Social Control
Social Control
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Ensures that members of society behave
in appropriate ways most of the time
Less deviation from acceptable behavior in
most band societies than in more complex
societies
Social Norms
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Define normal, proper, or expected ways
of behaving
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Come in a variety of forms – from etiquette to
formal laws
Deviance from social norms is relative and
culturally defined
Sanctions: patterned or institutionalized ways
of encouraging people to conform to norms
Both positive and negative
 May also be formal or informal
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Informal Means of Social Control
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Socialization
Public Opinion
Corporate Lineages
Supernatural Belief Systems
Age Organizations
Informal Social Control:
Socialization
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Every society, in order to survive, must
pass on social norms from one generation
to the next
When members learn cultural norms, they
also usually internalize the moral necessity
to obey them
Variations in levels of coerciveness when
socializing children
Informal Social Control: Public
Opinion
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In all cultures, people want the approval
of other members of their society
Gossip, ostracism, rumor, sarcasm, and
derision are all powerful corrective
measures for reforming social behavior
Degradation ceremonies refer to formal
societal mechanisms to publicly humiliate
a deviant
Informal Social Control:
Corporate Lineages
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Play a dominant role in most small-scale
societies
Exert economic control over their members
Act of mechanisms because of their scale –
localized communities whose members know
what everyone else is doing
Exert social control because of diffuse roles
Exert social control due to collective capacity to
control marriage
Informal Social Control:
Supernatural Belief Systems
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Belief in supernatural forces such as gods, witches,
and socerers
Ancestor worship
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Dead ancestors are fully functioning members of the
descent group
Ghost invocation brings wrath of ancestor gods against
the sinner
Ghost vengeance is the belief that ancestor-gods inflict
sickness without having to be invoked
Witchcraft
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Common in acephalous societies
People reject the idea that misfortunes result from natural
causes
Deviant runs risk of being labeled a witch
Fear of witchcraft encourages conformity
Informal Social Control:
Witchcraft
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Common in acephalous societies
People reject the idea of misfortunes
resulting from natural causes
A deviant runs the risk of being labeled a
witch, and fear of being accused of
witchcraft encourages conformity
Witches often identified by ritual
specialist, a shaman, then community
takes action
Age Organization
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Age set – group of people initiated during a periodic
ceremony
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Age grades
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Categories through age sets pass as a group
An understood set of social roles and statuses
Control behavior in a number of ways
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Strong sense of group identity with one another
Lasts from its inception until its last member has died
Establish a clear set of roles and status
Effective channels for the distribution of authority
Rites of passage are almost always preceded by intense periods of
training in the norms and values of a society
Bonds of camaraderie are so strong that age sets tend to take on
characteristics of a corporate group
Neither self-perpetuating nor property owning
Formal Means of Social Control
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Violation of social norms often results in
disputes among people in the society
When disputes become violent conflicts,
they are called crimes
Song Duels
Intermediaries
Moots: Informal Courts
Oaths and Ordeals
Courts and Codified Law
Warfare
Formal Social Control:
Crimes
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Crimes are more likely in large, heterogeneous,
stratified societies than in small-scale societies
Little or no anonymity in small scale societies
More concern with negative public opinion in smallscale societies
Heterogeneity of complex societies means more
groups with different, and probably conflicting,
interests
Lower castes or classes in complex societies may be
more likely to violate the rights of the more
privileged
Formal Social Control: Song Duels
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Inuit of Canada, Alaska, and Greenland
A derisive song contest
Used to settle disputes that frequently
involved in wife stealing
Alternative to murder
Formal Social Control:
Intermediaries
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Nuer of the Sudan
Help resolve serious conflicts
Nuer’s Leopard-skin chief has no authority
to determine guilt or enforce settlement
between parties
Uses personal and supernatural influence
to bring the disputing parties to some type
of agreed-upon settlement
Formal Social Control: Moots
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Kpelle of Liberia and Guinea
Found in many African societies
Effective mechanism for conflict resolution
Informal airings of disputes involving kinsmen and
friends of litigants
Generally deal with the resolution of domestic
disputes
Attempt to reintegrate the guilty party back into
community, restore normal social relations, achieve
reconciliation without bitterness and acrimony
Formal Social Control:
Oaths and Ordeals
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Ashanti of West Africa
Religiously sanctioned
Oath – formal declaration to some supernatural
force that what you are saying is truthful or that
you are innocent
Almost always accompanied by a ritual act
Ordeal is means of determining guilt by
submitting accused to a dangerous test
Most likely to be found in complex societies where
the political leadership lacks power to enforce
judicial decisions
Formal Social Control: Courts
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State systems possess a monopoly on the use of force
Through system of codified law, state both forbids
individuals from using force and determines how it will use
force to require certain behaviors from citizens
When legal prescriptions are violated, state has authority
to fine, imprison, or even execute the wrongdoer
Unauthorized use of force happens – crime, rebellion,
revolution
Emphasis on punishment to avoid threat to the legitimacy
of political and legal authority
Whereas state systems of government emphasize
punishment, some small scale societies emphasize reestablishing harmony
Codified Law Qualities
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Three basic features
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Involves the legitimate use of physical
coercion
Allocate official authority to privileged people
who are able to use coercion legitimately
Based on regularity and a certain amount of
predictability
Formal Social Control: Warfare
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Systemic, organized, institutionalized
fighting between different groups
Enormous cultural variability in the extent to
which societies use warfare
Only a human activity since Neolithic period
General factors contributing to warfare
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Social problems
Perceived threats
Political motivations
Moral objectives
Reasons foraging societies were not
warlike
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Had no centralized governments that could
finance and coordinate number of people
needed for military campaigns
Absence of food surpluses precluded
prolonged combat
Did not control land or territorial boundaries
– major motivations for warfare
Exogamous bands not likely to become
hostile toward other bands into which
relatives have married