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Chapter 12
Politics, Power, and Violence
Politics = Power
• Types of power– Persuasion– Negotiation– Obligation– Coercion
Kinds Of Political Systems
• Uncentralized systems– Bands– Tribes
• Centralized systems– Chiefdoms– States
Types Of Political Organization: Membership
Membership Number of people Settlement pattern
Band Dozens and up Mobile
Tribe Hundreds and upMobile or fixed: 1 or
more villages
Chiefdom Thousands and upFixed: 1 or more
villages
StateTens of thousands
and upFixed: Many villages
and cities
Types Of Political Organization: Membership
Membership Basis of relationshipsEthnicities and
languages
Band Kin 1
Tribe Kin, descent groups 1
ChiefdomKin, rank and
residence1
State Class and residence 1 or more
Types Of Political Organization: Government
MembershipDecision making,
leadershipBureaucracy
Band “Egalitarian” None
TribeEgalitarian” or Big-
ManNone
ChiefdomCentralized, hereditary
None, or 1 or 2 levels
State Centralized Many levels
Types Of Political Organization: Government
Membership Conflict resolutionHierarchy of settlement
Band Informal No
Tribe Informal No
Chiefdom CentralizedNo Paramount
village or head town
State Laws, judges Capital
Types Of Political Organization: Economy
MembershipDivision of labor
ExchangesExchanges
Band No Reciprocal
Tribe No Reciprocal
Chiefdom No -> YesRedistributive
(“tribute”)
State YesRedistributive
(“taxes”)
Types Of Political Organization: Society
Membership Stratified Slavery
Band No No
Tribe No No
ChiefdomYes, ranked by
kinSome small-scale
StateYes, by class or
casteSome large-scale
Types Of Political Organization: Society
MembershipLuxury goods
for eliteIndigenous literacy
Band No No
Tribe No No
Chiefdom Yes No ->Some
State Yes Often
Bands
• Small group of politically independent, though related, households.
• The least complicated form of political organization.
• Found among nomadic societies.
• Small, numbering at most a few hundred people.
Bands
• No need for formal political systems.
• Decisions are made with the participation of adult members, with an emphasis on achieving consensus.
• Those unable to get along with others of their group move to another group where kinship ties give them rights of entry.
Tribes
• Tribes consist of small, autonomous local communities, which form alliances for various purposes.
• Economy based on crop cultivation or herding.
• Population densities generally exceed 1 person per square mile.
• Leadership among tribes is informal.
Tribes• Shown here is a
meeting of the Navajo Tribal Council, a nontraditional governing body created in response to requirements set by the U.S. government in order for the Navajo to exercise national sovereignty.
The Big Man
• This Big Man from New Guinea is wearing his official regalia.
Chiefdoms
• The chief is at the head of a ranked hierarchy of people.
• The office of the chief is usually for life and often hereditary.
• The chief’s authority serves to unite his people in all affairs and at all times.
• Highly unstable as lesser chiefs try to take power from higher ranking chiefs.
Chiefdoms
• A Kpelle town chief in Liberia, West Africa, listens to a dispute in his district.
• Settling disputes is one of several ongoing traditional tasks that fall to paramount chiefs among Kpelle people.
State
• The most formal of political organizations.
• Political power is centralized in a government, which may use force to regulate the affairs of its citizens and its relations with other states.
• Since their first appearance 5,000 years ago, states have shown a tendency toward instability and transience.
A Nation without a State
• The Kurds, most of whom live in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey, are an example of a nation without a state.
Political Leadership and Gender
Women have enjoyed political equality with men in a number of societies:
• Iroquoian tribes of New York State - men held office at the pleasure of women, who appointed them and could remove them.
• Igbo of Nigeria - women held positions that paralleled and balanced that of the men.
Gender and Politics
• Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf inspects members of the Liberian police after taking the presidential oath in January 2006.
• The first female president on the African continent, Sirleaf is a Harvard-educated economist who took the world by surprise when she won the head office in her war-torn and poverty-stricken country.
Social Control and Law
• Folkways – minor sanctions for not behaving
• Mores – Slightly more serious offenses
• Law – Most serious offenses.
Attributes of Law
• Authority – who carries out the law
• Universal application – similar crimes have similar punishments
• Legal sanction – negative ways you get people to conform
Types of Law
• Substantive law – who carries out the law and who carries out the punishment– Criminal – Civil
• Procedural Law – how law was broken and how will it be resolved
Legal Systems
• 2 Levels of procedural law– Self-help legal system – ad hoc system
• No formal court or jury• Familial or mediator
– Court legal system• Settled in institutions and organizations, not by
families• Courts of mediation• Courts of regularion
Song Duels
• Having a song duel is the traditional approach to dispute resolution among the Inuit of northern Canada.
Child Soldiers
• Today, there are more than 250,000 child soldiers, many as young as 12 years old. Among them are these boys training to be guerrillas in Sahel, Eritrea.
Warfare in Multinational States
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