Political Anthropology
The Organization of Power
Power and Authority
 Power
 the
ability to exercise one’s will
over others.
 Authority
 the
socially approved use of power.
Political Anthropology

How are power and social control
• organized?
• distributed?
• manifested?



How are group decisions made?
How is social order enforced?
How are conflicts dealt with?
Because of the embeddedness it is better
to talk of sociopolitical
Mechanisms of Control

Internal (ideological)
• culturally instilled values
• expectation of supernatural harm or reward

External (behavioral)
• informal
• ridicule and ostracism, gossip
• praise
• formal
• laws and rules
• institutionalized threat of force
Law and Conflict Resolution


Formal and informal sanctions
Conflict mediators
•
•
•
•
•
•
Often older men
Nuer leopard skin chief
Ordeals
Oaths – supernatural source
Oracles – people or things that have
prophetic abilities
Delphic Oracle, Greece
Degrees of Organizational Complexity
 Uncentralized
• Band
• Tribe
 Centralized
• Chiefdom
• State
1962, Elman Service
In general, as the economy
becomes more productive,
population size increases
leading to greater regulatory
problems, which give rise to
more complex social relations
and linkages (greater social
and political complexity).
Bands the political organization of foraging groups

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


Rarely more than 30-40
people
kin-based
Flexible extended family
units
No formal political
organization
No socioeconomic
stratification
the political order (polity) is
not a distinct institution, but
is embedded in the overall
social order.
Bands

How are group decisions
made?
• adult consensus
• informal leaders
• egalitarian

How is social order
enforced?
• ridicule and ostracism

How are conflicts dealt
with?
• negotiation/mediation
• mobility
Tribes





Multiple autonomous
small communities
that share common
identity
Usually pastoralists
or Horticulturalists
Several hundred to
thousands of people
No formal political
organization
Little socioeconomic
stratification
Tribes

How are group
decisions made?
• Consensus among
descent groups

How are social norms
enforced?
• ridicule and ostracism

How are conflicts dealt
with?
• negotiation/mediation
• semi-official mediation
Tribes The Village Head

achieved position comes with
very limited authority.
• He cannot force or coerce people to
do things.
• He can only persuade, harangue,
and try to influence people to do
things.

acts as a mediator in disputes,
but has no authority to back his
decision or impose punishments.
 The village head must lead in
generosity.
• He must be more generous, which
means he must cultivate more land.
• He hosts feasts for other villages.
modern-day
Iroquois, New York
Tribes –Big Man

Big Man -like a village head,
except that his authority is
regional in that he may have
influence over more than one
village
•
•
•
•
•

wisdom
wealth
generosity
charisma.
unofficial prestige status
The benefit is greater influence
and community standing.
Nuer, Sudan
Pantribal Sodalities and Age Grades

Sodalities are non-kinbased organizations
that may generate
cross-societal linkages.
• often based on common
age or gender.
• Some sodalities are
confined to a single
village.
• Some sodalities span
several villages; these
are called pantribal
sodalities. they can
mobilize a large number
of men for raids.
Age Sets

sodalities that include all of
the men or women born
during a certain time Similar
to a cohort of class of students
•Members of an age set
progress through a series of
age grades together (e.g.,
initiated youth, warrior, adult,
elder, (freshmen, sophomore,
junior, senior, graduate).
•Sodalities create nonkin
linkages between people based
on age, gender, and ritual and
create a sense of ethnic
identity and belonging to the
same cultural tradition
Chiefdoms

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Agriculturalists or pastoralists
Multiple communities that share
common identity and tribute system
Thousands to many thousands of
people
Centralized political organization
based on hierarchical lineage system
a political unit of permanently allied
tribes and villages under one
recognized leader with authority
Significant socioeconomic
stratification based on lineage
Old Chief of the
Arawa Tribe,
Rotorua, New
Zealand.
Chiefdoms

How are group
decisions made?
• Chief and advisors

How is social order
enforced?
• ridicule and ostracism
• official order
• use of force

How are conflicts dealt
with?
• negotiation/mediation
• centralized arbitration
Chiefdoms

Small hierarchical
bureaucracy
 Tribute - tax paid to chief
to be redistributed
according to “community”
needs
 Chiefs – Leaders own,
manage, and control basic
factors of the economy and
have special access to
•
•
•
•
crops
labor
cash
goods.
Grand chief Matthew Coon Come
Chiefdoms
Formalized leadership
functions
•Unrelated to personal
qualities
•Rules of succession
(primogeniture)
•Office is permanent - it
outlasts the individuals
who occupy them
•Loyalty, status, coercion –
but not too much
Zulu Chief
States

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Agriculturalists
Multiple cities that share
tax and administrative
infrastructure system
Tens of thousands to
billions of people
Centralized political
organization possessing
coercive power
Social stratification is one
of the key distinguishing
features of states.
Calcutta
States

How are group decisions
made?
• rulers decide “on behalf
of” populous

How is social order
enforced?
• official enforcement
• threat or use of sanctions
 How are conflicts dealt
with?
• negotiation/mediation
• centralized arbitration
Angkor
States

Status
• not necessarily kinbased
• class-based

Codification of laws
• More formalized in
industrial societies
• Courts – adjudicate
and mediate Officials

Monopoly on use of
force
• Police force
Hammurabi’s Code (1750 BC)