Anthropology Final: Social Inequality & Control

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Socially stratified societies-

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contain social groups that have unequal access to important advantages: economic resources, power, Prestige

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economic resources

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Cash, cattle, land, money-whatever is valued

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power

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Quality that lets individual or group control others

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Prestige

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status

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Three Types of Socially Stratified Societies

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Egalitarian
Rank
Class

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Egalitarian Societies

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Bands and tribes
type
Tribes have “Big Men”
Anyone can be big man if have work & personality, equal access
No differential access to power, prestige, OR economic resources
Mbuti, Kung, Yanomamo-not beneficial to have more power
Does not mean everyone equal

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Egalitarian Societies
Age and Gender Differences

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Men hunt & women gather
type
Younger men/women provide food & older men/women carry the myths and wisdom
Does NOT alter power, prestige or economic source

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Egalitarian

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E.g. the same level of housing
Same opportunity to gain prestige through sharing
Same access to hunting areas etc.
in part because not a real advanced level of materialistic complexity
Very little to separate people

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Why would the ecological base of H&G and Tribes lead to an egalitarian society?

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Must share- cannot hoard
Everyone dependent on the other for survival
Cooperation essential between members
Environment dictates cooperation and sharing

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Rank Societies

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Usually are agricultural or herding societies
(not all ag/herd are rank based)
Primarily found in Chiefdoms
(NW Coast Native Americans)
Slight inequality regarding prestige
Ascribed role
(not everyone can be chief-based on lineage)
(Not related so much to power or wealth)

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Chiefs

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Chiefs are different from “Big Men” in many ways
This position is ascribed
Still kinship based
Chiefs are full-time political specialists in charge of economic production, distribution, and consumption

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The Ecological Base FOR rANK SOCIETIES

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Larger and more sedentary
have surplus- can save up
Have redistribution from different ecological areas
Still kinship
Requires much more specialization

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Class Societies

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Unequal access to power, prestige, AND economic resources
Found with states

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The Ecological Base FOR Class Societies

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Extremely sedentary and large populations
Much surplus
Extreme specialization
Nucleation, centralization of power, and diversification of labor

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Social Control

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All societies have some way to bring people into line.
(all groups have deviant behavior in some)
Differences between kin-based and class-based societies
(Class-hording, social stratification)

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Social Control in Kin-Based Societies

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Social control is the responsibility of kin groups
(not impartial)
Kin act as mediators
Personal intervention

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Social Control in Class-Based Societies

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Punishment meant to be impartial and impersonal
(theoretically more regulated)
More formalized

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Means of Social Control

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Law
Gossip/Ridicule
Witchcraft Accusations
Threat of Supernatural Wrath

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Law

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Defined- a social norm whose violation is punishable by threat of or application of physical force by a legitimate official or body
Focus is on harmony
Not necessarily codified- (written down)
(Corporal punishment, inhibit movement-jail,
done by officials-police, council of elders)
(Rehabilitation of wrongdoer)

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Gossip and Ridicule

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Found in all types of societies
Especially important in kin-based societies
(you know everyone-no escaping-particularly effective)

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Gossip and Ridicule in our society

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police log, bad checks posted behind register

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Witchcraft accusation

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Put hex on you-sleeping with someone else's wife
Accused of being a witch-some societies execute

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Supernatural Wrath

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If you break rules, you will be punished by supernatural
They always know
Most effective
Eternal damnation

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The Power of states

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How do states maintain control?
Direct force-marshal law, shooting if law is broken
Only lasts so long
Nothing to lose if too much is taken

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Hegemony

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The power and solidarity of the state as created by the consent of the governed.
It is in a stratified social order in which subordinates comply with the domination by internalizing its values and accepting its “naturalness”
(Government making laws in our best interest)
(State ideology-national education)
(Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, work hard it pays off in the end)
The positive outcomes of development and “progress” are highlighted
The costs and inequalities are masked
(Technology-USA first-how it helps everyone-heart monitor, etc..-not shown those working 15 hours to make with no insurance or money)

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Gentrification

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Before & after
Clean up neighborhood with newer more expensive buildings
People who could afford old place cannot afford new
Those who cannot afford it are not working hard enough

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Benefits of Development?

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May benefit some but hurt others

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Appeasement

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Poorest of poor given food, shelter & clothing
Soup kitchen
ER
Keeps underclass appeased-prevents mobilizing and revolution

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The Anthropological “Other”

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Lack power, legitimacy, and validity
Their knowledge is dismissed
Suffer from cultural poverty
(Ourselves-civilized, wordly, educated.
Others lack these things-savages)
(Lack power in our eyes)

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Example of The Anthropological “Other”

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Native Americans-"kill the indian to save the man"-make them white