stratified (not egalitarian)
-
Economic exchange – markets and
trade; redistribution
-
Law/Leg – formal laws and punishments,
state holds all access to use of force
-
4)
○
Big-Man or Big-Woman
In between tribal and chiefdom
organizations
-
Political base, and gain prestige,
influence, and authority
-
Redistribution
-
§
-
Power/Authority/Influence
Power is the ability to make people think or act in certain
ways, through a range of techniques from physical force to
persuasion
-
Authority is the ability to take certain forms of action
based on a persons achieved or ascribed statues or moral
reputation
Authority differs from power in that power is backed
up by the potential use of force and power can be
wielded by individuals without their having authority
in the moral senses
Can have authority and no power, or you can
have power with no authority
§
○
-
Influence is the ability to achieve a desired end by exerting
social or moral pressure on someone or some group
Unlike authority, influence may be exerted from a
low-status, marginal position
○
-
Relational - a person's power, authority, or influence exists
in relation to other people
-
How Is Power Acquired and Transmitted in a Society?
Questions that are the focus:
Does every society have a government?
Some societies have centralized political
authority in the form of a government
§
Government is a separate legal and
constitutional domain that is the source of law,
order, and legitimate force
§
Others have historically lived in acephalous
societies
§
Acephalous societies are societies w/o a
governing head, generally with no hierarchical
leadership
§
○
What is political power?
Emphasis shifted from ordering societies to
exploring how individuals acquire and use
power within societies
§
Political power: the processes by which
people create, compete, and use power to
attain goals that are presumed to be for the
good of a community
§
For political power to be legitimate, it must be
based on a culturally recognized source:
deities, ancestors, hereditary transfer, legal
inheritance, or elected office
§
Power may also be drawn from material
resources, human resources, symbolic
resources, or ideological resources (Being able
to manage people properly, able to influence
others)
§
○
-
Power Distribution
Non centralized: a political system in
which power and control over resources
are dispersed between members of the
society
Bands and tribes
○
-
Centralized: A political system in which
certain individuals and institutions hold
power and control over resources
Chiefdomes and States
○
-
§
Structural Power: power that not only
operates within settings but also organizes and
orchestrates the settings in which social and
individual action take place
Best example of this is Global capitalism
-
§
Political Power
In non state societies
Leadership, if any, tends to be
temporary, informal, and based on
personal attributes (rather than
hereditary or rank)
E.g., the power of an
Amazonian headman ("a
first among equals") is based
on personal charisma and
persuasiveness
-
○
-
In state/chiefdoms societies
Controlled by officials and
hierarchical institutions
○
Formalized laws determine who
may hold office, for how long, and
the power that may be
legitimately wielded by an official.
○
-
§
State Power, Roles, and Responsibilities
Engagement in international relations
-
Monopoly in the use of force,
maintenance of law and order internally
through laws, courts and police
-
Maintain standing armies and police
-
States define citizenship and its rights
and responsibilities
-
Census systems - keep track of
demographics
Keep track of their citizens (health,
gender, etc.)
○
-
Taxation - power to extract resources
from citizens
States have power to extract
resources from citizens
○
-
Manipulate information - information to
protect the state and its leaders can be
controlled both directly and indirectly
Ability to control what citizens can
get a hold of within the state
○
-
Most states are hierarchical and
patriarchal
-
Exclude women and lower classes
-
Some exceptions
Margaret Thatcher (PM of Britain)
○
Queen Elizabeth
○
Hilary Clinton
○
-
§
Symbols of State Power
Some commonalities associated with top
leadership that can be seen as symbolic
-
Religious beliefs and symbols can be
closely related to the power of state
leadership (in some states)
-
Architecture and planning (often
manipulated in such a way to remind
population of the greatness of the state
ex: parliament hill)
-
Clothing (Certain robes are worn, wigs,
PM Trudeau was criticized for wearing
skinny jeans when he was running for
PM. President of the USA usually wears
US flag pin)
-
Objects (Mace- inherited from British
parliament as a symbol of authority of
the speaker in the Canadian house of
commons)
-
§
Nation-States: independent states recognized
by other states, composed of people who
share a single national identity
We might have a national identity of
Canadians but that does not necessarily
mean that we are all part of the same
nation. We are comprised of many
nations. Nation- group of people who
hare a culture, language, territory, etc.
They are homogenous
-
Of those contemporary societies
classified as bands, tribes, or chiefdoms,
most exist within the geographic borders
of a state.
-
States employ many forms of control
over their populations, from surveillance
of their activities to terror and outright
genocide
-
Post-colonial states
-
New forms of political organization
above the state
EU - European Union
○
United Nations
○
Political organizations that are
above the state and have
conditions between states and
may make policies that affect
states
○
-
§
Social Control and Instruments of
All cultures have norms; some also have
laws, especially states
-
Norm: typical patterns of actual
behaviour as well as the rules about how
things should be done
Enforcement of norms are usually
informal (someone giving you a
dirty look or commenting on
something)
○
-
Laws: sets of rules established by some
form of authority
Binding rule created by customs or
official enactment - punishment
for misbehavior
○
-
§
Social Control and Scale of Society
Systems of social control vary depending
on social scale
-
In small-scale, face-to-face groups, social
control is less formal, more likely based
only on norms
-
In large-scale societies, norms regulate
daily life but so do laws; punishment for
violation of laws can be serious including
death
-
§
Punishment for Norm Violation in Small-Scale
Societies
Often through ridicule and shaming; goal
is to restore normal social relations
-
Ostracism for serious offenders
(individual causing problems is asked to
leave to community)
-
Punishment is often legitimized through
belief in supernatural forces
-
Capital punishment is extremely rare
-
§
State Systems of Social Control
3 important factors in state systems of
social control:
Specialization of Roles
Policing -includes processes
of surveillance and threat of
punishment related to
maintaining social order
-
Also judges, lawyers, etc.
-
1)
Trials and Courts
Judicial system
-
Guilt by misfortune - guilty
b/c something bad
happened to you because
you were guilty of
something - b/c you broke
the law or maybe a norm
-
Trials by Ordeal - trial will
notify the community of
whether or not the person is
guilty
-
2)
Power-enforced forms of
punishment (i.e., prisons)
3)
-
US prison statistics
The US imprisons more people
that any other country in the
world (~1.6 million in 2004)
○
Highest incarceration rate
(number of people per 1000
people in the country are
incarcerated)
737 per 100,000
-
○
Marked ethnic differences
1 in 15 black men, 1 in 9
between the ages of 20-34 is
in prison
-
○
-
§
Prison rates in Canada
~34, 000 prisoners in custody
○
Incarceration rate is 131 per
100,000
○
Very marked ethnic differences
within prison population
First Nations are 4% of
Canadian population but
21% of all male prisoners
and 30% of all female
prisoners are first nation
-
○
In Saskatchewan, Indigenous
Peoples are
15% of the population BUT
-
Make up 79% of the male
prisoner population
-
87% of the female prisoner
population
-
○
-
Why? Poverty, education, family
separations, lack of opportunities, lack
of education, prostitution, etc.
-
Social Conflict and Violence
All societies experience conflict with
other groups and societies, though to
different degrees
Ethnic conflict
Genocide - killing large
numbers of a distinct ethnic,
racial, or religious group
(Rwanda)
-
Ethnocide - destroying the
culture of a distinct group
(Canada)
-
Sectarian Conflict - based on
perceived differences
between divisions or sects
within a religion (Ireland -
Catholics and Protestants)
-
○
-
§
Why do some societies seem more violent than
others?
Violence, like any form of power; is rooted in
cultural processes and meanings
§
Violence: the use of force to harm someone or
something
§
Culture shapes what people consider
"legitimate" violence and how, why, and when
they use it as a form of power relations
§
○
Violence is Not Inevitable or Senseless
Interethnic violence is not an inevitable
product of human nature, and
1)
Violence is not senseless but a highly
meaningful and even calculated political
strategy
Read about Bosnian civil war in
text (pg. 255)
For example, the Bosnian
civil war was included acts of
horrifying brutality and
interethnic cooperation -
this reality undermines any
simplistic narrative. Conflict
between Serbs, Croats, and
Muslims was not inevitable.
In this case, it was
manufactured to serve the
political and ideological
interests of political leaders
-
-
Read about Revolutionary United
Front soldiers in Sierra Leone in
text (pg. 256)
Violence is often used as a
strategic political tool. For
example, the almost
unbelievable cruelty of
revolutionary united front
soldiers in Sierra Leone was
systemically calculated to
prevent defections, stop
local harvests, and instill fear
-
-
2)
§
How do we avoid cycles of aggression, brutality,
war?
What do people fight about ? Political power,
material goods, property, decision-making,
social relations, etc.
§
North Americans are culturally primed to view
disputes (and sporting events) in terms of
winners and losers. In other cultures the
emphasis is on repairing strained relationships
or maintaining social harmony.
E.g., Trobriand Islander - the goal of
cricket matcher is to end with a tie—the
match is not about winning or losing but
about lessoning tensions between
villages—a tie allows both teams to
subjectively asserts that they played the
better game
-
§
Formal Dispute Management (Read about the
examples in the textbook)
Adjudication: the legal process by which
an individual or council with socially
recognized authority intervenes in a
dispute and unilaterally makes a decision
Example: moot court among the
Kpelle of Liberia
-
-
Negotiations: a form of dispute
management in which the parties
themselves reach a decision jointly
Example: Tanzanian land and
water rights negotiations
-
-
Mediation: entails a third party who
intervenes in a dispute to help the
parties reach an agreement and restore
harmony
Example- Native Hawaiian
mediation called ho’oponopono,
or “setting to right”
-
-
§
Agreeing to Disagree
Is harmony always the best result? It’s
easy to romanticize the ideal of
harmony, but this too is a cultural
ideology.
-
Anthropologist Laura Nader (1990)
suggests that many disputants prefer
fairness, justice, and rule of law to
harmony.
-
In some cases, conflict may be the only
feasible way to promote change for the
greater good.
-
There is not necessarily a “best way” to
solve a dispute. If there were, there
would be no more disputes!
-
§
Specific Types of Conflict - War
War is organized conflict involving group
action directed against another group
and involving lethal force
-
States have standing armies supported
by taxation
-
Cycle of power (greater the states power
is allows stronger army and the more
power the state has)
-
Common, underlying causes for why we
engage in warfare (Attempts to extend
boundaries, secure more resources,
ensuring markets for goods, supporting
allies, resist aggression from other
states, defending borders)
-
'Just wars'
-
§
Internal State Conflict
Legitimacy - right of political leaders to
obtain and use their power, linked to a
culture's values and ideologies
-
Can be lost
-
Uprisings, revolutions, reasonable
questioning through the law, anti-war
movements
-
Powerful attempts to remain in power
when their legitimacy is challenged react
against protesters with force
-
§
○
Politics is not just formal state institutions, but how people
manage their everyday social relations through persuasion,
force, violence and control over resources
-
Political organizations, however it manifests itself, is the
governing mechanism of all societies. A loosely structured band
or tribe may have less assets to protect and share than a highly
organized state but the basic questions of who gets what, when,
where and how are at the root of any political structure.
Audio 1 - 2 Audio 1
Band Tribe Chiefdom State
Type of Subsistence Foraging Horticulture and pastoralism Extensive agriculture,
intensive fishing
Intensive agriculture
Population Density Low Low to medium Medium High
Type of Economic Exchange Reciprocity Reciprocity and trade Redistribution through chief,
reciprocity at lower levels
Markets and trade; redistribution
through state based on taxation
Social Stratification Egalitarian Egalitarian Ranked Social classes
Ownership of Property Little or no sense of
personal ownership
Lineage or clan ownership of
land and livestock
Lineage or clan ownership of
land, but with strong sense of
personal ownership
Private and state ownership of land
Type of Leadership Informal and situational;
headman
Charismatic headman with
some authority in group
decision-making
Charismatic chief with limited
power, usually based on
giving benefits to followers
Sovereign leader supported by
aristocratic bureaucracy
Law and Legitimate Control of
Force
No formal laws or
punishment; right to use
force is communal
No formal laws or
punishments; right to use
force is held by lineage, clan,
or association
May have informal laws and
specified punishments; chief
has limited access to coercion
Formal laws and punishments; state
holds all access to use of physical
force
Some examples !Kung San (Southern Africa);
Inuit (Canada, Alaska);
Batek (Malaysia)
Yanomamo (South American);
Nuer (Sudan); Cheyenne
(United States)
Kwakiutl (Canada, Alaska);
Precolonial Hawai'i
Aztec (Mexico); Inca (Peru); Euro-
American monarchies and
representative democracies
Non-centralized Centralized
Week 6, Lecture 10/11
Thursday, February 9, 2017 2:28 PM
Document Summary
Legal anthropology addresses issues of social order and conflict resolution cross-culturally (how we resolve conflict) Groups within a culture that are responsible for: Size between 20 people and a few hundred at most (smallest political unit) No one person is named as permanent leader. Leadership is situational. (if going on a hunt the best hunter will be the leader but then when it is over they go back to being a regular person) Political system non-centralized with decisions by consensus, leader has influence, not power. Social structure all members of the group are social equals and a band leader has no special status. Law/legitimate use of force no formal laws. Kinship with groups connected through clan structure with a common ancestor. Leadership tribal headman, usually achieved status where they are known as hardworking and generous. Social structure may have special status, largely egalitarian. Law/leg use of force no formal, held. Law/leg use of force no formal, held by lineage/clan association.
