Exam 12: Politics and Power

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In the analysis of the political systems of indigenous societies of the world,Service described bands,tribes,chiefdoms,and states.Bands are small,kin-based groups who forage over a particular territory.They tend to be decentralized,with local and informal leadership and little stratification.Cooperation and sharing are stressed in the community,and decisions are made by consensus.They resist domination by any individual in favor of the group,and these qualities make for a very flexible and self-sufficient community that can live in very harsh environments.Tribes are larger groups that emerged as people were moving to food production.They are culturally distinct and organized around villages,kin groups,clans,and lineages.Like bands,tribes tend to be egalitarian,with decentralized power structures and decision making.Some leaders do emerge in the form of "Big Men" or village heads who wield influence,but their power tends to be very limited.Kin groups or villages within groups tend to be independent but join together at times to achieve common goals.Chiefdoms are also kin-based organizations,with political structures built around kinship networks and lineages.They usually control a designated territory.Leadership is centralized in the form of the chief,who has political control over a particular territory.People in chiefdoms tend to live in ranked hierarchies with the chief and his family at the top.The chief's power is supported by the religion,and the chief has authority to tax,raise military forces,and control trade to an extent.In Micronesia,this system promotes connections over large distances that can be used to deal with catastrophic events,such as hurricanes and storms that are a problem in the Pacific.Kin connections allow for resources to flow into areas that need them while they recover.