Political Anthropology - Specific Concerns

Methods people adopt to achieve political ends:

• use of force (raw power)
• acquisition of authority (legitimized use of power)
  
  
• Processes:
  
  
• selection of leaders
• establishment of social norms and policies
• sanctioning of norms, i.e., the maintenance of social control
• airing and settlement of disputes
• conduct of relations with neighbouring societies, i.e., diplomacy and warfare
  
  
• Forms:
  
  
• stateless (tribal) no formal political offices or governmental institutions
• state level
• chiefdoms weakly centralized but nevertheless specialized organs of government
• fully centralized states powerfully centralized governments and administrative bureaucracies

• Next: Stateless systems
• Return to syllabus