1. Social Control

2. Social Control
Ensures that members of society behave in appropriate ways most of the time
Less deviation from acceptable behavior in most band societies than in more complex societies

3. Social Norms Define normal, proper, or expected ways of behaving
Come in a variety of forms – from etiquette to formal laws
Deviance from social norms is relative and culturally defined
Sanctions: patterned or institutionalized ways of encouraging people to conform to norms
Both positive and negative
May also be formal or informal

4. Informal Means of Social Control
Socialization
Public Opinion
Corporate Lineages
Supernatural Belief Systems
Age Organizations

5. Informal Social Control: Socialization
Every society, in order to survive, must pass on social norms from one generation to the next
When members learn cultural norms, they also usually internalize the moral necessity to obey them
Variations in levels of coerciveness when socializing children

6. Informal Social Control: Public Opinion
In all cultures, people want the approval of other members of their society
Gossip, ostracism, rumor, sarcasm, and derision are all powerful corrective measures for reforming social behavior
Degradation ceremonies refer to formal societal mechanisms to publicly humiliate a deviant

7. Informal Social Control: Corporate Lineages
Play a dominant role in most small-scale societies
Exert economic control over their members
Act of mechanisms because of their scale – localized communities whose members know what everyone else is doing
Exert social control because of diffuse roles
Exert social control due to collective capacity to control marriage

8. Informal Social Control: Supernatural Belief Systems
Belief in supernatural forces such as gods, witches, and socerers
Ancestor worship
Dead ancestors are fully functioning members of the descent group
Ghost invocation brings wrath of ancestor gods against the sinner
Ghost vengeance is the belief that ancestor-gods inflict sickness without having to be invoked
Witchcraft
Common in acephalous societies
People reject the idea that misfortunes result from natural causes
Deviant runs risk of being labeled a witch
Fear of witchcraft encourages conformity

9. Informal Social Control: Witchcraft
Common in acephalous societies
People reject the idea of misfortunes resulting from natural causes
A deviant runs the risk of being labeled a witch, and fear of being accused of witchcraft encourages conformity
Witches often identified by ritual specialist, a shaman, then community takes action

10. Age Organization
Age set – group of people initiated during a periodic ceremony
Strong sense of group identity with one another
Lasts from its inception until its last member has died
Age grades
Categories through age sets pass as a group
An understood set of social roles and statuses
Control behavior in a number of ways
Establish a clear set of roles and status
Effective channels for the distribution of authority
Rites of passage are almost always preceded by intense periods of training in the norms and values of a society
Bonds of camaraderie are so strong that age sets tend to take on characteristics of a corporate group
Neither self-perpetuating nor property owning

11. Formal Means of Social Control
Violation of social norms often results in disputes among people in the society
When disputes become violent conflicts, they are called crimes
Song Duels
Intermediaries
Moots: Informal Courts
Oaths and Ordeals
Courts and Codified Law
Warfare

12. Formal Social Control: Crimes
Crimes are more likely in large, heterogeneous, stratified societies than in small-scale societies
Little or no anonymity in small scale societies
More concern with negative public opinion in small-scale societies
Heterogeneity of complex societies means more groups with different, and probably conflicting, interests
Lower castes or classes in complex societies may be more likely to violate the rights of the more privileged

13. Formal Social Control: Song Duels
Inuit of Canada, Alaska, and Greenland
A derisive song contest
Used to settle disputes that frequently involved in wife stealing
Alternative to murder

14. Formal Social Control: Intermediaries
Nuer of the Sudan
Help resolve serious conflicts
Nuer’s Leopard-skin chief has no authority to determine guilt or enforce settlement between parties
Uses personal and supernatural influence to bring the disputing parties to some type of agreed-upon settlement

15. Formal Social Control: Moots
Kpelle of Liberia and Guinea
Found in many African societies
Effective mechanism for conflict resolution
Informal airings of disputes involving kinsmen and friends of litigants
Generally deal with the resolution of domestic disputes
Attempt to reintegrate the guilty party back into community, restore normal social relations, achieve reconciliation without bitterness and acrimony

16. Formal Social Control: Oaths and Ordeals
Ashanti of West Africa
Religiously sanctioned
Oath – formal declaration to some supernatural force that what you are saying is truthful or that you are innocent
Almost always accompanied by a ritual act
Ordeal is means of determining guilt by submitting accused to a dangerous test
Most likely to be found in complex societies where the political leadership lacks power to enforce judicial decisions

17. Formal Social Control: Courts
State systems possess a monopoly on the use of force
Through system of codified law, state both forbids individuals from using force and determines how it will use force to require certain behaviors from citizens
When legal prescriptions are violated, state has authority to fine, imprison, or even execute the wrongdoer
Unauthorized use of force happens – crime, rebellion, revolution
Emphasis on punishment to avoid threat to the legitimacy of political and legal authority
Whereas state systems of government emphasize punishment, some small scale societies emphasize re-establishing harmony

18. Codified Law Qualities
Three basic features
Involves the legitimate use of physical coercion
Allocate official authority to privileged people who are able to use coercion legitimately
Based on regularity and a certain amount of predictability

19. Formal Social Control: Warfare
Systemic, organized, institutionalized fighting between different groups
Enormous cultural variability in the extent to which societies use warfare
Only a human activity since Neolithic period
General factors contributing to warfare
Social problems
Perceived threats
Political motivations
Moral objectives

20. Reasons foraging societies were not warlike
Had no centralized governments that could finance and coordinate number of people needed for military campaigns
Absence of food surpluses precluded prolonged combat
Did not control land or territorial boundaries – major motivations for warfare
Exogamous bands not likely to become hostile toward other bands into which relatives have married