Political and Legal Systems
(Miller Chapter 8)
The BIG Questions
What does political anthropology cover?
What is the scope of legal anthropology?
How are political and legal systems changing?
Political Anthropology
Political anthropology addresses the area of human
behavior and thought related to power
Takes a broader view of politics than political scientists
Political anthropologists study…
Power and related concepts
Political organization cross-culturally
Interactions among political units
Change in political systems
Legal Anthropology
Legal anthropology addresses issues of social order and
conflict resolution cross-culturally
Legal anthropologists study…
Laws cross-culturally
Morality and laws
Social conflict
Social control
Politics and Political Organization
Politics refers to the organized use of public power
Is opposed to the more private micropolitics of family and domestic
groups
Political organization is the existence of groups for
purposes such as public decision making and leadership,
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maintaining social cohesion and order, protecting group
rights, and ensuring safety from external threats.
Political Organizations and Social Groups
Political organizations and social groups share several
features
Criteria for membership
Identity markers (clothing, card, title)
Internal organization (leadership hierarchy)
Rules for membership
Major Types of Political Organizations
Bands
Tribes
Big-man / big-woman system
Chiefdoms
States
Power, Authority, and Influence
Power is the ability to bring about results, often through the
possession or use of forceful means
Can be wielded by individuals without authority in the moral sense
Authority is the right to take certain forms of action
Based on a person’s achieved or ascribed status or moral reputation
Influence is the ability to achieve a desired end by exerting social or
moral pressure on someone or some group
May be exerted from a low-status or marginal position
Band
A band is the form of political organization associated with
foraging groups
The most long-standing form of political organization
Because for most of human history we lived in bands
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Comprises between 20 people and a few hundred people at
most, all related through kinship
Band
Is characterized by…
Flexible membership
A lack of permanent, formal leaders
May have individuals with authority or influence, but no individuals have
power over others
Leader is “first among equals”
Political activity in bands involves mainly decision making about
migration, food distribution, and resolution of interpersonal conflicts
External conflict between groups is rare because territories of different
bands are widely separated and the population density is low
Tribe
A tribe is a more formal type of political organization than the band
Is typically associated with horticulturalists and pastoralists
Developed about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago with the emergence of these
modes of production
A tribe comprises several bands or lineage groups, each with similar
language and lifestyle and each occupying a distinct territory
Members may belong to the same clan – a group of people who claim descent
from a common ancestor, although they may be unable to trace the exact
relationship
Tribe
Tribal groups contain from 100 to several thousand people
Tribes are found in the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Pacific,
Africa, and among Native Americans
A tribal headman or headwoman is a more formal leader than a band leader
Qualifications include…
Being hardworking
Being generous
Possessing good personal skills
A tribal headman or headwoman is a political leader on a part-time basis only
May be in charge of determining the times for moving herds, planting and harvesting, setting the
time for seasonal feasts and celebrations, and internal and external conflict resolution
Relies mainly on authority and influence rather than on power
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Big-Man/Big-Woman System
Is a form of political organization in which individuals build a political
base and gain prestige, influence, and authority through a system of
redistribution based on personal ties and grand feasts
Most common in the South Pacific
Often involves a moka, which is a strategy for developing political leadership
that involves exchanging favors and gifts, such as pigs, and sponsoring large
feasts where further gift giving occurs
Sphere of big-man/big-woman’s influence includes people in several
village
Core group of kin supporters but also some non-kin supporters
Big-Man/Big-Woman System
Qualifications of big-men/big-women include…
Being hardworking
Being generous
Possessing good personal skills
Having greater wealth than his/her followers
Big-men/big-woman have heavy responsibilities in regulating
internal affairs, such as the timing of crop planting, and external
affairs, such as intergroup feasts, trade, and wars
Chiefdoms
A chiefdom is a form of political organization that includes
permanently allied tribes and villages under one leader, a chief who
possesses power
Chiefdoms have large populations, often numbering in the
thousands
They are more centralized and socially complex than tribes and
bands
Ascribed/hereditary systems of social rank and economic
stratification
Chiefs and their lineages have higher status than commoners
Chiefdoms
Qualifications of a chief include…
Being generous
Personal leadership skills, charisma
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Having much greater wealth than his/her followers
Often belonging to a chiefly lineage
The position of chief is an “office” that must be filled at all times
A chief has many important responsibilities – regulating production and consumption, solving
internal conflicts, planning and leading raids and warring expeditions
Chiefdoms have existed throughout the world
Sometimes confederacies are formed when chiefdoms are joined
Headed by a “big chief” – a chief of chiefs
States
A state is a centralized political unit encompassing many
communities, a bureaucratic structure, and leaders who
possess coercive power
Is now the form of political organization in which all people
live
Bands, tribes, and chiefdoms exist, but they are incorporated within
state structures
Many thousands or millions of people may be
encompassed by a state
States
States have much more power than bands, tribes, and
chiefdoms
Reflected in architecture, urban planning, other symbols
Controls population with full-time police and uses standing armies to
defend borders
Have the power to tax
Have the power to manipulate information
Are hierarchical and usually patriarchal
There are fewer women in direct political positions than men, but
women may play large indirect roles in politics
Social Control
Social control is the process by which people maintain
orderly life in groups
Occurs through norms and laws
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Norms are accepted standards for how people should behave that are usually
unwritten and learned unconsciously through socialization
e.g. stand in line and be orderly, respect parents’ advice, accept an offer of a handshake in
areas where handshakes are common greetings
Violation of norms may simply be considered rude and the violator may be shunned, or some
sort of direct action may be taken against the violator
Social Control
In contrast to norms, laws are binding rules created through custom or official
enactment that defines correct behavior and the punishment for misbehavior
Are more common and more elaborate in state-level societies
Religion often provides legitimacy for law
Especially prevalent in contemporary Islamic status, but is also found in some laws in Western
states as well
Violation of laws have associated punishments, such as getting fined, going to jail, etc.
Social Control
Social control in small-scale societies is characterized more
through the use of norms
Social control in large-scale societies is characterized more
through the use of laws
Social Control in Small-Scale Societies
Bands are small, close-knit groups, which are kinship based and
disputes tend to be handled at the interpersonal level
Punishment is often through ridicule, shaming, or leaving the group
Emphasis is on maintaining social order and restoring social
equilibrium, not hurtfully punishing an offender
Capital punishment (execution) is very rare
Punishment is often legitimized through belief in supernatural forces
If do something social unacceptable, something supernatural may occur to
punish that behavior
Social Control in States
In states we have a large and often diverse population – not
everyone knows everyone else
Increased social stress due to inequities in wealth
distribution, rights to land, etc.
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These conditions necessitate…
Increased specialization of roles involved in social control
Formal trials and courts
Power-enforced forms of punishment, such as prisons and the death
penalty
Social Control in States
Increased specialization of roles involved in social control
A variety of full-time professions devoted to maintaining law and
order
Judges, lawyers
Police – exist mainly in state level societies
Policing is a form of social control that includes processes of surveillance and
the threat of punishment related to maintaining social order
Varies in effectiveness from state to state
U.S. – high crime rates
Japan – much lower crime rates
Social Control in States
Formal trials and courts
Court system with lawyers, judge, and jury
Used in many societies
Goal is to ensure justice and fairness, but the analysis of legal systems in the
U.S. and elsewhere have shown some serious problems
Trial by ordeal
A way of judging guilt or innocence in which the accused person is put through a
test that is often painful
Social Control in States
Prisons and the death penalty
Prisons (places where people are forcibly detained as a form of punishment)
emerged with state-level societies
First became common in the 17th century in Europe
U.S. and Russia have high percentages of individuals in prison compared to other contemporary
Western countries
2 millions people in prison in the U.S. (about 0.5 percent of the population of the country)
Death penalty
Rare in non-state societies
Requires a great deal of power to condemn someone to death – reflects state power and is a
powerful tool to influence people to act in a manner acceptable to the state
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Most people who are executed are non-White, have killed Whites, are poor, and have few social ties
Social Conflict and Violence
All systems of social control have to deal with the fact that
conflict and violence may occur
Conflict occurs on many scales
More private conflicts
Interpersonal conflict
Conflict at the household level
More public conflicts
Ethnic conflicts
Warfare
Ethnic Conflict
Ethnic pluralism is a characteristic of most states in the
world today.
Ethnic conflict may result from an ethnic group’s attempt to
gain more autonomy or more equitable treatment.
May also be caused by a dominant group’s actions to
subordinate, oppress, or eliminate an ethnic group by
genocide or ethnocide
Ethnic Conflict
Political analysts and journalists often cite language,
ethnicity, and religion as the causes of conflict
Ethnic identities commit people to a cause
Deeper issues often exist such as claims to material
resources (land, water, etc.) which may exacerbate ethnic
conflicts
Ethnic Conflict
In the past few decades, political violence has increasingly
been enacted within states rather than between states
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Intra-state (within state) violence constitutes the majority of
the many “shooting wars” in the world today
Warfare
Warfare is organized conflict involving group action directed against
another group and involving lethal force.
Cultural variation exists in the frequency and seriousness of wars
Intergroup conflicts among free-ranging foragers that would fit the definition of
war do not exist in the ethnographic record
Informal, non-hierarchical political organization among bands is not conducive to
waging armed conflict
Bands do not have special military forces or leaders
Warfare
Warfare likely originated with domestication of plants and animals
Led to increased population density, different groups close to each other
and often competing with each other for resources
Warfare more common in tribes, chiefdoms, and states than in
bands
More influential leaders
How often and what types of warfare are engaged in vary depending on
the society and many factors
Costa Rica – no army
U.S. –army
Warfare
Causes of war
Defending values
Defending freedom
Defending democracy
Defending human rights
Supporting allies
Extending boundaries
Securing more resources
Reacting to aggression
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Warfare
One theory of effective warfare…
For war to be an effective tool of domination and for
domination to be maintained after a conquest, there must be
the introduction of a new economic and political system and
an ideology that wins over the population
Physical domination combined with ideological dominance
Changes in Political and Legal Systems
Contemporary political anthropologists are most interested
in political dynamics and change, especially in how the state
affects local people’s lives.
Emerging Nations and Transnational Nations
A nation is a group of people who share a language,
culture, territorial base, political organization, and history
Not to be confused with a state
Example Puerto Rico
Half of the “nation” lives outside of the home territory
Are forming a transnational identity
Democratization
Democratization is the process of transformation from an
authoritarian regime to a democratic regime.
Has varying levels of success
Transition appears to be most difficult when the change is
from highly authoritarian socialist regimes
Often difficult because an economic transition in addition to a
political one
Transition from state controlled government planned economy to a free market,
capitalist economy
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The BIG Questions Revisited
What does political anthropology cover?
What is the scope of legal anthropology?
How are political and legal systems changing?
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