1. Politics, Power, and Violence
Part I

2. Politics, Power and Violence:
Every society must have means by which conflicts can be resolved and breakdown of the social order prevented.
Complex political structures known as states first began to emerge over 5,000 years ago.
Commonly unstable, many have disappeared in the course of history, some temporarily and others forever.

3. Politics, Power and Violence:
Societies still exist where political organization is based on informal kinship systems whose leaders lack real power.
Power: the ability of individuals or groups to impose their will upon others and make them do things even against their own wants or wishes.

4. Kinds of Political Systems:
Political organization: the way power is distributed and embedded in society; the means through which a society creates and maintains social order.
Anthropologists have simplified this complex subject by identifying four basic kinds of political systems:
bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states

5. Kinds Of Political Systems
Uncentralized systems
Bands
Tribes
Centralized systems
Chiefdoms
States

7. Types Of Political Organization: Membership
Number of people
Settlement pattern
Band
Dozens and up
Mobile
Tribe
Hundreds and up
Mobile or fixed: 1 or more villages
Chiefdom
Thousands and up
Fixed: 1 or more villages
State
Tens of thousands and up
Fixed: Many villages and cities

8. Types Of Political Organization: Membership
Basis of relationships
Ethnicities and languages
Band
Kin 1
Tribe
Kin, descent groups
Chiefdom
Kin, rank and residence
State
Class and residence
1 or more

9. Types Of Political Organization: Government
Membership
Decision making, leadership
Bureaucracy
Band
“Egalitarian”
None
Tribe
“Egalitarian” or Big-Man
Chiefdom
Centralized, hereditary
None, or 1 or 2 levels
State
Centralized
Many levels

10. Types Of Political Organization: Government
Membership
Conflict resolution
Hierarchy of settlement
Band
Informal No
Tribe
Chiefdom
Centralized
No Paramount village or head town
State
Laws, judges
Capital

11. Types Of Political Organization: Economy
Membership
Division of labor
Exchanges
Band No
Reciprocal
Tribe
Chiefdom
No -> Yes
Redistributive (“tribute”)
State
Yes
Redistributive (“taxes”)

12. Types Of Political Organization: Society
Membership
Stratified
Slavery
Band No
Tribe
Chiefdom
Yes, ranked by kin
Some small-scale
State
Yes, by class or caste
Some large-scale

13. Types Of Political Organization: Society
Membership
Luxury goods for elite
Indigenous literacy
Band No
Tribe
Chiefdom
Yes
No ->Some
State
Often

14. Uncentralized Political Systems:
Marriage and kinship have formed their principal means of social organization.
Leaders do not have real power to force compliance with the society’s customs or rules.
Since power in the kin-ordered communities is shared, with nobody exercising exclusive control over collective resources or public affairs, individuals typically enjoy much more freedom than those who form part of larger and more complex political systems.

15. Bands
Band: a relatively small and loosely organized kin-ordered group that inhabits a specific territory and that may split periodically into smaller extended family groups that are politically independent The least complicated form of political organization.
Found among nomadic societies.
Small, numbering at most a few hundred people.

16. Bands
Are kin groups, composed of men and/or women who are related (or are assumed to be) with their spouses and unmarried children.
The band is probably the oldest form of political organization.

17. Bands No need for formal political systems.
Conflicts that arise among bands are usually settled informally through gossip, ridicule, direct negotiation, or mediation.
Individuals become leaders by virtue of their abilities to serve in that capacity only as long as they retain the confidence of the community.

18. Ju/’hoansi
Public scolding or open expression of irritation may escalate into serious anger and lead to splits that jeopardize everyone’s security.
Through gossip people accomplish several objectives while avoiding the potential disruption of open confrontation.
Another technique in small-scale societies for resolving disputes, or even avoiding them in the first place, is mobility.

19. Tribes
Tribe: in anthropology, refers to a range of kin-ordered groups that are politically integrated by some unifying factor and whose members share a common ancestry, identity, culture, language and territory.
This term is problematic because it has many meanings.

20. Tribes
In these larger political entities, people sacrifice a degree of household autonomy in return for greater security against such perils as enemy attacks or starvation.
Typically a tribe has an economy based on some form of crop cultivation or herding.
While band population densities are usually less than one person per square mile, tribal population densities generally exceed that and may be as high as 250 per square mile.

21. Tribes
Each tribe consists of one of more self-supporting and self-governing local communities that may then form alliances with others for various purposes.
In many tribal societies the organizing unit and seat of political authority is the clan, comprised of people who consider themselves descended from a common ancestry.

22. Navajo Indians
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.
A local leader was a man respected for his age, integrity, and wisdom.

23. The Big Man
This Big Man from New Guinea is wearing his official regalia.
His authority is personal; he does not come to office in any formal sense, nor is he elected.
His status is the result of acts that raise him above most other tribe members and attract to him a number of loyal followers.

24. Political Integration Beyond Kin Group:
Age sets, age grades, and common-interest groups are among the mechanisms used by tribal societies as means of political integration.
Cutting across territorial and kin groupings, these organizations link members from different lineages and clans.
Another system of political integration found among tribes in many parts of the world is the common-interest association.

25. Question Bands and tribes are both centralized.
associated with industrialism.
dependent on age groups for political organization.
uncentralized and egalitarian.
hierarchical in social organization.

26. Answer: D
Bands and tribes are both uncentralized and egalitarian.

27. Question
In the band, disputes are settled informally through ___________
gossip.
ridicule.
direct negotiation.
mediation.
all of these choices

28. Answer: E
In the band, disputes are settled informally through gossip, ridicule, direct negotiation and mediation.

29. Question
The form of social organization typical of hunter-gatherers is the _________, whereas horticulture and pastoralism are usually associated with the form of social organization called the _________.
tribe/chiefdom
tribe/state
tribe/band
band/chiefdom
band/tribe

30. Answer: E
The form of social organization typical of hunter-gatherers is the band, whereas horticulture and pastoralism are usually associated with the form of social organization called the tribe.