Politics & Power

Politics & Power

Politics is linked with power: both the power that people exert over each other, and the ways in which society wields power over people by imposing institutionalized constraints on their agency. Constraints ranging from property taxes and traffic rules

to torture and genocide

Political Anthropology

They must find out where and how the important decisions are made, who is affected by the decisions, what rules and norms govern political action, how authority is challenged and what possible sanctions the rulers of society dispose of.

Anthropological study of politics is concerned with showing how political systems function and how people act or are prevented from acting within them, as well as indicating the relationship between ideology and social practice.

Political Anthropology

Political Anthropologists address the area of human behavior and thought related to power

Who has it; who doesn’t

Degrees of power

Bases of power

Abuses of powerPolitical and religious power

Governments

Social conflict and social control

Morality and law

Power

“The ability to enforce one’s own will on others’ behavior” – Max Weber In other words, the ability

to make someone do something they would otherwise not have done.

According to Weber, people have power over each other

Power – Authority - Influence

Weber distinguished between power, authority, and influence. Influence is a ‘milder’ form of power presupposing

implicit acceptance Authority is taken for granted and needs no

justification, while power can potentially be challenged and therefore must be defended.

Power & Authority

POWER: ability to bring about results power may be informal and based on force coercive power versus persuasive power Symbolic power based on positive expectations

of those who agree to it

AUTHORITY is the socially recognized right to exert power

LEGITIMACY- the socially recognized right to hold, use, and allocate power

Power is a resource, like other resources, it is unequally distributed

Powerlessness

Absence of the ability to exert power

Politics

The use of power to create public policy.

Who Has the Power?

Different Types of Political Organization

Related to subsistence strategy population density and heterogeneity degree of hierarchy and social stratification presence of bounded territory degree of formalization of rule

Types of Political Organizations

Bands

Tribes

Chiefdoms

States

Headman

King / Queen / President

Headman / Big-man

Chief

Political Anthropology:Centralized and Non-Centralized

Societies

LEVELS OF SOCIETIES

NON-CENTRALIZED CENTRALIZED

BAND TRIBE CHIEFDOM STATE

POWER IN THE HANDS OF MANY

POWER IN THE HANDS OF FEW

According to Julian Steward, societies are either centralized or non-centralized:

Bands and Tribes:Uncentralized political

systems

associated with: subsistence level economies such as foraging small, homogeneous populations little social stratification relatively autonomous groups often relatively mobile without strict territorial

boundaries formal leader or organization beyond kinship

rare

Foraging Bands

The entire local community is the government.

Decisions are achieved by public discussion.

Non-Centralized Societies:The Band

Nomadic group of related households occupying one region (about 50 to 500 people)

Gather on informal basis to hunt and gather

Reciprocity-based economics

No permanent leader

Leader has no power, only authority and influence

Least complex form of political organization

The Band: Examples

The Paiute (US)

Men and women together hunt small game, gather Men sometimes hunt big

game

Men and women serve as informal leaders, shamans

• !Kung (southern Africa)• Headman coordinates band

movements, chooses new campsites– Does not judge his people– Has no more possessions

than anyone else

Band Societies: Leadership

Decision-making is by consensus.

Leaders are older men and women.

Leaders cannot enforce their decisions; They can only persuade.

Sharing and generosity are important sources of respect.

Band Societies: Social Order

Maintained by gossip, ridicule, and avoidance.

Violations of norms are sins.

Offenders may be controlled through ritual means such as public confessions.

Offender is defined as a patient rather than a criminal.

Non-Centralized Societies:The Tribe

Group of independent communities occupying one region (about 200 – 2,000 people)

United by common language, culture, kin ties

Sometimes nomadic, sometimes sedentary, light farmers / herders

Leader (big man) holds prestige, not authority Elders hold the true authority.

Horticultural Tribes

Each community consists of family lineages that govern themselves and a counsel of elders drawn from each family that sets policy for the community as a whole

Big-Man Societies

Big Man: A local entrepreneur who successfully mobilizes and manipulates wealth on behalf of his group in order to hold feasts and enhance his status and rank relative to other leaders in the region.

He has no formal authority or power, nor does he necessarily have more wealth.

The Nuer (Sudan)

Pastoralist culture

Political authority maintained by segmentary lineages.

Each lineage is equal to all others

Authority often based on age

The Tribe: Examples

• Papua New Guinea tribes

• Horticultural & pastoralist peoples, wealth measured in pigs

• Big man's power transitory, prestige enhanced by redistribution (moka)

Chiefdom & State:Centralized political systems

associated with: intensive agricultural or industrialization

technology becomes more complicated labor specialization increases

large, diverse population less mobility opportunity for control of resources appears appearance of coercive force male leaders more frequent political authority is concentrated in a single

individual (chiefdoms) or a body of individuals (the state)

Centralized Societies:The Chiefdom

Regional polity with two or more groups organized under one chief (ascribed rule) (1,000s)

Wealthy chief / king heads a ranked hierarchy

Increase in population, complex tech, jobs, instability

May be basis of “civilization”

Often unstable

Chiefdoms

Allied tribes and villages under one leader

More centralized and complex

Heritable systems of rank

Social stratification

Chiefship is an “office”

Achievement is a measure of success

Hawaii

Medieval Europe / Africa / Japan

Eastern Woodlands cultures (N. America) Hopewell / Mississippian societies Chesapeake-area chiefdoms

Southeast Asia (Angkor Wat)

Historical Examples

Modern Example: the Kpelle (Liberia)

Series of chiefs, each ruling over several subchiefs

Chiefs hear & settle local disputes, distribute medicines

Salaried by Liberian gov’t, given other perks Kpelle wealth measured

in wives, embroidered gowns, freedom from labor

Strong, centralized political system with clear, strong leader (10,000’s +)

Claims authority to maintain social order by force

Most centralized, unstable political system

Clear borders, hierarchy, jobs

Ex: any ancient empire, any modern country

Centralized Societies:The State

Characteristics of States

Define citizenship and rights

Maintain law and order

Maintain standing armies

Keep track of their citizens

Have the power to tax

Power to manipulate information

Hierarchical and patriarchal

States

Chiefdoms grade into states as the authority of the government expands over that of families until it monopolizes all political authority

Ancient Ex: Sumer (Mesopotamia)

World’s first civilization was highly stratified state with: large public works strict legal code (Code

of Hammurabi) State religion world’s first writing

A Typical Hierarchy in a State Society: the Maya (Mesoamerica)

Modern Example: USA – States and Reservations

Band, Tribe, Chiefdom, State

What Is a Nation?

Communities united as "one people" through common factors: ancestry, history, society, institutions, ideology,

language, territory, religion. All bands, tribes, chiefdoms and states are nations

Today there are over 200 nation-states, encompassing over 5,000 nations (ethnic groups, autonomous peoples, tribes, etc.)

Example: Map of the “Nations” of Europe

Peaceful Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution in small societies is often peaceful. Avoidance Community action Negotiation / mediation Ritual reconciliation /

oaths

Larger societies have more codified ways to handle conflict.

Violent Conflict Resolution

Violence is sometimes used when peaceful resolution is not possible.

More violent societies tend to have warlike sports, violent games malevolent magic more crime, more severe punishment for

crimes feuding, family violence

WAR

Armed conflict between groups of people who constitute separate territorial teams or political communities

Some groups seldom, if ever, war while with others it is endemic

Interpersonal violence and armed conflict are a tendency of all societies when certain internal or external pressures arise

WAR IS:

A significant factor in demographic and political change within the last 10,000 years

Attested to by a great deal of archaeological evidence worldwide

Not innate per se, but in historical terms it seems to be one of the universally recurring realities of human existence

Warfare Among Hunter-gatherers

Depending on the circumstances, low-level conflict can and does occur between foragers

Yet hunter-gatherers seldom try to annihilate each other. Why? The loss of 2 male individuals per generation

in a band of 30 represents more than 10 percent of all adult male deaths

Small bands cannot sustain fatalities at these levels and survive.

Protection of women from violent death is even more critical from the biological standpoint. Why?

Warfare Among Hunter-gatherers

Armed conflict between simple hunter-gatherers usually takes the form of personal feuds between individuals; typically older men who have long-standing conflicts.

Just as in other social animals, conflict between groups of hunter-gatherers is more frequent during periods of population pressure and environmental stress.

Warfare Among Sedentary Village

Societies Warfare is much more common among

sedentary populations than with foragers The more people have invested in fixed

elements in their environment the more likely they are to defend it.

Sedentary groups cannot resolve disputes by moving off to another location.

Example: Among the Yanomami almost 33% of all male deaths and 7% of female deaths were due to armed conflict.

Why War: Conclusions

Band and village people go to war when they lack alternative solutions to conflicts related to procuring resources in response to population pressure and environmental depletion.

Chiefdoms and States go to war because it is the primary means by which the ruling elite solidifies control, gains resources, and acquires territory.

Crime

There are two categories of politically defined crimes.

- malum per se (roughly equal to “immoral”)

- malum prohibitum (other things that legislators regard as offensive)

Thus, “criminals” include both those who violate laws and those that govern moral behavior

Persons who are criminals by virtue of violating non-moral norms that have been made illegal.

- e.g., In Virginia it is illegal for a woman who weighs over 200 lbs to ride a horse while wearing shorts.

In other words, “criminals” are not merely “black hats” and crime rates are partly a result of what is defined as illegal. Labeling Theory

William Henry “Bill” Gates: 1977Traffic Violation

Larry King, 1971

Hugh Grant, 1995

Jane Fonda, 1970Kicked a Cop

Rush Linbaugh, 2009

Mormon Polygamists

The War on Drugs

Use and death rates by drug:

Tobacco – 60 million users, 390,000 deaths (650/100,000)

Alcohol - 100 million users, 150,000 deaths (150/100,000)

Heroine - 500,000 users, 400 deaths (80/100,000)

Cocaine - 5 million users, 4 deaths (4/100,000)

Use vs Repeated Use

Not all users become addicts

Alcohol: 95% have used, 67.9% used last month

Tobacco: 77% have used, 39.9% used last month

Cocaine: 28% have used, 6.8% used last month

Crack: 23% have used, 4.7% used last month

In other words, most people who have tried an illegal drug do not become addicts.

Effects of Prohibition

Creates a black-market economy for drugs

- Drug lords are the major beneficiaries

- Typically street prices of illicit drugs are about 100 times their pharmaceutical prices.

- e.g., cocaine costs about $110 per gram (about $3,120 per ounce) in the U.S. but about $30 to manufacture)

Effects, cont.

Increased crime

- Workers are recruited out of the legitimate market.

- Users commit crimes to pay for drugs.

About 40% of all property crimes are to pay for illicit drugs.

- Over a million Americans are arrested each year for violating narcotics laws

Effects, cont.

“Crack babies” are more likely when prenatal care is avoided

Less harmful drugs (e.g., marijuana) are easier to catch (because they are bulkier). Catching results in higher prices for the less

harmful drugs, making the previously costlier drugs more attractive

Effects, cont.

Economic costs: about 20 billion dollars per year

Civil Rights costs

- e.g., Punta de Aqua, NM entered by armored personel carriers and surveilance helicoptors in 1991, but no drugs found.

- e.g., routine confiscation of cars, boats, and homes even when no charges were brought.

- e.g., private property in Garberville, CA, searched without warrants by army personel

- e.g., sentencing based on weight of drugs have included the weight of sugar cubes, paper, and even suitcases that contained them.

Effects, cont.

Deaths: about 8,250 deaths per year

1. 1,600 victims of property crimes murdered

2. 750 drug market murders

3. 10 law enforcement officers killed

4. 3,500 AIDS deaths from unsterilized needles

5. 2,400 to 3,000 deaths from cocaine/heroine overdoses and allergic reactions to adulterants

The Prison Population

.

502,750 incarcerated in prisons and jails in 1985

2.3 million in 2008.

Question: Where did the four-fold increase come from?

Answer: arrests for non-violent drug offenses

Average Time Served

Type of offense percent of prison months

population

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Violent Offenses 7.7% 62.2

Non-violent

Drug Offenses 48% 82.2

Property Offenses 19.5% 19.9

Racial Effects

Black and White Americans use illegal drugs at about the same rate. Yet, while Blacks represent only about 12 percent of the population they represent . . .

35% of drug arrestees

55% of convicted arrestees

74% of sentenced convicts

and now represent 50 percent of the prison population.

Further, 1/3 of young Blacks are now in prison, jail, or within the parole and probation system.

NATION & NATIONALITY

nation was once a term that referred to tribe, indigenous people, or ethnic group - collectivity sharing single language, religion, history, territory, ancestry, kinship

nation comes to mean the state = a country

a sociopolitical form, the modern state composed of diverse ethnic groups

Nation as “Imagined Community”

"it is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion" (Anderson p.15)

Why Kin Groups Aren’t The Answer to All Our Problems

Optimal Size of Kin Groups is small, about 200 people

Kinship ethics don’t always levy adequate sanctions (there are social reasons against it)

Long-term and immediate problems in relationships between kin groups are difficult to solve: Intermarriage is the only really permanent “glue”

Social Conflict

Interpersonal conflict

Banditry

Feuding

Ethnic conflict

Revolution

Warfare

Nonviolent conflict

Interpersonal Conflict

Covers verbal arguments to murder

Between neighbors over resources or territory, e.g. Gwembe Valley

Between neighbors over dogs, e.g. middle-class Americans

Feuding

The most universal form of inter-group aggression

Based on revenge

Some cultures experience more feuding because of economic change

SHORTAGE OFFEMALES

RAID TO CAPTUREWOMEN

FIERCE MALE BABIES FAVORED

FEMALE INFANTICIDE

POLYGYNY

The WaiteriComplex

Yanomami

Nonviolent Conflict

Gandhi Non-violent resistance Public fasting Strikes Celibacy

Weapons of the weak Foot dragging, desertion, false compliance,

humor

Mobilizing Public Opinion

Within Kin-Based systems disputes are settled on the basis of who has the most kin support (public opinion)

The general principle of dispute settlement, and leadership, is mobilization of public opinion

How far claims can be pressed depends on an individual’s willingness to suffer social penalties and his/her social backing

Social Control of Behavior

Ways societies deal with abnormal behavior and conflict:

Gossip and ridicule

Fear of witchcraft accusations

Avoidance

Supernatural sanctions

Law

Law is found in every society.

In complex societies, functions of law belong to legal institutions, such as courts.

Law addresses conflicts that would otherwise disrupt community life.

Politics and the Social Contract

Social Contract - a public contract where people agree to band together for some purpose - often highly structured in the realm of what we call "politics“

Politics - the spatial aspect of social force

Institutions control the use of force within a territorial framework (chiefdom or state)

Politics

The power to bring about results through authority or influence through possession of

forceful means

A human universal? No, politics only emerged

with increase in private property

Yes, there is no boundary between how kinship and political organizations organize power

In Political Analysis You Must Understand:

the territorial extent and organization of the society

how space and resources are divided

the social system through which force is allocated to and by different individuals playing different roles

how that system is viewed by those living in it

the institutional control of force by warfare: the maintenance of territory from outsiders

the institutional control of force by law enforcement: maintenance of territory from insiders

Egalitarian Societies

No individual or group has more access to resources, power, or prestige than any other.

No fixed number of social positions for which individuals must compete.

Associated with bands and tribes.

Shamans and Public Opinion

Shamans: Part-time religious, healing, or magic specialists

Shamans may attribute forces to enemies, both within and without

Shamans may prescribe social solutions in the guise of magic

Shamans may organize the group around perceptions and supernatural commands.

Headmanship

Headmen are individuals whose opinion carries more weight than others. They lead by example

A good headman can judge the prevailing opinions and gauge his statements to them

Motivation by example is the chief tool of the headman

The Leopard Skin Chief

The Leopard Skin Chiefs are an institution among the Nuer (Sudan).

Mediate the disputes arising out of homicide

Can ritually cleanse

the murderer

Negotiates

compensation

Curses those

who would break

the settlement

Non-kin Associations: Sodalities

Sodality: A non-kin group or association within a society organized around kinship groups

Age Grade Associations Provides convenient way to teach youth Allocates civic responsibilities

Single Sex Associations (often combined with other factors, e.g. age)

Agreement or Voluntary Groups Vary widely in form Organized for almost any purpose imaginable Slight differences in the structures of parallel organizations

Rank Society

Institutionalized differences in prestige but no restrictions on access to basic resources.

Individuals obtain what they need to survive through their kinship group.

Associated with horticulture or pastoral societies with a surplus of food.

Associated with chiefdoms.

Stratified Society

Formal, permanent, social and economic inequality.

Some people are denied access to basic resources.

Characterized by differences in standard of living, security, prestige and political power.

Stratified Society

Economically organized by market systems (usually).

Based on intensive cultivation (agriculture) and industrialism.

Often associated with a form of political organization called the state.

Dimensions of Stratification

Power—control resources in one’s own interest.

Wealth—accumulation of material resources or access to the means of producing these resources.

Prestige—social honor or respect.

Ascribed Vs. Achieved Status

Ascribed StatusSocial position into which a person is born. (sex, race, kinship group)

Achieved StatusSocial position that a person chooses or achieves. (professor, criminal, artist)

Social Stratification

Achieved Status Ascribed Status

Class Race

Ethnicity

Caste

Societies place people in categories. Social groups relate differently to each other depending on their status.

Social Class in the United States

Status depends on occupation, education, and lifestyle.

“The American Dream,” is based on the democratic principle of equality and opportunity for all.

Social class in the United States correlates with attitudinal, behavioral, and lifestyle differences.

Caste System

System of stratification based on birth.

Movement from one caste to another is not possible.

Castes are hereditary, endogamous (marrying within a specific ethic group), ranked in relation to one another and usually associated with a traditional occupation.

Hindu Caste System

Four caste categories

1. Brahmins - priests and scholars

2. Kshatriyas - ruling and warrior caste

3. Vaisyas - the merchants

4. Shudras - menial workers and artisans

5. Harijans – “untouchables”

U.S. Racial Stratification Systems

Race is constructed on the basis of skin color and presumed ancestry.

Divides people into “blacks” and “whites” ignoring the reality of the skin color spectrum.

By the 20th century, the system of race in the American south was very similar to the caste system in India.

Race Stratification in the U.S. and Brazil

Two largest multiracial societies in the Americas.

In both societies the legacy of slavery continues in the form of racial inequality.

Brazil: 45% of nonwhite families and 25% of white families live below the poverty line.

U.S.: 30% of nonwhite families and 8% of white families live below the poverty line.

Types of Social Groups

Friendship

Clubs and fraternities

Counterculture groups

Work groups

Cooperatives

Activist groups

Friendship

A cultural universal

Usually between social equals

Can be gender and race segregated

Sometimes based on shared story-telling

Institutional relationships (e.g. prison)

Friendship amongst the urban poor

Clubs and Fraternities

Define membership on shared identity

Can serve economic and political roles

Men’s clubs featuring male-male bonding activities are common often involve objectification and mistreatment of

women some US college fraternities

Counterculture Groups

Feature in industrialized societies

Members desire to be identified with a special group youth gangs

Initiation rituals a leader special clothing

body modification groups

Work Groups

Organized to perform particular task

Prominent in horticultural and agricultural communities

Often made up of youth groups

Cooperatives

Surpluses are shared among the members

One person, one vote

Farmer cooperatives e.g. in western India

Craft cooperatives e.g. in Panama

Activist Groups

Formed with the goal of protesting certain conditions such as political repression or human rights violations e.g. Invisible Children, CO-

MADRES

Also formed because of concerns about personal problems e.g. AA

Civil Society

Diverse interest groups that operate outside the government to organize aspects of life the Church Trade Unions Environmental groups