ANTH 203: CH 8, 11, 7 (kinship/social organization, political organization, economic organization)

how societies (groups) are structured, by making societies universally distinct

Social organization possesses a certain universality.

What is social organization, and how does it distinguish individual societies?

relationship, negative, holistically

In studying social organization, one must understand its _______________ to the ___________. Because social organization is studied _____________.

kinship structures affiliating people w/ different sets of kin, unilateral & bilateral

What are kinship system classifications, and what are the 2 types of it?

both mother's & father's line, kindreds (loose kinship networks)

Where does bilateral kinship structure state descent comes from, and what does it result in the formation of?

familial descent is only from one side of the family, patrilineal & matrilineal

What does a unilateral kinship structure state about familial descent, and what are its 2 sub-types?

only the father's side is related to a child, only the mother's side is related to a child

What are patrilineal descent & matrilineal descent, respectively?

kin can trace their ancestry through known links to a common ancestor

How do kin trace biological relationships to each other in lineage organization?

kin claim descent from a common ancestor but are unable to trace the genetic links

How do kin trace biological relationships to each other in clan organization?

these classifications are applied to people with no biological connection

How does fictive kinship apply kinship terms/obligations to kin?

(ex. adoption & foster care families)

groups, certain categories, calls, similar names, behave, system

The fundamental feature of all kinship systems is their classification of relatives - each kinship system:
- ________ relatives into __________ _________________
- _______ relatives by ____________ ________
- Expects people to ____________ towards these relatives in certain ways, according to the ______________

a social unit whose members live together, cooperate economically, & manage child-rearing

Due to the differing understandings of kinship, there are also varying understandings of what defines a family.

What is the anthropological definition of family?

a socially approved union btwn two people, a family

What is marriage, and what does it form?

marriage or union with one person

All societies have rules governing the number of spouses a person can have, including monogamy, polygyny, and polyandry.

What is monogamy?

man married to multiple women, woman married to multiple men

All societies have rules governing the number of spouses a person can have, including monogamy, polygyny, and polyandry.

What marriages do polygyny and polyandry describe, respectively?

(hints: many women, many men)

distribution of certain kinship classifications across certain geographical regions, how kinship is affected by its context

What do patterns of diversity show about the correlation btwn kinship & geographical regions, and what does this correlation show?

exchange of resources attached to the people involved, not purely monetary

what is marriage (within kinship) understood as, and what is the nature of the resources involved?

(ex. land, power, certain opportunities like Harvard's legacy admissions program)

power of connections a person is given access to, bcs wealth is attached to people

What is wealth accumulation directly linked to (in terms of kinship), and why is it linked to this?

payment from groom's family to bride's family

The 3 main types of exchange in marriage include bride wealth, bride service, and dowry.

What does bride wealth involve?

groom work's for bride's family after marriage

The 3 main types of exchange in marriage include bride wealth, bride service, and dowry.

What does bride service involve?

money given by bride's family to groom's family

The 3 main types of exchange in marriage include bride wealth, bride service, and dowry.

What does dowry involve?

someone outside the group, someone inside the group

The existence of certain rules within marriage are cultures' way of restricting marriage partners. These include exogamy & endogamy.

Who does each rule state a person must marry, respectively?

taboo, prohibitions of certain human activities that differ btwn societies

Every society has rules stating which categories of kin are inappropriate to have as sexual/romantic partners. For example, incest is a common taboo, but not every group defines incest the same, and not all groups see it as a taboo.

What understanding is this based on, and what is its definition?

how distance btwn relatives denotes how related one is to their relatives

What does proxemics describe about kinship?

the husband's father, the wife's relatives

Who do patrilocal & matrilocal kinship rules state married couples must live near/with, respectively?

the husband's brother, choice of relatives from either side

Who do avunculocal & ambilocal kinship rules state married couples must live near/with, respectively?

independently & away from relatives of either side

Where do married couples live in neolocal kinship?

it's an oversimplified visual map of a group, not showing all of the group's trivial parts the way ethnography does

What is the downside of using kinship maps to understand culture?

as unnatural/artificial & not purely defined by blood or social relationship

How does the idea of non-kinship-based social organization view structures of social organization?

(ex. Grades in primary school, sodalities)

group someone enters voluntarily but can't automatically enter, an initial qualification

What are sodalities, and what is required to join one?

(ex. Requirement to be a plumber before entering a trade union, requirement to be a physician before entering a professional medical college)

societal ranks assigning membership at birth, one cannot move to a different rank

What is a caste, and how does it affect one’s social mobility?

how those within the same social rank interact, how those within a rank interact with those outside of it

Caste structures govern socio-cultural structures internally & externally.

How does each one govern how people interact, respectively?

it's essential for following dharma, accumulating karma, & escaping the rebirth cycle.

What role do Hindus believe the Hindu caste system plays in their society?

each caste's role is unequal, but they're all still important/related to the system

Each caste has a specific role within Hindu society, and an inherent inequality is present among the castes.

What is this so-called “inherent inequality”?

the job, role, spiritual beliefs, & interactions one can/can't have

Castes immensely affect one’s lived reality.

Generally, what does each caste control in an individual’s lifestyle?

(ex. castes control who one can/can’t share water with)

societal ranks characterized by achieved status, significant social mobility can occur

What is class and how does it affect one’s social mobility?

occupation, who one associates with/how time is spent, number of properties one rents/owns

Class was originally divided into 3 ranks (lower, middle, upper) primarily based on income. Modernly, class is still associated with income, but includes much more beyond that.

Generally, what aspects of a person’s lifestyle are associated with the modern understanding of class?

Structures controlling how power/authority are allocated/embedded, keeping societies together & justifying their political organization

What are political systems, and what is their intent?

distinct, social organization, legitimate, concentration, roles, unifies, nothing, common

Political systems’ 3 main purposes are:

- Determining how __________ political institutions are from other aspects of ________ _______________

- The extent of ____________ authority’s _________________ in specific _______

- ___________ large groups of people who have ___________ in ___________ (ex. Canadians)

ability to influence others' behavior or the course of events

What is power?

the legitimacy/right to use power for decision-making & enforcing obedience

Authority is an element of power.

What is authority?

using power to encourage making certain decisions by influencing ppl's beliefs

The 2 types of power are persuasive power & coercive power.

What is persuasive power?

(ex. taxing cigarettes)

use of fear/threats/violence to influence behaviour

The 2 types of power are persuasive power & coercive power.

What is coercive power?

least amount, from 20 to hundreds of ppl, by blood/marriage

The 4 levels of political organization include bands, tribes, chiefdoms, & nation states.

BANDS:

- Do bands have the least/most amount of political organization?

- What is the range in group size?

- How are people in bands related?

multiple extended families/bands, divide a society into local groups & integrate them into a larger whole

The 4 levels of political organization include bands, tribes, chiefdoms, & nation states.

TRIBES:

- who is grouped in a tribe?

- tribes use pan-tribal mechanisms. what do they do?

formalized bureaucratic systems, ppl not geospatially close, centralized & held by one person/a council

The 4 levels of political organization include bands, tribes, chiefdoms, & nation states.

CHIEFDOMS:

- what are chiefdoms considered the beginning of?

- who does a chiefdom group together?

- how is authority allocated?

most formality/bureaucracy, use coercive force & social control, laws/a court system

The 4 levels of political organization include bands, tribes, chiefdoms, & nation states.

STATES/NATION STATES:

- what level of formality/bureaucracy do states have?

- what do they have the exclusive right to do? (ex. use of military, taxes, laws)

- what do they use to maintain social order?

amount of social organization increases when geospatial distance increases

How is the correlational relationship between amount of social organization & amount of geospatial distance described?

turned proto-states into nation-states by creating hard borders, groups' increased distance from central authority meant it had less power over the group

The Treaty of Westphalia was the signing of 2 treaties establishing sovereignty in the Roman Empire's territories, decreasing the Holy Roman Emperor's power.

- What major transition did it make (regarding proto-states), and how did it do this?

- How was proto-states' power structured “like a gradient” before the treaty?

when shared culture is a precondition for effective communication

Gellner said nationalism is not always effective in communication. When IS nationalism an effective way to communicate?

through existence of standardization/structure, especially through use of common language

How does Gellner say nationalism connects people?

groups are unified/differentiated by their imagination of themselves, helps them communicate effectively

How does Anderson generally believe nationalism connects groups, and what does this connection do?

the learned nationalism they both have, the imagined relation they have to each other

Example: if 2 Canadian strangers found each other in a random part of the world, they'd likely speak as if they knew each other.

- What does Gellner’s idea suggest is the reason for this?

- What does Anderson’s idea suggest is the reason for this?

use of language, how language affects humankind

What method do both Anderson & Gellner propose is the standardized means through which everyone communicates, and how do their theories on this method differ?

proliferation (rapid increase) of common/standardized language through increased literacy

Anderson's theory of language emphasizes print capitalism as being the major force changing communication.

What did the development of the printing press cause?

(ex. Beginning of official use of the Finnish language)

the shared behaviors associated with being a citizen

Gellner's theory of language emphasizes systematized education as being the major force changing communication. For example, children learn in school that it's not okay to push someone off the monkey bars or to steal someone's lunch.

What does systematized education teach (regarding social behaviour)?

when societies don't use this, their knowledge's viability is questioned

Gellner’s emphasis of systematized education can be related to standard knowledge structures like the scientific method, which asserts that data must be found using a standardized process.

What conflict results from the scientific method being considered a standardized structure?

how resources are allocated/commodified/consumed, cross-cultural examination

What does economic anthropology study, and what does it use to study this?

religious beliefs, social & political organization structures

What does economic anthropology correlate with the notions of supply/demand?

transfer of goods/services/valuable items btwn individuals/societies

In social anthropology, economic organization is divided into 3 categories: exchange, production, and consumption.

What does “exchange” refer to in social anthropology?

process of obtaining goods from natural environments & converting them into consumable resources

In social anthropology, economic organization is divided into 3 categories: exchange, production, and consumption.

What does “production” refer to in social anthropology?

a society's culturally relative way of consuming goods/services

In social anthropology, economic organization is divided into 3 categories: exchange, production, and consumption.

What does “consumption” refer to in social anthropology?

emotional/symbolic significance objects hold within social relationships, by preexisting sociocultural structures

Social anthropology emphasizes the use of sentimental value & venal value within exchange. For example, Mr. Evans described Bugatti as the "ultimate Sigma or Alpha male car manufacturer".

What is sentimental value, and what determines it?

an object's economic/market value

Social anthropology emphasizes the use of sentimental value & venal value within exchange.

What is venal value?

giving goods without any expectation of immediate return

The 4 main types of exchange systems include reciprocity, redistribution, barter systems, and market systems. For example, potlach is an Indigenous cultural ceremony where gifts are given to affirm social status.

What is reciprocity?

goods/services are given to a central authority & reallocated to people using a set pattern, societies w/ political bureaucracies

The 4 main types of exchange systems include reciprocity, redistribution, barter systems, and market systems.

What is redistribution, and what societies is it most commonly found in?

(extreme ex. USSR, mild ex. CERB, EI)

goods are exchanged directly for other equally valued goods

The 4 main types of exchange systems include reciprocity, redistribution, barter systems, and market systems.

What happens in a barter system?

labour is commodified into a centralized currency & used for exchange

The 4 main types of exchange systems include reciprocity, redistribution, barter systems, and market systems.

What happens in a market system?

bcs money exists outside the modern market system & is influenced by socio-cultural structures

Why is looking at money purely through a market model too narrow of an approach?

the transformation of labour into an equally valued/tangible currency

What does Adam Smith's opinion suggest money is, and what does the market system suggest it's devoid of?

creation of binaries btwn "normal money" and "special money", sentimental value

What does the term 'earmarking' describe, and what kind of value does it suggest money possesses (other than venal value)?

a purely sentimental exchange, discovery of kula rings' venal value through being traded for tools

What was the exchange of kula rings originally thought to be, and what discovery changed this theory?

use of plant/animal resources found in the natural environment

What does a foraging (hunting & gathering) subsistence system depend on?

human labor, small-scale crop cultivation, domesticated small animals

What does a horticulture subsistence system depend on?

domestication of animals/plants for food

What does a pastoralism subsistence system depend on?

large-scale domestication of plants/animals & use of animals/machines in place of manual labor

What does intensive agriculture generally involve?