ANTH 1002 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Non-Governmental Organization, Civil Society, Margaret Mead
Chapter 12: Politics and Power
I. How have anthropologists viewed the origins of human political history?
A. Band: a small kinship-based group of foragers who hunt and gather for a living over a particular
territory
B. Tribe: originally viewed as culturally distinct, multipopulation that imagined itself as one people
descended from a common ancestor; currently used to describe an indigenous group with its own
set of loyalties and leaders living to some extent outside the control of a centralized authoritative
state
C. Chiefdoms: an autonomous political unit composed of a number of the villages or communities
under the permanent control of a paramount chief
D. Putting typologies in perspective
II. What is the state?
A. State: an autonomous regional structure of political, economic, and military rule with a central
government authorized to make laws and use force to maintain order and defend its territory
B. The modern western-style state
C. Aspects of state power
C.1. Hegemony: the ability of a dominant group to create consent and agreement
within a population without the use or threat of force
III. How is globalization affecting the state?
A. International non-state actors challenge state sovereignty
B. Civil society organization: a local nongovernmental organization that challenges state policies
and uneven development, and advocates for resources and opportunities for members of its local
communities
C. Civil society organizations gain a global reach
IV. What is the relationship among politics, the state, violence, and war?
A. Are humans naturally violent or peaceful?
A.1. Challenging the myth of killer apes and aggressive humans
A.2. Margaret Mead and the invention of welfare
B. The state and war
B.1. Militarization: the contested social process through which a civil society
organizes for the production of military violence
C. Anthropology on the front lines of was and globalization
C.1. Mozambique
C.2. A comparative study
V. How do people mobilize power outside the state’s control?
A. Agency: the potential power of individuals and groups that contest cultural norms, values, mental
maps of reality, symbols, institutions, and structures of power
B. Social movements: collective group actions that seek to build institutional networks to transform
cultural patterns and government policies
B.1. Rural social movements
B.2. Occupy wall street
B.2.a) Framing process: the creation of shared meanings and definitions that
motivate and justify collective action by social movements
C. Alternative legal structures
C.1. Islamic Fatwa councils in Cairo
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Document Summary
Hegemony: the ability of a dominant group to create consent and agreement within a population without the use or threat of force. A: civil society organization: a local nongovernmental organization that challenges state policies and uneven development, and advocates for resources and opportunities for members of its local communities, civil society organizations gain a global reach. Challenging the myth of killer apes and aggressive humans. Margaret mead and the invention of welfare: the state and war. Militarization: the contested social process through which a civil society organizes for the production of military violence: anthropology on the front lines of was and globalization. Framing process: the creation of shared meanings and definitions that motivate and justify collective action by social movements: alternative legal structures.
