Politics, Power, and Violence Flashcards

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the key political organizations and systems of social control discussed in Chapter 14 of the lecture notes.

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.

Political organization

The way power is distributed and embedded in a society; the means thru which a society creates and maintains social order.

Uncentralized political systems

Small egalitarian groups that define themselves through marriage and kinship, rely on subsistence strategies, and force conformity through scorn or gossip.

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.

Tribe

A range of kin-ordered groups politically integrated by some unifying factor whose members share a common ancestry, identity, culture, language, and territory.

Clan

The organizing unit and seat of political authority in a tribe where leadership is relatively informal.

Big Man/ “tonowi”

The negotiator, judge, and gatekeeper in the Kapauku tribe of Western New Guinea.

Centralized political systems

Systems where political power is vested in a single authority or a body of individuals; they occur with population growth, advanced technology, and trade networks producing surplus.

Chiefdom

A regional polity in which two or more local groups are organized under a single chief, who is the head of a ranked hierarchy of people.

State

A polity involving large numbers of people within a defined territory divided into social classes and directed by a formal government with the authority to make laws and use force.

Nation

A people who share a collective identity based on a common culture, language, territorial base, and history.

Pluralistic

A state that has more than one nation of peoples residing in a place.

Legitimacy

The right of political leaders to govern—to hold, use, and allocate power—based on the values of a particular society.

Cultural control

Internalized control through beliefs and values deeply ingrained in the minds of individuals.

Social control

External control through open coercion.

Sanctions

Social control designed to encourage conformity to social norms; they can be positive, negative, formal, or informal.

Formal sanctions

Organized controls such as laws, military decorations, monetary rewards, imprisonment, or death.

Informal sanctions

Direct approval or disapproval by the community based on the instinctive need to belong.

Law

Formal rules of conduct that, when violated, effectuate negative sanctions and employ overt coercion.

Negotiation

The use of direct argument and compromise by the parties to a dispute to arrive voluntarily at a mutually satisfactory agreement.

Mediation

Settlement of a dispute through negotiation assisted by an unbiased third party.

Adjudication

A process of mediation where an unbiased third party makes the ultimate decision based on cultural norms and values.