Class notes
ANTH1150 - Lecture 8
- Institution
- University Of Guelph (U Of G )
In-depth class notes of lecture 8, includes highlighted sections that were included a lot on the exam
[Show more]
Content preview
Tuesday, October 29, 2019Politics and Power
Key terms/concepts for exam from Chapter 12
- alienation
- anomie
- biopower
- domination
- essentially
- free agency
- governmentality
- hegemony
- political anthropology
- political power
- social power resistance
- social organization
Introduction
- Social organization: the patterning of human interdependence in a given society
through the actions and decisions of its members
The Power to Act
- Human choice is important in the domain of social organization
• The ability to choose implies power: transformative capacity, the ability to
transform a given situation
- Social power: the ability to transform a situation that a ects an entire social group
1
ff
, Tuesday, October 29, 2019
- Political power: social power held by a group that is in a position to a ect the lives
of many people
- Vene Klasen and Miller identify three types of political power:
1) Visible (formal rules, institutions, authorities)
2) Hidden (groups with social power using discretion to in uence decisions)
3) Invisible (power embedded in cultural norms)
- Political anthropology: the study of social power in human society
- Involves interplay between ethnographic eldwork, political theory, and criticism of
political theory
The Role of the State
- The previous assumption was that without the state, there was anarchy and disorder
- Lewis Henry Morgan’s research showed the ways in which kinship institutions
organized social life in societies without states
- Later political anthropologists showed that societies without states can reach and
carry out decisions a ecting the entire social group by means of orderly traditional
processes
Coercion: With and Without Traditional State Institutions
- State and non-state societies:
• Both employ coercion as a means of maintaining control
• Free agency: the freedom of self-contained individuals to pursue their own
interests above everyone else and to challenge one another for dominance
Tribe
- Originally viewed as a culturally distinct, multiband population that imagined itself as
one people descended from a common ancestor; currently used to describe an
2
ff fi fl ff
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller sciencestudynotes101. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for CA$4.42. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
52510 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now
