Generalized Levels of Organization
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Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms, States.
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Bands |
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Basic form of social organization. Small, (50-100 people) Kin-based, highly mobile, seasonal aggregation, leadership by consensus, no real power structure (Egalitarian)
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Tribes |
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A bunch of bands that are aggregated. NOT what you've seen in the movies. Aggregation of interrelated bands. Flexible membership. Seasonal aggregation and dispersal. Leadership by consensus of band elders. Leadership is task specific short-term. Authority-based, not power based.
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Tribal Infrastructure
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Tribes tend to be organized around common resources such as land, water, or game animals. Foraging, or a combo of foraging with small-scale horticulture, and/or pastoralism.
EX: Custer's Last Stand. He thought 100 men would distract 5000 people from tribe, so he could chase after family going North, but because of ceremony they saw him.
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Simple Chiefdoms
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Tend to form when key resources are dominated by one or a few lineages. Leadership is hereditary, as are the key resources though the exact nature and amount of inherited resources may be relatively limited. Essentially, one lineage has come to be more affluent than all others and has generated some marginal level of control.
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Factional Competition
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The competition between different social and political units that exist within a larger organization, such as rival lineages, within a chiefdom.
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Paramount Chiefdom (Kingdom)
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Develops when a simple chiefdom gains power over other simple chiefdoms, creating a hierarchy.
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Chiefdoms and stability
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Chiefdoms are unstable over long periods of time. Clever, energetic chiefs do well, less than energetic and clever chiefs may lose power to rival factions, perhaps even being overthrown. When things go well, chiefs get credit. When things go poorly, chiefs get blamed.
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States |
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States break political control away from lineages. Power is vested in offices, not in lineages. Mechanisms exist for transferring power, and authority without major social and economic disruption (Doesn't mean transitions always proceed smoothly.)
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New States
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Often appear to be extensions of older chiefdom based on politics.
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European Union
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Essentially parallel to band elders in a tribal form. Leadership by consensus, some notions are more influential.
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Political Integration
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The process that brings disparate people under the control of a single political system.
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Pan-tribal mechanisms
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Mechanisms such as clans, age, grades and secret societies found in tribal societies that cut across kinship lines and integrate all the local segments of the tribe into a larger whole. (Major difference between bands and tribes.)
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Clan |
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Group of kin who consider themselves to be descended from a common ancestor, even though individual clan members cannot trace, their connection to the clan founder.
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Specialized Political Roles
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Very specific tasks expected of a person or group, such as law enforcement, tax collection, dispute settlement, recruitment of labor and protection from outside invasions.
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Voluntaristic theory of state formation
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Theory that stable systems of state govts. arose because people voluntary surrendered some of their autonomy to the state in exchange for certain benefits (Put forth by archaeologist V. Gordon Childe)
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Hydraulic Theory of State Formation
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The notion that early state systems of govt. arose because small-scale farmers were will to surrender a portion of their autonomy to a large govt. entity in exchange for the benefits of large-scale irrigation systems. Suggested by Karl Wittfogel.
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Coercive Theory of State Formation
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The argument that the state came into existence as a direct result of Warfare (Carneiro)
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Nation |
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A group of people who share a common identity, history and culture.
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State |
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A particular type of political structure that is hierarchical, bureaucratic and cutralized and has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force to implement its policies.
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Democracy |
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A type of political system that involves popular participation in decision making.
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Autocracy |
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A form of govt. that's controlled by a leader who holds absolute power and denies popular participation in decision making.
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Headless Societies
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Societies that have no political leaders such as a president king or chiefs.
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Social Control
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Mechanisms found in all societies that function to encourage people not to violate social norms. Every society must ensure most people behave appropriately.
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Social Norms
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Expected forms of behavior. Aren't adhered perfectly, certain amount of deviance in every society.
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Deviance |
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Violation of a social norm
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Sanctions |
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Any means used to enforce compliance with the rules and norms of society.
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Positive Sanctions
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Mechanisms of social control for enforcing and society's norms through rewards.
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Negative Sanctions
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Punishments for violating the norms of society.
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Political Coerciveness
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Capacity of a political system to enforce its will on general population. (Headless societies)
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Socialization |
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Teaching young people norms of society.
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Public Opinion
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What the general public thinks about some issue; when public opinion is brought to bear on an individual, it can influence his/her behavior
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Degradation Ceremonies
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Deliberate and formal societal mechanisms designed to publicly humiliate someone who has broken a social norm.
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Corporate Lineages
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Kinship groups whose members engage in daily activities together.
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Supernatural Belief System
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Set of beliefs in forces that transcend the natural observable world.
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Ancestor Worship
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Worship of deceased relatives; these souls are considered supernatural beings, and fully functioning members of a descent group.
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Ghost Invocation
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Practice of a living person, typically an elder, calling for the wrath of ancestor gods against an alleged sinner.
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Witchcraft |
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Use of inborn involuntary and unconscious powers to cause harm to other people.
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Age Organizations
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Type of social organization found in East Africa and among Native Americans groups where in people of roughly same age pass through different levels of society together.
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Age Set
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Group of roughly same age who pass through various age grades together.
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Age Grades
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Permanent age categories in a society through which people pass in a life time.
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Crime |
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Harm to a person or property that society considers illegitimate.
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