Political AnthropologyThe Organization of Power
Power the ability to exercise one’s will
over others.
Authority the socially approved use of power.
Power and Authority
Political Anthropology
How are power and social control • organized?• distributed?• manifested?
How are group decisions made? How is social order enforced? How are conflicts dealt with?
Because of the embeddedness it is better to talk of sociopolitical
Mechanisms of Control Internal (ideological)
• culturally instilled values• expectation of supernatural harm or reward
External (behavioral)• informal
• ridicule and ostracism, gossip• praise
• formal • laws and rules• institutionalized threat of force
Law and Conflict Resolution Formal and informal sanctions Conflict mediators
• Often older men• Nuer leopard skin chief• Ordeals • Oaths – supernatural source • Oracles – people or things that have • prophetic abilities
Delphic Oracle, Greece
Degrees of Organizational Complexity
Uncentralized• Band
• Tribe Centralized
• Chiefdom
• State
1962, Elman Service
In general, as the economy becomes more productive, population size increases leading to greater regulatory problems, which give rise to more complex social relations and linkages (greater social and political complexity).
Bands the political organization of foraging groups
Rarely more than 30-40 people kin-based Flexible extended family units No formal political organization No socioeconomic stratification the political order (polity) is not
a distinct institution, but is embedded in the overall social order.
Bands How are group decisions
made?• adult consensus• informal leaders• egalitarian
How is social order enforced?• ridicule and ostracism
How are conflicts dealt with?• negotiation/mediation• mobility
Multiple autonomous small communities that share common identity
Usually pastoralists or Horticulturalists
Several hundred to thousands of people
No formal political organization Little socioeconomic stratification
Tribes
How are group decisions made?• Consensus among descent
groups How are social norms
enforced?• ridicule and ostracism
How are conflicts dealt with?• negotiation/mediation• semi-official mediation
Tribes
achieved position comes with very limited authority.• He cannot force or coerce people to
do things.• He can only persuade, harangue,
and try to influence people to do things.
acts as a mediator in disputes, but has no authority to back his decision or impose punishments.
The village head must lead in generosity.• He must be more generous, which
means he must cultivate more land.• He hosts feasts for other villages.
modern-dayIroquois, New
York
Tribes The Village Head
Big Man -like a village head, except that his authority is regional in that he may have influence over more than one village• wisdom• wealth• generosity• charisma.• unofficial prestige status
The benefit is greater influence and community standing.
Tribes –Big Man
Nuer, Sudan
Pantribal Sodalities and Age Grades Sodalities are non-kin-
based organizations that may generate cross-societal linkages. • often based on common age
or gender.• Some sodalities are confined
to a single village.• Some sodalities span several
villages; these are called pantribal sodalities. they can mobilize a large number of men for raids.
Age Sets sodalities that include all of the men or women born during a certain time Similar to a cohort of class of students
•Members of an age set progress through a series of age grades together (e.g., initiated youth, warrior, adult, elder, (freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior, graduate).•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
Agriculturalists or pastoralists Multiple communities that share common
identity and tribute system Thousands to many thousands of people Centralized political organization based on
hierarchical lineage system a political unit of permanently allied tribes
and villages under one recognized leader with authority
Significant socioeconomic stratification based on lineage
Chiefdoms
Old Chief of the Arawa Tribe, Rotorua, New Zealand.
How are group decisions made?• Chief and advisors
How is social order enforced?• ridicule and ostracism• official order• use of force
How are conflicts dealt with?• negotiation/mediation• centralized arbitration
Chiefdoms
Small hierarchical bureaucracy Tribute - tax paid to chief to be
redistributed according to “community” needs
Chiefs – Leaders own, manage, and control basic factors of the economy and have special access to • crops• labor• cash • goods.
Chiefdoms
Grand chief Matthew Coon Come
Zulu Chief
Formalized leadership functions
•Unrelated to personal qualities
•Rules of succession (primogeniture)
•Office is permanent - it outlasts the individuals who occupy them
•Loyalty, status, coercion – but not too much
Chiefdoms
Agriculturalists Multiple cities that share tax
and administrative infrastructure system
Tens of thousands to billions of people
Centralized political organization possessing coercive power
Social stratification is one of the key distinguishing features of states.
States
Calcutta
How are group decisions made?• rulers decide “on behalf of”
populous How is social order
enforced?• official enforcement• threat or use of sanctions
How are conflicts dealt with?• negotiation/mediation• centralized arbitration
States
Angkor
Status • not necessarily kin-based• class-based
Codification of laws• More formalized in industrial
societies• Courts – adjudicate and
mediate Officials
Monopoly on use of force• Police force
States
Hammurabi’s Code (1750 BC)