Ch 10 Pt 1 – Chapter 10: Power, Politics & Social Order

Chapter 10 Scope & Core Questions

• Explores three inter-related themes: power, politics, social order.

• Main anthropological questions:

  • How and why do these themes vary cross-culturally?

  • How do societies create and protect social cohesion?

  • Which mechanisms resolve conflict and restore balance?

  • How have colonialism and contemporary globalization reshaped every one of the above?

Anthropological Lenses

• Anthropologists emphasise asking the right questions; answers are always provisional, culture-specific and subject to change.

• Distinction between two specialities:

  • Political Anthropology

  • Investigates what people believe about power and how they behave to gain, keep, or contest it.

  • Looks at explicit and subtle practices (e.g., corruption, under-the-table deals, tax evasion via shell foundations, media campaigns).

  • Legal Anthropology

  • Focuses on methods societies use to maintain order (courts, councils, customary law, community rules).

  • Studies conflict avoidance, mediation, punishment, reconciliation.

Spectrum of Power

• Power is not a simple “have / have-not” condition; all individuals and groups occupy positions along a continuum.

• Key comparative task = discover how people move, stagnate, or are blocked along that continuum, and by whom.

Forms of Power

• Hard Power – coercive capacity, often military or police force; direct threat or application of violence.

• Soft Power – ability to shape outcomes through cultural appeal or ideological attraction (e.g., pop music, movies, brand prestige, media framing).

• Both forms may operate simultaneously and interact with economic structures of colonial / global capitalism.

Three Components of Political Leadership

• \text{Power}

  • Potential or actual use of force to make something happen.

  • Example: Police car’s presence makes drivers slow down; instructor can assign bonus or penalty points.

• \text{Authority}

  • Right to command derived from recognised social position / status / reputation.

  • Example: Uniform grants a police officer official authority; parental status grants authority inside the household.

• \text{Influence}

  • Capacity to persuade via moral or social pressure ("leveling mechanisms").

  • Example: Passengers telling a line-cutter “Please wait like the rest of us.”

• Important: A leader rarely holds all three in equal measure; their balance shifts with livelihood mode, group size, or national policy.

Illustrative Scenario – Bus Stop

1. Person cuts the queue → uses minimal power (physical positioning).

2. Fellow passenger protests → uses influence.

3. Driver threatens to keep doors closed until order is restored → exercises power supported by occupational authority.

4. Calling the police would import external authority (badge + legal mandate) which might escalate to physical power.

Political Organisations Across Modes of Livelihood

• Band (Foragers)

  • 25–100 people; fluid membership; no formal office.

  • Leadership situational & skill-specific (best hunter leads hunt, best healer treats illness).

  • Decisions via consensus; social control through ridicule, reciprocity, or ostracism.

• Tribe (Horticulturalists / Pastoralists)

  • Hundreds to a few thousand; several lineages.

  • Headman / Head-woman; position often kin-based but persuasion-oriented; limited coercive power.

  • Feasting, gift exchange, or ritual used to build alliances.

• Big Man / Big Woman (Trans-tribal figure)

  • Achieves status by redistributive generosity and charisma.

  • Must continually produce surplus to maintain prestige → inherently unstable.

• Chiefdom

  • Thousands to tens of thousands; settlement hierarchy.

  • Hereditary chief controls surplus, labour, ritual hierarchy; may command militia.

  • Big Chief can preside over multiple chiefdoms, layering authority.

• State (Agrarian / Industrial / Post-industrial)

  • Large, stratified population; centralized government.

  • Monarch, president, parliament, bureaucracy, standing army.

  • Formal law, taxation, institutionalised hard and soft power.

Mechanisms of Conflict Management & Order-Keeping

• Small-scale societies: gossip, ridicule, public opinion, supernatural sanctions, mediation by elders.

• Intermediate societies: feud, compensation payments, community courts.

• States: codified laws, policing, judiciary, prisons, alternative dispute resolution, international law.

Corruption & Power Manipulation Example

• Politician buys \$4{,}050{,}000 mansion, records only \$10, then "donates" rest to a non-profit he controls → legal veneer conceals wealth transfer and tax avoidance.

• Illustrates cultural learning of corruption: networks, norms, loopholes become part of political culture.

Globalisation / Colonial Legacies

• Colonial expansion redistributed power violently, created enduring inequalities.

• Today’s global flows (capital, media, migration) amplify both soft power (Hollywood, K-pop) and organised hard power (military bases, sanctions).

• Political and legal anthropologists trace how communities adapt, resist, or are subordinated within these transnational structures.

Practical & Ethical Take-Aways

• Analysts must dissect who benefits from particular power arrangements.

• Always separate de jure (official) authority from de facto (practical) power.

• Consider moral consequences: corruption erodes trust, uneven global power shapes cultural survival or loss.

Recap Checklist for Study

• Definitions: power, authority, influence; soft vs hard power.

• Typology: band → tribe → big man/woman → chiefdom → state.

• Mechanisms of social control for each level.

• Examples of corruption and the cultural logic behind them.

• Anthropological method = comparative questioning; connect to colonial and global processes.

• Remember the bus-stop vignette for quick application of the three leadership components.

Ch 10 Pt 2 Political Organization & Leadership – Comprehensive Video Notes

Types of Political Organization

• Anthropologists usually differentiate political systems along a continuum of scale and formality.

  • Bands → Tribes → Big-man/Big-woman systems → Chiefdoms → States.

  • Each step upward generally involves greater population size, territorial reach, and bureaucratic complexity.

Membership, Citizenship & Social Boundaries

• Small-scale groups (bands, tribes)

  • Membership is fluid; people can “vote with their feet” by moving camp or affiliating with another group.

• Large-scale polities (chiefdoms, especially states)

  • Membership is highly regulated.

  • Instructor’s metaphor: you can’t just “Thanos-snap” yourself into another country; you must navigate paperwork, fees, and probationary periods.

• Concept connection: legal anthropology examines how rules about citizenship, residence, & identity are codified and enforced.

Leadership & Sources of Power

• Three classic dimensions of power used by anthropologists:

  • Authority (legitimate right to command)

  • Influence (ability to persuade)

  • Coercive force (ability to punish / reward through violence, fines, etc.)

• Distribution varies by political form:

  • Bands/tribes → mostly influence; very little formal coercion.

  • Big-man / Big-woman → influence + redistributive authority.

  • Chiefdoms → blend of ascribed authority, some coercive power.

  • States → full spectrum; monopoly on legitimate violence (after Max Weber).

Non-Coercive Social Control in Small Societies

• People know each other directly (primary social relations).

• Rule breakers are more often dealt with through:

  • Shaming

  • Shunning / ostracism

  • Gossip

• Ethnographic link: This was covered mid-chapter under legal anthropology.

Big-Man Politics (South Pacific / Melanesia)

• Geography: Found mostly in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and other South Pacific islands.

• Mechanism of ascent: Moka – a ceremonial pig-based redistribution event.

  • A man raises an extraordinary number of pigs (aided by kin & especially wives).

  • Hosts a massive feast, giving pigs to allies & rivals.

  • Status increases proportional to the size & success of the gift; recipients incur an obligation to “out-moka” him later.

• Key points & examples:

  • Reciprocity and competitive generosity reinforce alliance networks.

  • Documentary trailer mentioned: story of “Ongka,” a big-man struggling to gather pigs for his moka.

• Gender dimension:

  • Multiple wives are culturally acceptable; each wife’s labor directly boosts the husband’s political capital.

  • Demonstrates how women’s productive work can underwrite male public power.

Big-Woman Politics (Vanuatu & broader Melanesia)

• Site example: Island of Vanuatu (esp. Vanatinai).

• Women lead sail expeditions, host feasts, adjudicate disputes, and organize labor, thereby accumulating prestige.

• Anthropological significance:

  • Challenges the outdated claim that “male dominance is universal.”

  • Shows that egalitarian or female-led structures exist, especially in small, acephalous societies with no formal chief.

Chiefdoms

• Intermediate scale: Several tribes or villages united under a single chief.

• Leadership can be:

  • Ascribed status – inherited at birth by lineage.

  • Achieved status – earned through skill (warfare, ritual expertise, economic success).

• Ethnographic question (extra credit mentioned): Why is Uruguay historically classified as relatively gender-egalitarian even with male chiefs? → Encourages students to revisit previous chapters on economic anthropology.

States

• Definition: A large, centralized political unit with formal government structures.

  • Encompasses diverse internal groups (bands, tribes, chiefdoms). Example: Brazil contains Amazonian tribes.

• Population scale: \approx 3\times10^{8} citizens in the United States, yet most do not meet face-to-face → secondary social groups dominate.

• Core powers & responsibilities (students told to locate in text, 8th ed.; list adapted here):

  • Define & police territorial boundaries.

  • Confer, deny, and regulate citizenship.

  • Levy taxes and allocate budgets.

  • Maintain judiciary & penal systems.

  • Monopoly on legitimate violence (army, police).

  • Negotiate international treaties, trade, & diplomacy.

  • Provide public goods (infrastructure, education, health services).

Symbolism & Ideology of States

• Religious or secular symbols reinforce legitimacy.

  • Flag of Israel → Star of David (religious icon fused with state emblem).

  • Other examples: Islamic crescents, Christian crosses, secular tricolors.

• Built monuments commemorate leadership & history.

  • Mount Rushmore: faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln.

  • Recent anecdote: July 2019 – woman attempted to climb Mount Rushmore barefoot ⇒ illustrates symbolic potency (and potential contestation) of national icons.

• Elite separation:

  • Special residences (White House, presidential palaces).

  • Exclusive transport (Air Force One, motorcades).

  • Dress codes ranging from formal uniforms to deliberate “common-folk” attire to project relatability.

Connections to Previous Lectures/Chapters

• Economic anthropology: Modes of exchange (reciprocity, redistribution, market); moka as classic redistribution case.

• Gender & kinship: Matrilineal vs. patrilineal inheritance; labor contributions of wives in big-man systems; evidence against universal patriarchy.

• Legal anthropology: Informal vs. formal dispute resolution; how scaling-up creates courts, police, and codified law.

• Symbolic anthropology: Meaning of national flags, monuments, and leaders’ regalia.

Ethical, Philosophical & Practical Implications

• Flexibility vs. rigidity of membership raises ethical issues about migration, refugees, and stateless persons.

• Big-man/woman systems highlight reciprocity ethics — generosity as moral & political duty.

• Gender analyses urge caution against assuming biological inevitabilities of patriarchy.

• State coercive power prompts debates on citizens’ rights, surveillance, and use of force.

Numerals, Figures & Equations Mentioned

• U.S. population: \approx 300{,}000{,}000.

• Political scale progression (conceptual, not numeric):
  \text{Band} < \text{Tribe} < \text{Big-man/Big-woman} < \text{Chiefdom} < \text{State}

Potential Exam Cues & Self-Checks

• Explain the moka system and how it redistributes resources AND prestige.

• Compare shaming in bands vs. incarceration in states as mechanisms of social control.

• Give two examples of state symbols that embed religious imagery.

• Distinguish ascribed vs. achieved chiefdom leadership with ethnographic examples.

• Reflect: How do your everyday interactions illustrate secondary social grouping within a state?

Ch 10 Pt 3 Political Leadership, Gender Representation & Legal Anthropology – Comprehensive Notes

Political Leaders – Visibility, Distinction, and Populism

• Leaders often maintain a symbolic distance from ordinary citizens

  • Specialised dress, official residences, exclusive foods, high-security transportation (e.g., motorcades, Cadillacs, Air Force One)

• Simultaneously attempt to appear “one of the people.” Typical media images:

  • U.S. presidents eating hot-dogs, hamburgers; Donald Trump’s well-publicised affection for McDonald’s; Barack Obama photographed with local fast-food

• Dual strategy highlights two co-existing expectations:

  1. Be recognisably extraordinary.

  2. Signal ordinary tastes and solidarity with voters.

Pets as Political Theatre

• Resource: presidentialpetmuseum.com chronicles every presidential pet since 1789.

• Historical trend:

  • Earlier presidents accepted or displayed exotic gifts (ponies, horses, lion & bear cubs, parrots).

  • Later presidents favour “family” animals (dogs, cats) mirroring common U.S. household choices.

• Anthropological question: Do other countries follow the same “familiar-pet” strategy for relatability?

Gender in State Leadership

• Most contemporary states (even semi-sovereign polities such as Puerto Rico, Palestine, Taiwan) are:

  • Hierarchical (tiered power: president → vice president → ministers…)

  • Patriarchal (male-dominated decision-making)

• Scarce female heads of state/government (though increasing):

  • Angela Merkel (Germany), Tsai Ing-wen (Taiwan), Park Geun-hye (S. Korea), etc.

• Women’s direct parliamentary presence:

  • Highest overall participation: Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway)

  • Highest female-seat ratios: Rwanda & South Africa

• Women often enter politics indirectly (via husbands/fathers already in power)

• Anthropology widens the lens beyond binary categories:

  • Third-gender traditions: Samoa’s Fa’afafine; India’s Hijra

  • Growing visibility of transgender politicians

• Research questions: How are non-binary voices represented? Do they speak “for” men, women, both, or neither?

Social Order & Conflict – Foundations of Legal Anthropology

Central Questions

1. What forms of social control keep everyday life orderly?

2. How do these forms compare cross-culturally?

3. What social factors produce conflict?

Small-Scale Societies

• Relatively intimate—everyone knows everyone.

• Depend primarily on social norms & moral persuasion:

  • Appeals to shared values (“that isn’t moral here”).

  • Sanctions: shame, ridicule, shunning, ostracism, temporary expulsion.

• Case study: Amish “shunning” practices (video linked on course site).

Large-Scale Societies

• Employ dual mechanisms: informal norms + formal laws.

• Specialised institutions:

  • Police – frontline enforcement

  • Courts, judges, lawyers – adjudication & sentencing

• Citizens experience rules through both community expectations and codified statutes.

Comparative Policing: Japan

• Notably low crime rates; potential contributing variables:

  1. Neighbourhood patrols / kōban (local police boxes)

  2. Volunteer crime-prevention groups (community embedded)

  3. Cultural insistence on “no false arrest.” Arrest usually follows near-certain evidence.

  4. High confession rates; asymmetric power balance in interrogations.

• Analytical prompt: Would these factors transfer effectively to the U.S., Ukraine, Korea, South Africa, etc.?

From Suspect to Convicted – Models of Justice

1. Modern court trial – evidence, advocacy, jury/judge decision.

2. Trial by ordeal (pre-scientific, still referenced historically):

   • Physical tests (e.g., submerging hand in boiling water/oil). Outcome logic:

     • Burned ⇒ guilt.

     • Not burned ⇒ witchcraft; suspect punished regardless. Demonstrates culturally bounded notions of “proof.”

Incarceration Metrics

• United States leads both in total prison population and incarceration rate:
  \text{Rate} \approx 800 \text{ inmates per } 100{,}000 \text{ residents}

• Other high totals: Russia, China.

• High figures do not automatically imply higher inherent criminality; may reflect sentencing practices, legal definitions, policing focus.

Inequality & Racialised Justice

• Australian example (textbook):

  • Courts perceived as biased against Aboriginal under-18s, who receive harsher penalties than European-descended youths.

• Cross-cultural inquiry: To what extent do race/ethnicity, class, or colonial legacies shape arrest rates, convictions, and sentencing severity?

Key Terms & Concepts (Quick-Reference)

• Symbolic distancing: practices that mark leaders as exceptional.

• Populist signalling: strategic behaviours that portray leaders as ordinary.

• Patriarchy: social system privileging male authority.

• Third gender: culturally recognised gender categories beyond male/female (e.g., Hijra).

• Social control: mechanisms (formal & informal) that regulate individual behaviour.

• Shunning/ostracism: exclusionary sanctions enforcing community norms.

• Trial by ordeal: adjudication via physical suffering tests.

• Incarceration rate: \dfrac{\text{prison population}}{\text{total population}} \times 100{,}000

Ch 10 Pt 4 Socio-Legal Structures, Panopticon, and Social Conflict (Anthropology Lecture Notes)

Clarifying Structural vs. Individual Explanations

• Anthropology cautions against single-factor or purely individual explanations (e.g., “race X is more criminal” or “the justice system is racist”).

• Instead, look at multi-layered, structural factors that operate beyond any one person:

  • Social: group norms, community relations, cultural values.

  • Political: definitions of crime, legislation, policing priorities.

  • Economic: unemployment, job availability, education access.

• Case-by-case analysis remains valuable but must be contextualized within these broader structures.

• Cross-cultural comparison exposes limits of biological or racial arguments:

  • Example: Low Asian-American prison rates in the United States vs. majority-Asian prison populations in Asia. If biology were decisive, the pattern would not invert across contexts.

Panopticon & Disciplinary Power

• Term breakdown: "pan" = all; "optic" = sight → “all-seeing.”

• Architectural model (Jeremy Bentham; built prototypes in the U.S.):

  • Circular cell block with a central watch-tower.

  • Tower windows face 360^\circ; prisoners cannot know when they’re observed.

• Psychological mechanism: belief of constant surveillance → prisoners self-regulate.

• Broader metaphor (“Big Brother”):

  • CCTV at intersections (even broken cameras) alters driver behavior.

  • Online activity logs induce self-censorship.

• Key anthropological insight: Power can function without continual coercion; internalized surveillance is enough.

Types & Factors of Social Conflict

Typology by Identity

• Ethnic conflicts.

• Sectarian conflicts (different sects within one religion, e.g., Sunni vs. Shia; Theravada vs. Mahayana).

• Class, gender, racial, or other identity-based cleavages.

Material & Ideational Drivers

• Competition for resources: land, water, food, mineral wealth.

• Dominance & hierarchy struggles.

• Ideologies of difference ("we are inherently distinct").

• Regional/geographical pressures (borderlands, migration corridors).

Historical Emergence of Large-Scale War

• Anthropological consensus: sustained, organized war post-dates sedentism.

• Sedentary life & agriculture (~12{,}000 years ago):

  • Creation of permanent structures and territorial claims.

  • Arable land becomes a defendable, scarce resource.

• Prior hunter-gatherer periods show sporadic violence but lack institutionalized warfare.

Case Study: 1980s Los Angeles Riots & Koreatown

• Major civil unrest in downtown LA (approx. 1982–84): looting, arson.

• Koreatown grocery stores became flashpoints:

  • Owners, family, and friends armed themselves to protect property.

  • Media narrative: “Korean vs. African-American tension.”

• Anthropological findings:

  • Linguistic & communicative style differences → misinterpretations.

  • Looters were multi-ethnic; conflict cannot be pinned on one racial dyad.

  • Illustrates danger of simplistic ethnic blame.

• Pop-culture reflection: Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing depicts Italian-, African-, and Asian-American interactions — emphasizes misunderstanding, not innate hostility.

Debating Innate Violence: The Yanomami (“Fierce People”)

• Napoleon Chagnon’s film A Man Called Bee portrays Yanomami (Amazon) as war-prone.

• Controversial claims:

  1. Biological selection for fierceness (violent males reproduce).

  2. Infanticide of female infants → male surplus → fighting over women.

• Counter-arguments in anthropology:

  • Cultural materialism: protein scarcity ⇒ raiding for food.

  • Colonial contact: introduction of metal tools, trade goods, and disease by outsiders intensified conflicts.

  • Medical aid: Chagnon also provided treatments; not simply fomenting violence.

• Broader lesson: beware labeling a group as inherently violent; always consider ecological & historical context.

Globalized Conflict & Neo-Colonialism

• “Global” conflicts are networked across borders:

  • Anti-corporate protests (e.g., European backlash against U.S. fast-food chains) framed as cultural defense.

  • “War on Terror” spans multiple nations, linked by information tech, transnational finance, and troop deployments.

• Term Neo-Colonialism: contemporary political/economic domination echoing classical colonialism — multinational corporations, foreign military bases, development loans, etc.

• Anthropology studies how local communities articulate resistance within these unequal global systems.

Integrative Takeaways

• Avoid reductionism: Race, biology, or a single economic factor rarely suffice.

• Structure + agency: Individual acts must be read against societal backdrops (laws, economies, surveillance regimes).

• Historical depth: Present conflicts often trace to shifts like agriculture, colonial encounters, or globalization.

• Power operates visibly & invisibly: From armed riots to the subtle discipline of the panopticon.

• Ethnographic nuance: Language styles, media portrayals, and outsider influence can all re-shape conflict narratives.

Key numerical references:

• Sedentism & agriculture begin ≈ 12{,}000 years BP.

• Panopticon watch-tower visibility 360^\circ.

• Assumed continuous watchfulness: “24/7.”

Chapter 10 Pt 5 – Power, Social Control & Globalization

New Forms of Warfare & Neo-Colonialism

• Contemporary conflicts are increasingly shaped by globalization:

  • Rapid cross-border flows of data, intelligence, and advanced military technology.

  • Labelled variously as the “war on terrorism,” “resource wars” or a new colonialism aimed at maintaining dominance and exploiting resources.

• Neo-colonialism need not be overtly military:

  • May manifest economically, politically, or culturally ("soft power").

  • Raises questions: Who benefits? Who is exploited? Through which mechanisms?

Cultural Soft Power & Global Brands

• Cultural influence becomes a tool of domination:

  • Popular culture (movies, music, sports) can implant values/ideologies without direct occupation.

  • Fast-food franchises, televised sports, and lifestyle branding transmit norms and consumer habits globally.

• Debate: Is exporting culture equivalent to colonial extraction?

  • Must specify the exploited group and the tangible losses (economic, cultural, environmental).

  • Power is not exclusively Western; rising Eastern and African powers also project culture.

Case Studies: McDonald’s & Starbucks

• McDonald’s (Chapter 1 reprise):

  • Local protests illustrate friction between global standardization and local identity.

  • Menu localization (e.g., paneer wraps in India) shows negotiation, not mere imposition.

• Starbucks:

  • European backlash in defense of family-run cafés.

  • Traveler’s perspective: global consistency offers reliability (e.g., warm milk for children).

  • Product localization—country-specific desserts or beverages—complicates the “cookie-cutter” stereotype.

Power & Social Control in the Global Era

• Last segment of Chapter 10 explores shifting mechanisms of authority and cohesion post-colonialism.

• Key anthropological concerns:

  • How leadership and governance adapt within new economic modes.

  • Spectrum of power—from coercion to persuasion—available to different actors.

Imagined Communities (Benedict Anderson)

• People feel national belonging without direct acquaintance with most compatriots.

  • Print capitalism (newspapers, flyers) historically nurtured shared consciousness.

  • Physical symbols—monuments, currency, passports—reinforce unity.

• Language policy as nation-building:

  • Post-WWII Taiwan: “Mandarin-only” policies punished speakers of Taiwanese/Japanese dialects.

  • U.S. boarding schools for Native Americans: students forced to speak English; penalties included wearing shame tags or washing mouths with soap.

• Outcome: Citizens internalize the idea of “one nation” through media, infrastructure, and institutional rules.

Dual & Multiple Identities

• Identity can be layered rather than binary.

  • Puerto Rico: Residents are U.S. citizens yet some reject an American identity; internal debate over autonomy vs statehood.

  • Taiwan: Competing claims—Taiwanese‐only, Taiwanese-and-Chinese, humorous references to being the U.S. “51st/52nd state,” and lingering attachment to Japan from 1895–1945 colonial rule.

• Democratic discourse allows identity negotiations rather than top-down assignments.

Democratization & the Value of Toleration

• Democratization = time-bound process of moving from autocracy/one-party rule to participatory governance.

• Core democratic norm: toleration of dissent and difference.

  • Example: Classroom debate on fertility decisions—vigorous disagreement without threats or violence.

  • Emphasizes respect for alternate viewpoints as a civic virtue.

Chapter 10 Recap

• Segment 1: Varieties of power

  • Political anthropology analyzes leadership across subsistence modes and tracks the spectrum of power (material, coercive, ideological).

• Segment 2: Legal anthropology

  • Mechanisms for maintaining order: customary law, courts, community councils.

  • Examination of conflict resolution and the social impacts of norm violation.

• Segment 3: Power & control after colonialism

  • Globalization transforms both overt and subtle forms of domination.

  • Emergent questions: How do global media, corporations, and states compete for allegiance and resources?