Anthro Test 5

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Political Structure: -a means of regulating or managing inter-relationships among groups and their representatives
-a mechanism for social control, decision making, and conflict resolution at a group level.
Political organization depends on what?: Political Structure
4 basic levels of political organization: 1. Band: 100 people or less
2. Tribe: 1,000-10,000
3. Chiefdom: 2,000-30,000
4. State: Unlimited
Characteristics of each political organization are very different. T or F: T
Band: -simplest form
-everybody is equal (Eqalitarian Form)
-associated with hunting and gathering
-travel together to maximize resources
-travel in small groups
-high levels of conformity
Band's sexual division of labor: -strict division of labor
-men hunt, women gather
-specialization is non-existant
Band Headman: -always male
-he is chosen by his personality and his hunting skills
-has NO authority
-once he begins to mess up, people follow someone else
-not hereditary
-will mediate a despute if he is asked
Band Decision Making: -group effort
-takes a long time cause everyone gets to have a vote
-headman is the spokes man, not the decision maker
Tribe: -usually a temporary combination of bands
-usually together for a specific reason (winter festival, etc.)
Tribe Leadership: -have leadership positions that have authority and more power than a headman.
-may be hereditary
Chiefdoms Come in 2 forms: 1. Egalitarian
2. Controlling

-depends on leadership postion to physical resources of the group
Chiefdoms are usually found where?: -in settled fishing and gardening groups (pasturelism)
Chiefdoms Leadership: -must allow some authorities to make rules and decisions for whole group.
-specialization becomes important
-leadership can become a full time job
Egalitarian form of Chiefdom: -contolling chief chosen on personal skills and charisma
-authority is limited
-leads by example; try to display the model personality
-required to have superior skills, generous (does not have many possessions because he gives most away)
-organizes group activities
-he has no authority so people so not have to abide by him
COntrolling Chiefdom: -happens when the egal. form wears thin
-chief now has authority
-dicates who gets which garden space
-still responsible for the well-being of the group
-begins to become hereditary
State Stratified Political Level: -state level can handle unlimited amounts of people because state makes levels (layers) of population

ex. US->Ohio->Toledo
States can come in 4 forms: 1. Partially Stratified
2. Kingdom
3. Coercive
4. Participatory Democracy

-all have layers and no limit on how many people
Partially Stratified: -Much overlap of how things are done.
Ex. of partially stratified: Trobriand Islands

2 levels og gov't

1. Village-headman
headman of village is head of a kinship group (men that are related through mothers)
-village combines kinship with politics

2. 1 ruler for all villages
Paramount Chief-represents all villages when dealing with outside world.
-organizes events
-provides disaster relief (yams) (people give him yams)
-yams are the medium of exchange
-para is a polygamist. marries up to 60 women (every sister of each village's headman)-so he gets lots of crops because of his wives
Kingdom: -power is centralized in a single individual
-hereditary
-increased level of specialization of labor
-Buracracy begins to develop
-elaborate set of social stratification
In a kingdom, you will have what?: king
royalty
nobility
land gentry
upper class
laborers
slaves
Kingdom example: African Kingdom - Bunyoro

-pop=100,000
-king is called a Mukama
-lineage "goes back to the beginning of time"
-Mukama controls all the resources and lets his people use them. They repay him by paying taxes whatever way they can (cattle, labor, crafts, etc)
Coercive: -very highly stratified with with a single ruler or ruling elite
-strong sanctions opposed on anyone who disagrees with the ruler(s)
Coercive example: -Ancient China: Han Dynasty

-Emperor who decided whether you lived or died.
-patrilineal, great economy
-Social Strat. was a caste

A historian was an advisor of the emperor and they disagreed about a strategy . The emperor got angry and decided to to punish him by castrating him.

He had Absolute Control
Participatory Democracy: -rare
-developed over a long period of time
-they are incomplete
-we have this form
-if we really had a participatory demo. every person would have to make decisions that effected the group as a whole.

This is an idealized form that really cannot be practiced.
The _________ tells us what conflict resolution will be used: number of people involoved
conflict: the social drama
4 stages of conflict as described by victor turner: 1. Breach
2. Operation of a Redressive Mechanism
3. Crisis
4. Resoultion
Breach: -open recognition that something is wrong
Crisis: -involves defining what is wrong
-finding the cause
-fault finding (finger pointing)
-If conflict will get physical it will happen here
Operation of a Redressive Mechanism: -make situation right
-someone will promise a solution
-a compromise
-can bounce back and forth b/t 2 and 3
-if a peace plan doesn't work out, you go back to crisis
What are the four levels of political organization? How can the levels be subdivided into different forms?: 1. Band
2. Tribe
3. Chiefdom
4. State

-by population
What is a conflict resolution mechanism? How does conflict resolution relate to political organization?: -It is a mechanism that is in place so that conflicts can be resolved and decisions and compromises can be made.

the conflict resolution used depends on what kind of political oraganization is in place. For example, if the country is a kingdom, the king may be the one to resolve conflict

-politcial org = bands, tribes, chiefdom, and state. give examples
WHat arse the characteristics of different levels of political organization (ie. size, type of conflict resolution, leadership, etc.): Bands have public face to face confrontations where the entire public decides what the resolution to the problem will be.

tribes ?

chiefdoms have for example a leopard skin chief if acts as the leadership and resolves the confrontation with the facts that are present.

In states, there is a judical system where unbiased people make decisions on confrontations.

ex. Band-100 people or less, example of conflict resoultion, headman kind of acts as a spokesman
what is social drama?: Social Drama is the conflict in society. There are 4 stages to this conflict: breach, operation of a redressive mechanism, crisis, and resolution
What are the 3 elements shared by all belief systems?: 1. myths

2. ritual

3. practition
What are cults?: A system or community of religious worship and ritual

Thinking revolves around 1 idea or being/supernatural

ex. Kalahari Bushmen w/ coke bottle
What social purposes can a belief system serve, according to lecture?: 1. Code of ethics-outline of appropriate behaviors

2. Provide means iof social
What are the three kinds of crisis response a belief system may provide?: Millenarian Movement, revitalization mov't, and cargo cult

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