1. Political Anthropology
The Organization of Power

2. Power and Authority Power
the ability to exercise one’s will over others.
Authority
the socially approved use of power.

3. 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

4. Mechanisms of Control Internal (ideological) External (behavioral)
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

5. 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

6. Degrees of Organizational Complexity
Uncentralized
Band
Tribe
Centralized
Chiefdom
State
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).
1962, Elman Service

7. Bands the political organization of foraging groups
Rarely more than 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.

8. Bands How are group decisions made? How is social order enforced?
adult consensus
informal leaders
egalitarian
How is social order enforced?
ridicule and ostracism
How are conflicts dealt with?
negotiation/mediation
mobility

9. Tribes
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

10. Tribes How are group decisions made? How are social norms enforced?
Consensus among descent groups
How are social norms enforced?
ridicule and ostracism
How are conflicts dealt with?
negotiation/mediation
semi-official mediation

11. Tribes The Village Head
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-day
Iroquois, New York

12. Tribes –Big Man
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.
Nuer, Sudan

13. 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.

14. 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

15. Chiefdoms 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
Old Chief of the Arawa Tribe, Rotorua, New Zealand.

16. Chiefdoms How are group decisions made? How is social order enforced?
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

17. 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.
Grand chief Matthew Coon Come

18. Chiefdoms 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
Zulu Chief

19. States 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.
Calcutta

20. States How are group decisions made? How is social order enforced?
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
Angkor

21. States Status Codification of laws Monopoly on use of force
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
Hammurabi’s Code (1750 BC)