Anthro M2

Social Organization

How many people arrange themselves in groups and relationships (families, clans, villages, jobs, etc.)

Part of culture because every society has cultural rules about how people should live together, cooperate, divide labor, exchange goods, and handle conflict

Social Structure

Patterned system of relationships in a society. It is the “framework” of society, who has power, who works with whom, who marries whom

Institution

Stable, organized part of society that fulfills an important function. (Family, marriage, religion, etc.)

Mode of Production

Way a society produces the things people need to survive such as food, shelter, tools, and goods

Means of Production

Resources and tools used to produce goods (Land, tools, machines, factories)

Relations of Production

Social relationships involved in production (Who owns the resources, who does the labor, who controls the work)

Ways societies obtain food and resources to survive

• Foraging

• Horticulture

• Intensive agriculture

• Pastoralism

• Industrialism

• Hunting / Gathering

• Pre-industrial agriculture

  • Refers to farming systems before modern machines, fossil fuels, and industrial technology (relies on human labor, animal labor, simple tools, etc.)

Pastoralism

• Substance strategy based on raising domesticated (Cattle, sheep, goats, etc.)

• Live in environments where farming is difficult (deserts, grasslands)

Industrialism

• System of production based on machines, factories, wage labor, and large-scale energy scale

• Power sources, gas, electricity, etc.

San Foragers of the Kalahari Desert

The Sanare foragers from Southern Africa. Studied because they show how hunting and gathering societies can be organized

Group size & Mobility of San Foragers

20-50 people, smaller groups help with mobility and resource sharing

They are monile, move when lcoal food or water becomes scarce. Follows a seasonal pattern and environmental knowledge

Gathering v. Hunting

Gathering provides majority of daily food

Hunting provides meat which highly valued but less predictable

Contributions of men and women

• Women gather plant foods (provide more consistent calories), men often hunt (provide more protein)

• Both contribute important resources

Leisure & Health of San Foragers

Have significant leisure time compared to agricultural or industrial workers

Sharing & Survival

Sharing is essential in foraging societies

Hunting success is unpredictable, food sharing helps everyone survive

Domestication

Process of humans controlling the breeding and care of plants and animals (Wheat, rice, corn)

Extensive Agriculture (Horticulture)

Small-scale farming using simple tools and human labor

Slash and Burn (Swidden) Agriculture

• Swidden agriculture is a farming methof where people cut vegetation, burn it, and use the ash to fertilize the soil

• Land is farmed temporarily, then left to recover

Intercropping

• Planting different crops together in the same field (corn, beans, squash) Protects soil, reduces pests, improves nutrition, uses land efficiently

Fallow

Leaving farmland unused for a period of time so soil can recover

Intensive Agriculture

Farming that uses more labor, technology, and land management to produce higher yields from teh same land (May involve irrigation, terracing, fertilizers)

Terracing, Irrigation, etc.

• Terracing - Cutting flat steps into hillsides to create farmlands and reduce erosion

• Irrigation - bringing water to crops through canals, ditches, pipes, or other systems

Wet-Rice Agriculture

Highly intensive farming system where rice is grown in flooded fields called paddies

Intensification

Increasing the amount of production from a given area of land

Pastoralism and Ecology

• Closely connected to the environment because animals need pasture, water, and seasonal movement

Livestock and Environment

Useful in environments where crops do not grow well. Excessive animals in one area can cause overgrazing, soil erosion, desertification, water stress.

• Meat

• Milk

• Blood in some cultures

• Fat

• Hides

Transhumence

Form of pastoralism where herders move livestock seasonally between different grazing areas

Features of Industrialism

• Machines

• Factories

• Wage labor

• Mass production

• Fossil fuels and electricity

• Energy: production and efficiency

Energentic Comparisons with other techniques of production

Foraging (low)

Horticulture (Moderate)

Intensive agriculture (high)

Industrialism (very high)

Distribution & Exchange

• Distribution and exchange refer to how goods and services move between people and groups

Market Principle

• Exchanged based on buying and selling

• Prices are influenced by supply and demand

Redistribution

Happens when goods are collected by a central authority and then given back out

Reciprocity

• Exchange between people based on social relationships

• Common among families, friends, neighbors, and small-scale societies

Law of Supply and Demand

• Explains how prices change in a market

• When demand goes up supply is limited (prices rise)

• Supply goes up and demand is low (prices fall)

Different Types of Reciprocity

Generalized Reciprocity

• Giving without expecting an immediate or exact return

• Happens among close relationships

Balanced Reciprocity

• Exchanged where a return is expected within a certain time

Negative Reciprocity

• Exchange where one person tries to get more than they give (Bargaining hard, cheating, stealing)

Kinship

Ways societies define relationships between people through ideas of family, descent, marriage, biology, adoption, residence, and social obligation

Enduring Diffuse Solidarity

• Kinship relationships are usually long-lasting, broad, and involve many kinds of obligations

Kin Terms

Culture and language-specific categories used to label different types of relatives

Unilineal Descent: Kindred

Ego-centered network of bilateral, affinal (related by marriage), and fictive kin. Web of ties rather than a formal group

Clan

Group of related lineages where descent is stipulated, based on belief and tradition rather than genealogical proof

Corporate Groups

: Groups such as lineages or clans that function as a single unit, often holding property (land or cattle) collectively

Biological Kin Types & All Notations

Cultures use specific labels to categorize relatives while anthropologists use biological kin types for notation

M (mother)

F (Father)

S (Son)
D ( Daughter)

C (Child)

B (Brother)

Z (Sister)

H (Husband)

W (Wife)

ex: FB (Father’s Brother)

Nuclear Family

Consists of married couple and their children

Middle class

Decline in nuclear families

Extended Family

Three or more generations living together

Lower class

Bilateral Descent

System where descent is traced through both genders

Unilineal Descent

Tracing descent through only one line, either the mother’s or the father’s

Patrilineal Descent

Form of unilineal descent where an individual’s kinship and group membership are traced exclusively through the male line

Patrilineage

Descent group based on demonstrated descent where members can prove their relationships through a line of male ancestors

Patrician

A larger group of related patrilineages where descent from a common male ancestor is stipulated rather than genealogically proven

Patrilateral vs Patrilineal

Patrilateral - Any biological. kin types that start with F

Patrilineal - Specific rule of tracing descent to form a social group

Matrilineal Descent

Descent group based on demonstrated descent meaning members can prove their relationships through a specific line of female ancestors

Matrilineal vs Matrilateral

Matrilateral - Biological kin types that start with the mother (M)

Matrilineal - Social rule that determines group membership

Matrilocal Residence

System paired with matrilocal residence where a married couples lives with the wife’s people

Kinship Implications

Parallel cousins (children of your mother’s sister), children of same-gendered siblings

Cross cousins (children of your mother’s brother), children of opposite-gendered siblings

Kindred

• Ego-centered network of relatives

• Web relationships

• Composition - Consists of bilateral kin (relatives from both mother and father’s side), affinal kin (relatives by marriage), and fictive kin (individuals treated as family through social rather than biological ties)

• Primary way to organize societies with bilateral descent

• Centered on a specific individual and dissolves or changes with each person

Lineage

Descent group based on demonstrated descent, where members can prove their relationships

Matrician

Clan where membership and descent are traced through the female line

Corporate Groups (Corporate Functions)

Social units that function as a single entity particularly regarding the ownership and management of resources instead of property being owned by individuals

Genitor & Pater

Genitor - biological father

Pater - Socially or legally recognized father

Functions of Marriage - Descent & Alliance

Establishing legal parenthood, grants sx monopolies, provides rights over property

Affines (affinal relatives)

Relatives established through marriage

Incest Taboo

Prohibition on sx relations where the sources distinguish from exogamy

Monogamy

Marriage to one person

Polygamy

Plural marriage

Polygyny

One man, multiple wives

Polyandry

One woman, multiples husbands

Himalayan Agriculturalists & Polyandry

Fraternal polyandry (brothers sharing a wife) used to prevent the fragmentation of limited farmable land and to organze labor for production

Land Tenure

Social organization of land ownership, in the Himalayas, a corporate form of land tenure is used to keep land intact

Primogeniture

Eldest child (son) inherits the land

Exogamy and Endogamy

Exogamy - Requirement to marry outside one own’s group (lineage)

Endogamy - requirement to marry within one’s own social category or group

Caste System of India

An endogamous system dividied into four Varnas (Brahmin, Vashiya, Shudra) and Untouchables

Post-Marital Residence (Matrilocal, Patriloca, Neolocal Residence)

Matrilocal - Living with the wife’s people

Patrilocal - Living with the husband’s people

Neolocal - Living separately from both (husband and wife)

Bridewealth & Dowry

Bridewealth - Wealth transfer from groom’s family to bride’s

Dowry - Wealth transfer from bride’s family to groom’s

Bride Service

Groom works for the bridge’s family for a set time

Marriage Exchanges

Transfer of wealth, property, or labor between families of a couple during the marriage process

Nuer Marriage & Descent

Kinship is socially constructed through cattle transactions; paying bridewealth to a woman’s kin establishes the payer as the legal father (pater), regardless of biological connection (genitor). System allows for ghost marriages, where a deceased man is recognized as a father, or instances where a woman acts as a husband and father

Nuer Kinship and Sociopolitical Relations

• Among the Nuer, cattle are held corporately by the lienage, which dictates power relations between group members, Descent groups provide “immortality” to men through their descendants

Ascending Generation

Ascending generations are those before Ego (!st ascending is parents, 2nd is grandparents)

Descending Generation

Those following ego (1st descending is children/nieces/nephews)

Sociopolitical Organizations

Band

• Small, kin-based groups (fewer than 100) that are typically egalitarian

Tribe

• Group like the Nuer, divided into territorial units and associated with clans, but no central authority figures

Chiefdom

• Kin-based society with centralized points of authority vested in chiefs

State

• Authority based on territory rather than kinship, utilizing a coercive appartus and record-keeping

4th World Peoples

Societies like the Nuer that have been incorporated into modern states

Nuer Segmentary Lineage System

Way of organizing a tribe without leaders, where territorial sections are associated with clan and lineage divisions

Pantribal Sodalities

Social grouping that is not determined by family membership (non-kin) and extends across an entire tribe, spanning multiple villages

Masai: Age Grades & Age Sets

Age grades - Successive categories or levels of status through which an age set passes (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior)

Age sets - Group of people (usually men) who are initiated together during a periodic ceremony

Stratification

Society divided into layers or strata

Egalitarianism

Society where members have relatively equal status

Status (Ascribed & Achieved)

Ascribed Status - status you are born with or do not work for

Achieved Status - status earned through personal attributes or work

Role

Behavior expected of that position

Status Set

Social positions

Strata

Social order divided into layers

Class

Social category or divison of society determined by economic status, wealth, and differential access to strategic sources

Mode of Production

Social relations through which human labor is used to transform energy from nature using tools, skills, organization, and knowledge

Means of Production

Land, technology, and the available labor supply

Authority

Legitimate right to tell others what to do based on status and role

Headman

Leaders with achieved status and personal attributes but no real authority

Bigman

Mainly a male, was an elaborate version of the village head but with a difference/

Big man had supporters in several villages. Making the big man a regulator of regional political organization

Moka in New Guinea Highlands

Competitive exchange institution used by Bigmen to broker relations between groups and compete for prestige

Chief

Leader with ascribed status whose authority is vested in the office itself, independent of personal qualities

Political Leaders in States

Operates within the most formal and complex form of political organization. An autonomous hierarchical system governing many communities within a large geographic area

Authority and Mobilization of Labor (contrast between Bigman, Chief, State Leaders)

Authority

• Bigman - Achieved status, not permanent authority

• Chief - ascribed status, permanent office

• State Leaders - Territory and citizenship, monopoly on the legitimate use of force

Mobilization of Labor

• Bigman - Temporary regional regulator, persuasion and past favor

• Chiefs - Communal work projects, redistributive economy

• State leaders - Draft men for work or war, monumental public works, fiscal system of taxation