Political AnthropologyThe Organization of Power

Power the ability to exercise one’s will

over others.

Authority the socially approved use of power.

Power and Authority

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

Mechanisms of Control Internal (ideological)

• 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

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

Degrees of Organizational Complexity

Uncentralized• Band

• Tribe Centralized

• Chiefdom

• State

1962, Elman Service

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).

Bands the political organization of foraging groups

Rarely more than 30-40 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.

Bands How are group decisions

made?• adult consensus• informal leaders• egalitarian

How is social order enforced?• ridicule and ostracism

How are conflicts dealt with?• negotiation/mediation• mobility

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

Tribes

How are group decisions made?• Consensus among descent

groups How are social norms

enforced?• ridicule and ostracism

How are conflicts dealt with?• negotiation/mediation• semi-official mediation

Tribes

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-dayIroquois, New

York

Tribes The Village Head

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.

Tribes –Big Man

Nuer, Sudan

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.

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

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

Chiefdoms

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

How are group decisions made?• 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

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.

Chiefdoms

Grand chief Matthew Coon Come

Zulu Chief

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

Chiefdoms

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.

States

Calcutta

How are group decisions made?• 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

States

Angkor

Status • 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

States

Hammurabi’s Code (1750 BC)