anthro chapter 8 textbook Authority, Decisions, and Power: Political Anthropology

segmentary lineage

a kind of lineage order in which family units called minimal lineages are encompassed by larger groups called maximal lineages, which are subsumed by even larger groups called clans.

hegemony

a powerful ideology that has become generally accepted by most groups in society as common sense. hegemony emphasizes the norms and values that support the existing social order.

village democracy

acephalous societies in which an array of social groups provide arenas for discussion and consensus.

chinampas

agricultural plots created from layers of mud and vegetation in the shallow part of a lake

big man

an informal leader who had gained power by accumulating wealth, sponsoring feasts, and helping young men pay bride wealth.

Leopard-Skin Chief

an informal mediator in Nuer society who negotiated settlement in the case of homicide.

tribe

an old-fashioned term used to describe ethnic groups or groups organized by lineage. Avoided by many anthropologists now because of connotations of primitivism and groupthink.

tribal societies

an older term used by anthropologists to refer to pastoralist and horticulturalist societies in which extended family structures or councils to provide the primary means of social integration.

ideologies

an organized set of ideas associated with a particular group or class in society, ideologies are used to explain how various realms of nature and society work, including such realms as economics, politics, religion, kinship, gender and sexuality.

band societies

communities of gather-hunters in which leadership is temporary, situational, and informal

acephalous societies

communities with no formal positions of leadership

age sets

gendered groups of people of roughly the same age who play a distinctive role in society with important social obligations and abilities. Age-grade systems tend to be associated with acephalous societies.

kind

hereditary ruler of a multiethnic empire based on a chiefdom

asafo

in Akan societies the group of young men charged with protecting the town, performing public works and representing public opinion. Asafo could depose corrupt and unpopular chiefs.

State Societies

large, stratified, multiethnic societies with highly centralized leadership, bureaucracies, systems of social control, and military forces exerting exclusive control over a defined territory.

social stratification

the division of society into groups that are ranked according to wealth, power or prestige.

authority

the exercise of power based on expertise, charisma, or roles of leadership

chiefs

the inherited office of leadership in a chiefdom, combining coercive forms of economic, political, judicial, military and religious authority.

Nation

A sense of cultural belonging or peoplehood based on a common language, common origin story, common destiny, and common norms and values. National identities are actively constructed by states.

Arab spring

A series of protests that spread throughout the Arab would in the early 2010s demanding an end to oppressive government and poor living conditions

Fragile state

A state government that cannot have a adequately perform the essential functions of the state, such as maintaining law and order building basic structure guaranteed basic amenities and defending its citizens against violence

Failed states

A state that can no longer perform any state functions at all

1>) COLONIALISM AND THE CATEGORIZATION OF POLITICAL SYSTEMS

- Many European countries began developing formal colonial rule over other parts of the world in the late 1880s. - Europeans administered stereotypes of non-Western societies thinking that they were ruled by overbearing tyrants or were chaotic anarchies with no political organization whatsoever. - However the book "African Political Systems demonstrated African societies were meticulously organized systems with well-defined institutions for political representation and collaborative decision-making. - Elman Service proposes four main forms of social organization each with its own political system (band, tribe, chiefdom, and state.) - political anthropology is informed by models of political structure, Max Weber defined politics as the exercise of power or at least the attempt to exercise power. - In acephalous societies, power is spread widely among members of the society, while in centralized societies, power is concentrated in one or more sociocultural roles. - these roles are called positions of authority, Web defined three types of authority; traditional, charismatic, and rational-legal. - Priests and family elders practice traditional authority based on religious expertise or position in family structures. - Charismatic authority is power exercised through personal qualities such as skill oratory, extraordinary abilities, or special charm. - Rational-legal authority is power that is defined by a legal role in society, such as prime minister or president.

3>) CENTRALIZED SOCIETIES CHEIFDOMS AND STATES

- The process of agricultural intensification often results in the centralization of power.

CHEIFDOMS

- anthropologists refer to those with formal, inherited positions of community leadership as chiefs who over time can obtain chiefdoms. When a chiefdom expands to encompass multiple ethnic groups in a regional empire, the leader is referred to as a king. - While there is considerable diversity in the way these various systems of chieftaincy operate, anthropologists have identified a set of elements common to all of them; economic, political, religious, and military power are all concentrated in the position of the chief - Central to the power of a chief is control over economic resources such as land, agricultural surplus, and trade - there are usually many avenues for popular representation and critique as well as a procedure for getting rid of inept and corrupt chiefs. (asafo) .

STATES

- as some societies in some areas become more populous and hierarchical, their leaders developed modes of governance that combine forms of economic extraction such as taxation. - some societies form political organizations called state societies which have features that are common to the political organization of chiefdoms. - In attempting to explain the rise of the state, theorists emphasize two sets of forces that propel the process: integrative pressures and conflict pressures - integrative pressures arise from the need for greater coordination in order to satisfy the needs of a growing population, as agriculture and trade become more complex, power becomes more centralized in order to manage the necessary conditions and infrastructure for economic growth. - conflict pressures arise from the need to manage both internal and external threats to the power of leaders and the integrity of their societies with the emergence of a class of privileged elites governing over urban craft workers and rural peasantry, leaders face new forms of inequality and potential conflict. . - the economic and political systems of state societies are deeply entwined and this relationship is often reflected in the dominant ideas of a society

IDEOLOGY AND HEGEMONY

- every society develops a set of dominant ideas that frame the existing social order as the way things should be (ideologies) - when an ideology transcends one group to become the dominant way of thinking it becomes hegemony - the wealth of all state societies rests on the hardship of manual laborers at the bottom of the social hierarchy

NATION STATES AND GLOBALIZATION

- in the later part of the 20th century increasing global flows of trade people, technologies, communication, and ideas all coalesced in a strong but uneven wave of globalization rippling across the globe - as people objects and messages begin to travel across national boundaries with increasing frequency and speed. scholars argued that nation states will lose their relevance as structures of economic, political order of their populations - rather than diminishing the importance of local structures and identities globalization has transformed in enhanced - in poor countries globalization has resulted in increased environmental damage as globalize industries take advantage of looser regulations - many anthropologist have considered how globalization creates transnational forms of imagined community alongside the nation - Some anthropologist describes how cultural and economic insecurity, and that globalization can sometimes provoke majority, ethnic and racial groups to acts of violence against minority groups and their national communities, and provoke their way of life and pursuit of adjustments

COLONIAL AND POST COLONIAL STATES

- kingdoms were prevalent forms of centralized rule on most continents and all around these highly centralized societies were similar chiefdoms and acephalous communities. - communities outside of great kingdoms and states were politically organized with forms of leadership decision making and dispute settlement that maintained social order - British historian argues that African societies such as the Asante and Zulu were protostates or states in formation at the time of European colonization - by the early 20th century Europeans had established colonial government over nearly all societies in Africa subordinating local African political systems under European rule, the colonial states established by Europeans were authoritarian, militaristic and extractive with invasions and slaughter. - anthropologists working on political issues in previously colonized states often combined historical and contemporary research to understand the intersection of local and foreign influences. The interdisciplinary field of post colonial studies emerged in the 1970s combining history, anthropology, political science and area studies in an effort to understand the diversity, complexity and legacy of colonialism throughout the world

2>)ACRPHALOUS SOCITIES: BANDS AND TRIBES

- people who live in small communities do just fine without formal leadership and law - Elders or people with experience in certain areas may give valuable advice but they do not have the power to enforce their judgments, their authority is based on persuasive power. - Fortes and Evans-Pritchard described three types of acephalous societies. The first is band societies, those with knowledge in particular areas may exert influence areas, but there are no formal positions of leadership. - a second type of acephalous society is the tribal society, where extended families control certain resources such as animals. - Leaders in communities with lineage orders do not occupy formal positions of leadership, but rather exercise informal authority through their accumulated knowledge and their ability to persuade members of the lineage to follow their instructions. - Some lineage societies are segmentary lineages - since there are no formal methods of conflict in kin groups, fights do occur which can result in death, the perpetrator would seek out the assistance of a special mediator called a leopard-skin-chief, they were outside of the lineages of disputing parties and is seen as neutral. Their goal was to negotiate a settlement between the perpetrator and the victim's family in order to avoid retaliation and an escalation of violence. - another informal position of leadership, common to lineage-order societies is the role of the big man. - In some acephalous societies, communities are fundamentally organized through a system of age-related groups called age sets. - in addition to bands and lineage orders, a third and more atypical form of acephalous political organization is village democracy.

5>) RESISTANCE REVOLUTION AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

- politics happen both inside and outside the realm of government outside of government. People respond to social and political conditions with commentary, critique and social action, deform groups to express their reviews and demand social change. ( social movements) - there are many different kinds of social movements. Some social movements expressed resistance other campaign for specific reforms and more are ambitious and call for revolution. - many social movements are rooted in political economy that is they work to change, political and economic conditions in the relationship between those two realms - The vast majority of social movements are less like political parties, and more like informal groups, engaging in activities at outside of the formal round of political activity. Social movements, often originate in a particular incident or string of events/incident, such as mass, shooting, sexual assaults, police violence, or environmental disasters. (Parrhesia)

4>)MODERN NATION STATES

- the contemporary globe is an economically integrated order fundamentally organized into nation-states - state is an institution exercising centralized rule over a territory - because states tend to e militant and expansionist they also tend to from multiethnic empires dominated by one ruling group. - ancient states were defined by territory and bureaucracy alone, with no effort to achieve cultural uniformity - the nation is much more idealistic and cultural notion - the term nation refers to the original inhabitants of a territory, those who were born there and often claim a common language as a sign of membership. Nations tell a common origin story about where they came from commemorated in ritual calendars of fears or holidays - political scientist Benedict Anderson argues that all modern states deliberately cultivate this sense of peoplehood for those living in the states. They draw from a large repertoire of methods to summon the loyalty of their citizens and reinforce the legitimacy of the state system. - as a citizen of a nation state you will never know all of the members of your national community such communities are far too large to generate organic social groups (imagined communities) - for max weber the nation state is associated with the complete formalization of rational bureaucratic power that is power concentrated in bureaucratic institutions with legal authorities often based on rules and procedures rather than social status or identities (not social class, gender, or ethnicity ) - French philosopher Michel Foucault describes such power to define and control populations of citizens as bio power a special form of power exercised in modern states including ways of regulating bodies of citizens such as practices associated with birth death sexuality wellness illness work and leisure. ( security in an airport) it is a diffuse form of social control widely practiced by citizens both within and outside state bureaucracies

ARCHAIC STATES

- use of an intensive cultivation method called chinampas

Post colonial studies

A field of study of the relationship between European nations and the societies they colonized

nation state

A political institution joining the apparatus of the state with the notion of cultural belonging or people hood

Social movements

An organize set of actions by a group outside of government aiming at achieving social change

Parrhesia

Courageous public speech inspired by a moral desire to reveal the truth and demand social change

FRAGILE STATES AND FAILED STATES THE LEGACIES OF COLONIALISM

Journalists and political scientists frequently lament the political instability of African states and their susceptibility to popular unrest, thing conflicts, coups and corrupt leadership as fragile or failed states - most anthropologist are critical of this simplistic in ahistorical way a stigmatizing non-western governments. Anthropologist pay attention to historical processes of interaction amongst states that have a shaped global patterns of inequality. Examining the notions of state failure through a critical lens anthropologist note how some states have become more powerful others have struggled to meet the needs of their people. - once free from colonial domination, African political elites at independence the structure of the state as it had existed under colonialism remade, essentially unchanged the new leaders of these African states faced near impossible challenge of politically and economically restructuring their states, while holding together the diverse groups existing within colonial boundaries groups, frequently pitted against one another under colonial rule as additional stress, finances were limited and unpredictable. - political instability, popular unrest, military coups corruption, a similar narrative, describes the political development of many other African states - Fragile states often become fragile not because they are doing something wrong, but largely because of the legacies a colonialism - Brothers colonialism, corrupted the institution of African chieftaincy and then forbade the exercise of African protest against that corruption

Revolution

The replacement of one social order with a different one often to create enhance justice. Equality is stability or freedom.

Colonial states

State governments imposed by foreigners to rule over local people

Imaginary communities

Such communities are are not imaginary or not real but rather the national identity is a powerful sense of unity that is strategically constructed by the state and mass media

Reforms

The call for systemic changes to address social problems

Resistance

The expression of disagreement or dis fraction with the social order may be explicit or implicit

lineage orders

societies in which extended family groups provide the primary means of social integration. Leadership in these societies is provided by elders and other temporary or situational figures.

chiefdom

societies in which political leadership is regionally organized through an affiliation of hierarchy of chiefs. Chiefdoms are associated with intensive agriculture. militarism, and religious ideologies.

Protostates

societies that exhibit some but not all of the features of state societies

political economy

study of the ways in which political and economic realms continually reinforce and sometimes contradict one another over time.

persuasive power

the ability to influence others without any formal means of enforcement.

power

the ability to influence people and/or shape social processes and social structures.