Forms of political organization and economic systems

Non-centralized political systems

(Acephalous) groups like bands and tribes that do not have a central leadership

Centralized political systems

Groups like chiefdoms that do have a central government

Band political systems

Small, mobile, and egalitarian groups with no formal leaders, where decisions are made by consensus and authority is informal and temporary.

Reciprocity

The exchange of goods or services between people with the expectation of mutual return, often to build social relationships.

Tribe political systems

Kinship-based and decentralized systems with informal leaders, where decisions are made by consensus and authority is limited and not absolute.

Egalitarian redistribution

A system where resources are collected and shared within a group to maintain equality, ensuring no one accumulates significantly more wealth than others.

Chiefdom political systems

Centralized societies led by a hereditary chief, with ranked social hierarchy and redistribution of resources.

State political systems

Highly centralized societies with formal institutions, laws, and authority over a defined territory, supported by taxation and control of force.

Market exchange

The buying and selling of goods and services through supply and demand, typically using money to determine value.

!Kung band society

A small, egalitarian hunter-gatherer society with no formal leadership, relying on sharing, reciprocity, and consensus decision-making.

South West Africa (1950s)

A South African-controlled territory under apartheid, marked by racial segregation, land dispossession, and limited rights for Indigenous peoples.

Social inequality

Differential access to values things in a society, including experiences, life, goods, resources, and power

Social/cultural construction of social inequality

The idea that inequality is created and maintained through societal norms, values, and beliefs that define and justify differences in status and power.

Social inequality as a form of dominance

The assertion of status, and the use of power, either social or physical power, in order to prevail over others

Social Stratification

All members of the society are categorized into social groups

Social Stratification in the states

A structured system of inequality in which people are divided into distinct social classes based on factors like wealth, power, and status.

Social Stratification in india, caste

A rigid, hereditary system where people are born into fixed social groups (castes) that determine their status, occupation, and social interactions.

Kshatriyas

Warriors and rulers

Vaishyas

Merchants and traders

Shudras

Laborers and service workers

Dalits (“Untouchables”)

Historically excluded group outside the varna system, assigned the lowest status

What did Hindu religious ideology do to assure the caste system?

the use of having ideas of purity and impurity

Intersectionality

The interconnected nature of social categories, such as race, class, and gender, that creates overlapping systems of discrimination or disadvantage

Symbolic violence

Domination, hierarchies, and internalized insult that are legitimized as natural and deserved (Pierre Bourdieu)

Misrecognition

People misrecognized what is occurring to them

Normalized violence

Institutional practices, discourses, cultural values, ideologies, everyday interactions, and routinized bureaucracies that render violence invisible and produce social indifference

Structural violence

Violence exerted systematically, indirectly, by everyone who belongs to a certain social order, involving harms resulting from social institutions and social processes (Paul farmer)

Ethnic group

A group of people who share the same culture, beliefs, customs, or background

Ethnicity

A person’s feeling of belonging to a certain ethnic group

Ethnic minority groups

Ethnic groups with less power or fewer people than the majority group in society

Ethnic discrimination

Unfair treatment of people because of their ethnicity

Nationality

The legal relationship between a person and a country/state

Ethnicity vs. nationality

Ethnicity is about culture and background; nationality is about citizenship and legal connection to a country

Class conflict disguised as ethnic conflict

When problems between social classes (ex: workers vs. owners) are made to look like problems between ethnic groups

Acculturation (Ethnic interaction)

Learning or adopting parts of another culture while keeping your own culture

Assimilation (Ethnic interaction)

When a group fully adopts another culture and loses much of its original culture

Ethnocide (Ethnic interaction)

The destruction of a group’s culture without killing the people

Genocide (Ethnic interaction)

The deliberate killing of a large group of people because of their ethnicity or identity

Segregation (Ethnic interaction)

Keeping different ethnic groups separated

Ethnic cleansing (Ethnic interaction)

Forcing an ethnic group to leave an area through violence or imtimidation

Ethnic diversity (Ethnic interaction)

The presence of many different ethnic groups in one place

Race

A social idea used to group people based on physical traits like skin color. Not biological

Historical, culture, and social construction of race

The idea that race was created by societies and cultures overtime, not by nature or biology

Racism

The unfair treatment and oppression of one racial group by another

Multi-racial heritage / multi-racial identity

Having family background from more than one racial group

Historical rule of hypodescent in the U.S

the old U.S rule that classified a mixed race person as part of the minority race group

Personal racial identity

How a person sees and identifies their own race

Cultural constructions of race in Brazil

Race is viewed more flexibly and based more on physical appearance (Phenotype) than strict categories

Race as “biologically determined” is discredited because…

Scientist no longer believe race is a true biological division of humans

social races

race categories created and shaped by society and culture

Phenotype

physical traits like skin color, hair type and facial features

Great chain of being

An old european and christian belief that all living things were placed in a natural hierarchy created by god

Social significance of race

even though race is not biological, it still strongly affects peoples lives and society

Human foodways

The shared ways a culture thinks about, prepares, and eats food

Change and foodways

The way food habits and traditions change overtime

Symbolic meanings of food

The idea that foods can have cultural religious meanings beyond nutrition

Symbolic approach to nutrition

studying food by looking at its cultural meanings and symbols, not just health value

Identities, social boundaries, and food

how food can show who people are and separate groups by culture, religion, or class

Industrial agriculture

Large-scale farming that uses machines and intensive methods to produce food quickly

social environmental impacts of industrial agriculture

the effects industrial farming has on people, society, and the environment, such as pollution and unequal access to resources

Food avoidances

foods people do not eat because of cultural or religious beliefs

Intensive agriculture

Farming methods that aim to produce large amounts of food using heavy labor, machines, or chemicals

Self-reliance in food production

Growing or producing enough food for oneself or a community without depending heavily on others

Globalization

The growing connection and dependence between countries through trade, communication, media, and transportation

Resistance to/criticisms of globalization

Local groups may resist globalization because they want to protect their culture, economy, or environment from global influence

Transnationalism

The weakening of boundaries between countries because of migration, communication, and global connections

Time/space compression

Technology and transportation make distances feel smaller and communication much faster

The global articulating with the local

global influences mixing with local cultures and traditions

Deterritorialization of culture

When culture becomes less tied to one specific place because of ideas and people move globally

Reterritorialization of culture

Cultural traditions adapting and taking new forms in new places

5 “Scapes”

A framework created by Arjun Appadurai to explain different types of cultural flows

Ethnoscape (5 Scapes)

The movement of people across borders, such as migrants, tourist, and refugees

Technoscape (5 Scapes)

The spread of technology around the world

Ideoscape (5 Scapes)

The spread of ideas, beliefs, and political values globally

Financescape (5 Scapes)

The movement of money and business across countries

Mediascape (5 Scapes)

The global flow of media, images, and information through TV, internet, and social media

Cultural ecology/ecological anthropology

The study of how people and cultures interact with their environment

Ethnoecology

Indigenous or local knowledge about nature, plants, animals, and the environment

Ways indigenous ethnoecologies are being challenged:

Deforestation, globalization, and loss of land

Environmental Anthropology

The study of how humans affect and are affected by the environment

Cultural and social issues with deforestation

destruction of ecosystems force people off their land, and increase inequality and conflict

Ecotourism and indigenous lands

Tourism focused on nature near indigenous lands can help or harm local communities