Political Organization and Social Control Study Notes

Midterm #2: Scheduled for March 10th during class.
Covers content from:
- Topic 6: Marriage, Family, Kinship, Descent
- Topic 7: Sex and Gender
- Topic 8: Inequalities (Class, Caste, Race, Ethnicity)
- Topic 9: Political Organization
Exam format:
- 44 Multiple choice or true/false questions
- 2 short answer questions (worth 3 marks each)
Instructions: Bring a pencil and a pen. Answer all parts of questions for the best chance at full marks. Remember your NSID on the exams.
Availability for questions: Instructor will respond to emails daily (Canvas inbox; cannot perform Multi-Factor Authentication).
Makeup Exam: If absent due to illness, bereavement, etc. notify the instructor to arrange a makeup exam on March 19th or 20th.

Definition: Political organization refers to the ways in which power is distributed within a society to control individuals' behavior and maintain social order.

Structural Power:
- Defined as power that operates within a setting and also organizes and orchestrates the settings for social and individual action.
Social Power:
- The ability to transform situations affecting an entire social group.
Political Power:
- Social power held by a group positioned to affect the lives of many individuals.

Defined as the power or right to give commands, take action, and make binding decisions.

In Non-State Societies:
- Leadership tends to be temporary and informal, based on personal attributes rather than heredity or rank (Example: Amazonian headman, described as “a first among equals,” relies on personal charisma).
In State/Chiefdom Societies:
- Leadership is often controlled by officials and hierarchical institutions.
- Formalized laws specify qualifications for holding office, duration, and legitimate powers of officials.

Centralized Political Authority:
- Present in some societies as a form of government that sources law, order, and legitimate force.
Acephalous Societies:
- Societies without a governing head, generally lacking hierarchical leadership.

Proposed four basic political systems:
1. Bands
2. Tribes
3. Chiefdoms
4. States
The systems are simplistic yet offer a useful framework for understanding decision-making, leadership, and social order.

Band:
- Subsistence: Foraging
- Membership: Flexible (based on kin)
- Size: 20 to several hundred
- Leadership: Informal, no permanent leader, decisions by consensus
- Economic Exchange: Reciprocity
- Social Structure: Leader has no special status
- Social Control: Norms, social pressure (Example: Ju/’hoansi)
Tribe:
- Subsistence: Horticulture and pastoralism
- Membership: Based on kinship
- Size: 100 to several thousand
- Leadership: Part-time headman, achieved status
- Economic Exchange: Reciprocity
- Social Conflict: Face-to-face, small-scale; armed conflict rare
- Examples: Hadza, Nuer tribes
Chiefdom:
- Subsistence: Agriculture
- Membership: Kin and non-kin
- Size: Thousands
- Leadership: Office of chief
- Political System: Centralized, chiefs lead permanently allied tribes/villages
- Economic Exchange: Redistribution
- Social Structure: Hereditary; clear stratifications
- Social Conflict: Possible war, organized conflict
State:
- Subsistence: Intensive and industrial agriculture
- Membership: All, with stratification
- Size: Millions to billions
- Leadership: Central government or individual
- Political System: Bureaucratic, several governing bodies
- Economic Exchange: Market exchange
- Social Structure: Highly stratified
- Social Control: Formal laws, judiciary, and state-enforced penalties

States have certain systems and subsystems:
- Population Control: Examples include census and grant rights.
- Judiciary: Laws based on precedent with courts and judges.
- Enforcement: Requirement of institutions for fiscal support and taxes.

Autocratic State: Leader with absolute power.
Totalitarian: Direct control over citizens' lives; varies from authoritarian.
Dictatorship: Power held by an individual, often arising in crises.
Representative Democracy: Citizens hold power.
Referendum: Direct voting by the populace.
Decentralized Governance: Municipal systems with delegated powers.
Monarchy: Power held within a family.
Theocracy: Political authority resides with a deity.

Nationality relates to identification with a group believed to share common origins.
Nation-state: A distinct political entity defined by shared culture and ancestry within geographic borders.
Citizenship: Legal membership within a nation-state.
States across history, like those in Iraq and China, are predominantly polyethnic today.

Nationalism is defined as the desire of an ethnic community to create or maintain a nation-state.
Historical context: Emergence of nation-states involved imperialism, impacting Indigenous peoples.
Independence Movements: Gained momentum post-World War II, highlighting a resurgence of nationalist sentiments in former colonies.

Imagined Community: Describes collective perceptions of connection among individuals likely never to meet.
Historical constructions: Nations often emerge through invented traditions (Example: France's perception shaped by national education systems).

Globalization alters the function and perception of nation-states.
Diaspora: Groups residing outside their ancestral homes, maintaining connections.
Study example: Victoria Bernal's research on Eritrean diaspora's online engagement in citizenship and identity formation.

Public opinion, supernatural beliefs, oaths, age organizations, social media shaming, and codified law all serve as mechanisms for social control.

Conflict is universal; the use of violence as a means of enforcement is culturally defined.
War: Defined as organized group actions involving lethal force against other groups.

War is a culturally constructed concept that has evolved to encompass various forms and strategies, including advanced technology.
Militarization: The organization of society for military violence; impacts cultural perspectives significantly.

Different forms of societal conflict including oppression, rebellion, and revolution.
Legitimacy: The right of leaders to exercise power based on cultural beliefs can be threatened by challenges.

Political organization operates as a fundamental governing mechanism across societies, where underlying questions about resource distribution exist regardless of complexity.