7. politics

systems of political organization

• societies: informal kinship systems

  • political organization - power is arranged, executed, and how structurally embedded in society

• uncentralized systems - bands

  • hunter gather, nomadic, small

  • democratic, social control informal is exerted by public opinion

  • tribe - a bunch of bands held together by descent, kinship, economies based on farming and herding. no formal authority.

    • authority is big man. head man.

  • clan society - a type of tribal society that cannot trace descent so they use symbols

• centralized political systems -

  • chiefdoms

    • organized under leader at the top

      • hierarchy

      • heredity

      • authority: used to unite the community and manage economic activities

      • status comes from having great personal wealth, enhances power base

      • uses force to maintain order in a legal system

  • state

    • can use force to maintain control

    • regulate affairs and people through laws

    • bureaucracy

      • formal organization

    • stratified societies (ranked)

• state societies are countries, nations are ethnic groups.

political systems and the question of authority

• authority - legitimacy to govern, use, and hold power

  • shaped through beliefs, values, customs, traditions

  • everyone has to agree on ^ in order for authority to stay in power

politics and religion

• in every society, there is a connection between religion and politics.

  • religion is covertly imbedded in our society

• marxist - religion is the opiate of the masses

• durkheim - religion is the glue that holds society together.

politics and gender

• women tend to hold fewer positions in power

cultural control and maintaining order

• internalized control - where people internalize values and beliefs

  • shaming, guilt

• externalized control - through laws and regulations.

  • sanctions (positive or negative)

cultural control: witchcraft

holding trials, settling disputes, and punishing crimes

• many indigenous cultures practice shaming

  • song battles restore harmony and make the person who was guilty feel bad for what they did.

violent conflict and warfare

• warfare is complex. justifications involve various aspects of society such as economic, political, and religious interest.

• situation specific, not intrinsic to humans.

• common since food production

  • more exploitative worldview

  • recieve population growth

  • competition over land

ideologies of aggression

• culture’s worldview

  • ideas culture shares about their reality

• genocide - physical extermination of one people by another people based on ideological reasons.

peacemaking

• ghandi - led india to it’s independence from great britain in a non violent way

• peace through diplomacy

  • diplomacy: when outside actors are negotiating with the two waring parties to come up with a peace treaty

• treaty - ritually conducted with ceremony