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Political Systems

Political Systems. Objectives 4/16. Describe and distinguish between the major types of political organization. Know the general characteristics of leaders in different political systems and discuss how those are related to subsistence strategies. ______________________________________.

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Political Systems

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  1. Political Systems

  2. Objectives4/16 • Describe and distinguish between the major types of political organization. • Know the general characteristics of leaders in different political systems and discuss how those are related to subsistence strategies. ______________________________________

  3. Typologies • Helping us to organize our thoughts • Provide a framework for comparing and contrasting cultural groups • Providing parameters for testing the limits on generalizations about human social organization.

  4. Limitations • Grey areas • Not every example fits prototypical characteristics • culture change may involve uneven shifts in social, political and economic aspects of a society

  5. Political Systems Centralized Uncentralized Marriage and kinship are primary means of social organization Consensual decision making, democratic fashion Male and females typically are included in decision-making flexible set of political systems • Complexity of human relationships • Agricultural and industrial societies • Individual/group has opportunity to exercise greater control over people and resources • Colonized societies

  6. Complications • Political systems often overlap or best with varying degrees of integration • Today there are over 200 states in the world • There are 5,000 nations • Tribes exist within states

  7. Political Organizations • Bands • Tribes • Chiefdoms • States

  8. Band • Politically independent group of households • Oldest political system • Tend to be related • Least complicated form of political organization • Tend to marry within the group • Stay together as long as the carrying capacity and density of social relations stays stable • Wet season= more people • Dry season= less people

  9. Tribe • A group of nominally independent communities occupying a specific region and sharing a common language and culture integrated by some unifying culture • Kin groups, age, grades • Horticulture and Pastoralism • typically larger than bands • Leaders have very little actually authority • Based on reciprocal interactions and redistribution of goods

  10. Chiefdom • A political unit in which two or more villages or communities are organized under a single chief, who is at the head of a ranked hierarchy • Typically an hereditary office • Truly an authority figure • Distribute land, adjudicate, etc. • Multilayered= chiefdom under superior chiefdom • Unstable political system

  11. State • A centralized political system that may legitimately use force to maintain social order. • Most formal of political system • States began about 5,000 years ago • Power is centralized by government • State may legitimately use force to regulate the affairs of it’s citizens.

  12. State cont. • Tendency toward instability • Competing state structures • A primary distinguishing trait of states is the delegation of executive authority • Maintain order (within and outside boards) • Controls and punishes crime, terrorism, rebellion, acts against the state • Authority is thus impersonal and quite predictable

  13. Life without Chiefs Can humans exist without some people ruling and others being ruled?

  14. 98% of existence= no chiefs • Small societies based on family • 30 -50 people per band • 10,000 years since people began to settle into villages • 2,000 years people have been sustaining life through multiple means

  15. Hunting and gathering bands • Managed without a chief • How did they do it? • Small groups of people • Have one goal • Set expectations • Generalized reciprocity (a lot of trust with little distance)

  16. Modern examples of generalized reciprocity? • Parents feeding children • Use of family car • Wives do not bill their husbands for cooking

  17. “Etiquette requires that generosity be taken for granted.”

  18. When is it appropriate to say thank you?

  19. Never! • Suggests two things • One has calculated the amount of a gift • One did not expect the donor to be so generous

  20. !Kung experience: • Anthropologist went to village • Killed biggest ox • Villagers not grateful

  21. Why? • “When a young man kills much meat he comes to think of himself as a chief or a big man, and he thinks of the rest of us as his servants or inferiors.”

  22. Directions • Separate into 4 groups • Read through article out loud or silently. • Write answers for your section only. • Only turn in one paper for your group. • Hold onto papers when finished • Write responsibilities of leader on board

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