Economic and Political Systems

II
Power, Authority and Exchange

Anthropology 302
Fall 2022
 Political Anthropology
 How are power and social control
 organized?
 distributed?
 manifested?
 Who has the authority? The source?
 How are group decisions made?
 How is social order enforced?
 How are conflicts dealt with?
 Power and Authority
 Power
 the ability to
exercise one’s
will over others.
 Authority
 the socially
approved use of
power.
 Mechanisms of Control
 Culturally instilled values
 Expectation of supernatural harm or reward
 Informal social mechanisms
 ridicule and ostracism, gossip

 Praise

 Formal social mechanisms

 laws and rules

 institutionalized threat of force

 Bands as the political organization of
foraging groups
 Rarely more than 30-40 people
 kin-based
 Flexible extended family units
 No formal political organization
 No socioeconomic stratification
 the political order (polity) is not a
distinct institution, but is embedded
in the overall social order.
 Bands
 How are group decisions
made?
 adult consensus
 informal leaders
 egalitarian
 How is social order enforced?
 ridicule and ostracism
 How are conflicts dealt with?
 negotiation/mediation
 mobility
Tribes
 Tribes
 How are group decisions
made?
 Consensus among descent
groups
 How are social norms
enforced?
 ridicule and ostracism
 How are conflicts dealt
with?
 negotiation/mediation
 semi-official mediation
 Tribes- Village Head
 achieved position/ limited authority.
• He cannot force or coerce people to do

things.
• He can only persuade, harangue, and

try to influence people to do things.

• Must “win friends and influence

people”
 acts as a mediator in disputes, but has no
authority to back his decision or impose
punishments.
 The village head must lead in generosity.
• He must be more generous, which

means he must cultivate more land.

• He hosts feasts for other villages.
 Tribes- Big Man
 Big Man -like a village head,
except that his authority is
regional in that he may have
influence over more than one
village
 wisdom
 wealth
 generosity
 charisma.
 unofficial prestige status
 The benefit is greater influence
Nuer, Sudan
and community standing.
 Chiefdoms
 Agriculturalists or pastoralists
 Multiple communities that share
common identity and tribute system
 Thousands to many thousands of people
 Centralized political organization based
on hierarchical lineage system
 a political unit of permanently allied
tribes and villages under one recognized
Old Chief of the
leader with authority Arawa Tribe,
 Significant socioeconomic stratification Rotorua, New
Zealand.
based on lineage
 Chiefdoms
 How are group decisions
made?
 Chief and advisors
 How is social order
enforced?
 ridicule and ostracism
 official order
 use of force
 How are conflicts dealt
with?
 negotiation/mediation
 centralized arbitration
 Chiefdoms
 Small hierarchical bureaucracy
 Tribute - tax paid to chief to be redistributed
according to “community” needs
 Chiefs – Leaders own, manage, and control basic
factors of the economy and have special access to
 crops
Grand chief Matthew Coon Come
 labor
 cash
 goods.
 Chiefdoms
Formalized leadership
functions
•Unrelated to personal
qualities
•Rules of succession
(primogeniture)
•Office is permanent - it
outlasts the individuals
who occupy them
•Loyalty, status, coercion –
Zulu Chief
but not too much
 States
 Agriculturalists
 Multiple cities that share tax
and administrative
infrastructure system
 Tens of thousands to billions
of people
 Centralized political
organization possessing
coercive power
 Social stratification is one of Calcutta
the key distinguishing features
of states.
 States
 How are group decisions
made?
 rulers decide “on behalf of”
populous
 How is social order
enforced?
 official enforcement
 threat or use of sanctions
 How are conflicts dealt with? Angkor
 negotiation/mediation
 centralized arbitration
 States
 Status
 not necessarily kin-based
 class-based
 Codification of laws
 More formalized in industrial
societies
 Courts – adjudicate and mediate
Officials
 Monopoly on use of force
 Police force Hammurabi’s Code
(1750 BC)
 As humankind got away from
hunting and gathering societies
• Accumulation of wealth
• Production not for need, but for profit and
wealth
• Increasing control and exploitation of
nature
• Increasing division of labor
• Rise of formal political authority
(bureaucracy, chiefdoms, state, army, etc.)
• Increasing social stratification
• Increasing gender inequality
Economic and Political
Systems:
Exchange
 Exchange: The Act of Giving and
Taking One Thing for Another
• The chief means by which useful things move
from one person to another
• Richly symbolic activity: All exchanges have got
social meaning
• An important way in which people create and
maintain relationships and social hierarchy
 Exchange and Society
 In order for social relationships to exist we
must exchange something whether it is the
communicative exchange of language, the
economic and/or ceremonial exchange of
goods or the exchange in any other form.
 Exchange is crucial for the establishment
and maintenance of social relationships.
 Patterns of exchange and circulation, lead
us to the heart of social and cultural
organization.
 Understanding Exchange
 WHO: Exchange relationships
 WHAT: What is the significance and meaning of
what is exchanged?
 WHERE: What is the significance and meaning of
where it is exchanged?
 WHEN: On what occasions?
 WHY: Social reasons
 HOW: Ceremony, mechanisms, and etc.
 Marcel Mauss, 1925: The Gift
 If friends make gifts- gifts
make friends.
 What power resides in the
object given that causes its
recipients to pay back?
 Bonds of social obligation
created by the act of gift
giving: To give, to receive,
and to repay.
 Gifts create bonds not only
among individuals but
groups of people.
 Distribution and Exchange

 reciprocity
 redistribution

 market principle
 Reciprocity: exchange between
social equals
 Generalized

 Balanced

 Negative
 Generalized reciprocity

• Between close kin and

friends
• Highly moral – no
expectation of return
 Generalized reciprocity
is the primary exchange
principle in hunter-
gatherer societies
 The Potlatch
 Is a complex system of competitive feasting,
speechmaking, and gift giving intended in part to
enhance the status of the giver. 
 A form of ceremonial exchange of gifts employed
by indigenous groups on NW coast of BC,
including Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw)
 Because of all the gifts, a traditional potlatch took
years to prepare.
 A large potlatch held in 1921 was said to take 17
years of preparation.
 A modern day potlatch may take about a year to
prepare and cost $10,000.
 Social Significance of Potlatch

 The potlatch is a system of gift exchange--- material goods

are exchanged for social recognition and power
Potlatch celebrations are a significant representation of the
host's status and the display of rank and title
In return for giving away food and wealth they get
recognition of their status and that of their lineage.
Potlatches become very competitive as the aspiring leaders
use competitive potlatching to move up the system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_gYjQw9Bf4
 Balanced reciprocity
 Return expected

 Delayed exchange

 Maintains ties with more

distant people

 A precise balance
between the things
exchanged
 Redistribution
 The transfer of goods and services
between a central collecting
source and a social group
 From this central location,
resources are redistributed to
community
 Potlatch, charity and progressive
income tax in US, distribution in
state socialist societies
 Market Exchange
 The primary form of
exchange in our society
 Value set by impersonal
forces
 Mostly based on the
abstract medium of
money
 No role obligations
 Enables exchange
between strangers