Core Themes in Anthropology
Chapter 7: Politics and Power
Chapter 8: Ecology, Landscape and Culture
Chapter 9: Colonialism and the World System
Chapter 10: Collapse and Change
Chapter 11: Application of Cultural Anthropology
Chapter 12: Globalization and Indigeneity
,Chapter 7: Politics and Power
The Segmentary Model of Society
● Segmentary lineage is the view of society consisting of various levels of inclusiveness defined by
kinship
● Affinal ties: allegiance based on marriage
● Consanguineal: being descended from the same ancestor as someone
Social and Political Differentiation:
● Egalitarian
○ Lack of social stratification
○ Age and sex are used to distinguish between people
○ Older people tend to have authority over younger people
● Ranking
○ Has more distinctions between people than egalitarianism
○ Societies are centered around individuals such as:
■ Big man; achieved status by giving away goods, reciprocity that he gets political
support in return, sense of agency, limited because the bigger his status the
bigger his responsibility
Chief; ascribed status, redistribution that all goods are collected in the center and
then handed out
● Stratification
○ States and empires are always stratified
○ Caste: occupational specializations were ascribed;
■ Priestly caste
■ Military caste
■ Rural farm workers and shop workers
■ Servants and manual workers
■ Additional group is considered “untouchable”
○ Class: A system in society in which people are divided into sets based on perceived
economical and social status
● State
○ A highly complex society with classes or castes and a political hierarchy
○ In state-level societies, people specialize (e.g. artisans, educators, surgeons, priests, etc.)
Theories of the State
● Minimal complexity
○ Temporary union of two or more bands or villages for the purpose of organizing labour
under a chief
○ Maximal complexity is the action of uniting numerous villages in warfare commanded by
the chief
, ● Complexification
○ Refers to the increasing homogeneity in social, political, and economic structures in
society
○ Theories to explain this state formation are voluntary and compulsory
● Hydraulic hypothesis
○ That state arose to control water resources and manage irrigation in deserts where food
could only be produced through intensive agriculture
○ Bureaucracy was needed to control the infrastructure
● Multilinear evolution
○ Ways in which to explain how complex societies could yet experience changes that were
similar to those occurring in other regions of the world
● Environmental circumscription
○ Theory that the competitiveness of scarce land and environmental space led to the
development of authority (chief’s) to control and manage the traffic on the land
States and Stratification Defined By:
● Class
● Castes
● Centralization of authority
○ States use their power to produce labor and taxes from the citizens and allot
responsibility for law and order to a central authority
○ Central authority can be: government, monarch represented by king and queen or
emperor
○ Make decisions on: tax and rent, type of works, punishment for crimes, where people
live, what people learn, worships, quantity of food, how much work
● Ethnic diversity
○ Ethnicity is the self-identification of persons as members of a group that shares costums,
shared language or dialect, and a set of symbols that mark their relatedness, such as
ritual, clothing, hairstyle or body ornamentation
○ Substrate influence: when states attempt to collapse the ethnic differences, however the
collapse is not complete and ethnic differences remain
○ Multiethnic states also known as pluralistic societies
● Means for controlling conflict
○ Include ethnic conflict
Chapter 7: Politics and Power
Chapter 8: Ecology, Landscape and Culture
Chapter 9: Colonialism and the World System
Chapter 10: Collapse and Change
Chapter 11: Application of Cultural Anthropology
Chapter 12: Globalization and Indigeneity
,Chapter 7: Politics and Power
The Segmentary Model of Society
● Segmentary lineage is the view of society consisting of various levels of inclusiveness defined by
kinship
● Affinal ties: allegiance based on marriage
● Consanguineal: being descended from the same ancestor as someone
Social and Political Differentiation:
● Egalitarian
○ Lack of social stratification
○ Age and sex are used to distinguish between people
○ Older people tend to have authority over younger people
● Ranking
○ Has more distinctions between people than egalitarianism
○ Societies are centered around individuals such as:
■ Big man; achieved status by giving away goods, reciprocity that he gets political
support in return, sense of agency, limited because the bigger his status the
bigger his responsibility
Chief; ascribed status, redistribution that all goods are collected in the center and
then handed out
● Stratification
○ States and empires are always stratified
○ Caste: occupational specializations were ascribed;
■ Priestly caste
■ Military caste
■ Rural farm workers and shop workers
■ Servants and manual workers
■ Additional group is considered “untouchable”
○ Class: A system in society in which people are divided into sets based on perceived
economical and social status
● State
○ A highly complex society with classes or castes and a political hierarchy
○ In state-level societies, people specialize (e.g. artisans, educators, surgeons, priests, etc.)
Theories of the State
● Minimal complexity
○ Temporary union of two or more bands or villages for the purpose of organizing labour
under a chief
○ Maximal complexity is the action of uniting numerous villages in warfare commanded by
the chief
, ● Complexification
○ Refers to the increasing homogeneity in social, political, and economic structures in
society
○ Theories to explain this state formation are voluntary and compulsory
● Hydraulic hypothesis
○ That state arose to control water resources and manage irrigation in deserts where food
could only be produced through intensive agriculture
○ Bureaucracy was needed to control the infrastructure
● Multilinear evolution
○ Ways in which to explain how complex societies could yet experience changes that were
similar to those occurring in other regions of the world
● Environmental circumscription
○ Theory that the competitiveness of scarce land and environmental space led to the
development of authority (chief’s) to control and manage the traffic on the land
States and Stratification Defined By:
● Class
● Castes
● Centralization of authority
○ States use their power to produce labor and taxes from the citizens and allot
responsibility for law and order to a central authority
○ Central authority can be: government, monarch represented by king and queen or
emperor
○ Make decisions on: tax and rent, type of works, punishment for crimes, where people
live, what people learn, worships, quantity of food, how much work
● Ethnic diversity
○ Ethnicity is the self-identification of persons as members of a group that shares costums,
shared language or dialect, and a set of symbols that mark their relatedness, such as
ritual, clothing, hairstyle or body ornamentation
○ Substrate influence: when states attempt to collapse the ethnic differences, however the
collapse is not complete and ethnic differences remain
○ Multiethnic states also known as pluralistic societies
● Means for controlling conflict
○ Include ethnic conflict
