Politics, Power, and Violence Flashcards
Fundamentals of Political Power and Organization
Every society, from the smallest to the largest, faces the common challenge of maintaining social order, securing safety, protecting property, and resolving conflicts. This process involves the mobilization, contestation, and control of power.
Power is defined as the ability of individuals or groups to impose their will upon others and make them do things even against their own wants or wishes.
Political organization refers to the way power is distributed and embedded in a society, serving as the means through which social order is created and maintained.
States first appeared approximately years ago. Some have disappeared over time, while others have been absorbed by different states or fragmented into smaller entities. For instance, Japan has persisted as a state for over years, whereas the United States has existed since .
While many states are prevalent globally, some groups lack power due to unstable political organizations and informal kinship systems.
Uncentralized Political Systems: Bands and Tribes
Uncentralized systems are typically small, egalitarian groups defined by marriage and kinship. These systems rely on subsistence strategies and force conformity primarily through informal means such as scorn or gossip.
Bands
A band is a relatively small and loosely organized kin-ordered group that inhabits a specific territory.
These groups may split periodically into smaller extended family groups that remain politically independent.
Bands are commonly found among food-foragers, such as the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert.
Tribes
A tribe refers to a range of kin-ordered groups that are politically integrated by a unifying factor, such as shared ancestry, identity, culture, language, or territory.
These groups are often found among crop-cultivators or herders.
The clan serves as the organizing unit and the seat of political authority.
Leadership is relatively informal; for example, the Navajo Indians have local leaders chosen for wisdom and advice, but control is enforced through gossip, criticism, and beliefs in spiritual repercussions.
The Kapauku tribe of Western New Guinea utilizes the Big Man, known as the "tonowi," who serves as a negotiator, judge, and gatekeeper.
Other Uncentralized Associations
Age sets, age grades, and common-interest groups organize political life by linking members from different lineages and clans.
The Tiriki of East Africa utilize age grades which include: Warriors, Elder Warriors, Judicial Warriors, and Ritual Warriors.
In the North American Great Plains, Indians such as the Cheyenne established military societies with specific names to integrate the entire tribe for military and political purposes.
Centralized Political Systems: Chiefdoms and States
Centralized systems emerge as populations rise, technology advances, and specialized labor and trade networks produce surplus goods. Political power is vested in a single authority or a body of individuals.
Chiefdoms
A chiefdom is a regional polity where two or more local groups are organized under a single chief, who heads a ranked hierarchy.
Power is typically gained patrilineally or matrilineally.
Chiefs have the authority to distribute land, recruit soldiers, and control the economy through the redistribution of surplus goods.
These systems can be unstable; a chief may be overthrown, stripped of wealth, or murdered by more powerful rivals who then appoint their own supporters to political ranks.
Example: The Kpelle of Liberia have Paramount Chiefs who head chiefdoms, preserve order, and receive commissions on taxes and fees. They also receive a stipulated amount of rice from each home. A paramount chief signals wealth through the possession of multiple wives, embroidered gowns, and freedom from manual labor. Beneath them, chiefs head districts, towns, and town quarters to act as liaisons.
States
A state is a polity involving large numbers of people within a defined territory, divided into social classes and directed by a formal government.
Governments in states have the authority to make laws and use force to defend the social order. They are considered the hallmarks of civilization and appeared approximately years ago.
States are responsible for increasing food production, managing irrigation, crop management, road building, and hiring workers and farmers.
Ethnic differentiations and ethnocentrism are more pronounced in states, leading to increased conflict.
Currently, there are about states in the world, but over nations (including tribes).
A nation is defined as a people who share a collective identity based on common culture, language, territorial base, and history.
of the world's states are pluralistic, meaning more than one nation of people resides within them.
Examples of nations within states include the Kurds (living in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey) and Palestinians (living in Israel).
Example: Swaziland is inhabited by the Swazi nation (Bantu-speakers involved in cattle raising, pottery, metal smithing, and farming). Its government features a king, queen, senior princes to protect the king, heads of homesteads for administrative duties, and district chiefs.
Political Legitimacy, Authority, and Religion
Uncentralized systems generally rely on freely given loyalty and cooperation since all adults participate in decision-making.
Centralized systems often rely on coercion for social control. Police states may experience resentment and lower cooperation.
Legitimacy is the right of political leaders to govern—to hold, use, and allocate power—based on the values of a particular society. Legitimacy may derive from wealth, age, or divine right.
Obedience to authority stems from the belief that obedience is "right," whereas compliance to power based on force results from a fear of being deprived of liberty, physical well-being, life, or property.
Religion often influences politics in both industrial and non-industrial societies:
Medieval Europe: Kings ruled through divine right and pledged allegiance to the Pope.
Modern Iran: Functioning as an "Islamic Republic."
United States: National symbols include the phrase "In God We Trust" on coins and "one nation, under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Gender Dynamics in Political Leadership
Men more frequently hold political positions than women. In instances where women do hold positions, their power is often viewed as weaker than that of men.
Iroquois Society: Only men can become chiefs or sit in councils, but women are responsible for placing the men in those offices.
British Monarchy: Queen Victoria ruled England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Queen Elizabeth II is recognized as a successful ruler of Great Britain while a man serves as Prime Minister.
The Igbo of Nigeria: Formerly practiced a dual-sex political system where men and women shared authority over their own gendered spheres. Following British colonial expansion in the late , the British imposed a male-dominated structure, causing Igbo women to become subordinate and lose their power.
Social and Cultural Mechanisms of Control
Deterrents to Antisocial Behavior: Gossip, criticism, and fear of supernatural forces serve as effective tools.
The Wape people of Papua New Guinea believe ancestral spirits provide good hunts. If spirits are angry due to community discord, they may chase away game.
The Wape select a gunman believed to be free of wrongdoing to hunt for the tribe, with the community purchasing the bullets. If a shot is missed, blame falls on the bullet buyer for having angry spirits around them.
Successful hunting requires maintaining community peace; when hunting is poor, the gunman identifies disputes, and the involved parties must confess their wrongs to appease spirits.
Internalized/Cultural Control: This form of control is cultural and ingrained in the individual, making them solely responsible for their conduct through internalized beliefs and values.
Cultural control may rely on fear of supernatural punishment or magical retaliation.
Positive cultural control encourages personal sacrifice for the common good.
Social Control: External control through open coercion.
Sanctions: External controls designed to encourage conformity to social norms.
Positive Sanctions: Awards, titles, and recognition.
Negative Sanctions: Imprisonment, fines, corporal punishment, or community ostracism.
Formal Sanctions: Organized measures such as laws, military decorations, monetary rewards, loss of face, exclusion from social privileges, seizure of property, bodily mutilation, and death.
Informal Sanctions: Spontaneous community approval or disapproval based on the human need to belong.
The Nature and Functions of Law
Law consists of formal rules of conduct that, when violated, result in negative sanctions. Laws employ overt coercion, sometimes physical, to maintain social control.
Legal systems must be understood within their cultural context, reflecting a society's values and assumptions.
Inuit Resolution: Disputing parties in northern Canada may engage in song duels, heaping insults on each other. The outcome is determined by community applause. If harmony is not restored, parties may move to a different band. There is no binding legal authority.
Western Society: Conflicts involve numerous legal proceedings to assign guilt and punishment, utilizing police, judges, juries, and jailers. These processes rarely prioritize the victim's needs.
Functions of Law
Defining relationships among society's members and establishing proper behavior in specific circumstances.
Allocating authority to employ coercion in the enforcement of sanctions (vested in the government, judicial system, or injured party).
Redefining social relations and ensuring social flexibility to adapt to changing cultural norms.
Conflict Resolution and Warfare
Dispute Resolution Methods
Negotiation: Direct argument and compromise by the parties to arrive at a voluntary, mutual agreement.
Mediation: Settlement assisted by an unbiased third party. In bands and tribes, mediators lack the authority to coerce but are used out of respect.
Adjudication: A form of mediation used in chiefdoms and states where an unbiased third party (judge) makes the ultimate decision based on cultural norms, values, and precedents.
Warfare and Violent Conflict
Conflicts range from individual fights and local feuds to declared international wars involving professional armed forces.
Causes include defense against attack, pursuit of material benefits, or geographic expansion.
Types of conflict include civil wars and guerrilla warfare.
Aggression and Environmental Factors
While males may have natural aggressive tendencies similar to chimpanzees and gorillas, warfare is often situation-specific rather than a biological inevitability.
Societies that do not practice warfare include the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen, the Arapesh of New Guinea, and the Amish of North America.
Origins of Warfare
Warfare is a relatively recent occurrence in human history.
Food-Foragers: War is impractical due to flexible membership, loosely defined territories, exogamous marriages (creating kin in other bands), lack of food surplus, and a worldview that sees humans as part of nature rather than superior to it.
Food-Producers (Horticulturalists, Agriculturalists, Pastoralists): War is more prominent due to an exploitative worldview, population growth, resource depletion, and fixed territories that make membership less fluid. Competition for land and the presence of centralized political control also contribute to conflict.