Social Structure and Conflict
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I MAYA POLITICAL ORGANIZATION DURING THE
MAYA POLITICAL ORGANIZATION DURING THE TERMINAL CLASSIC PERIOD IN THE COCHUAH REGION, QUINTANA ROO, MEXICO, FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A SECONDARY SITE A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Tatiana Zelenetskaya Young July 2016 Examining Committee Members: Anthony Ranere, Advisory Chair, TU Department of Anthropology Michael Stewart, TU Department of Anthropology Patricia Hansell, TU Department of Anthropology Dave Johnstone, co-director of Cochuah Region Archeological Survey Lisa Lucero, External Member, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign i © Copyright 2016 by TatianaZelenetskayaYoung ii ABSTRACT The dissertation examines the political organization of the ancient Maya during the Terminal Classic Period in the Cochuah Region of Quintana Roo. It evaluates the architecture and site layout of the secondary sites of Sacalaca and San Felipe, and tertiary and quaternary sites surrounding them in order to test political models. Our understanding of the ancient Maya political organization largely comes from Classic Period hieroglyphic texts recorded by Maya kings on public monuments. This reliance on only these kinds of data creates a limitation on the interpretation of political organization, and does not address the local scale of political institution within Maya polities. It also creates the illusion of a centralization of political organization and biases towards primary sites where hieroglyphic monuments are located. The alternative data available for the evaluation of political organization are the regional settlement pattern, individual site layouts and site architecture. Certain types of architecture such as acropoli, mortuary temples, formal plazas and ballcourts, are representative of the institutions of rulership permitting to determine the type of political organization. -
The Aspirational Facet of Kinship Talk During Times Of
bs_bs_banner Life during wartime: aspirational kinship and the management of insecurity Mike McGovern University of Michigan This article explores the ways that the institution of the avunculate has been used as an idiom for negotiating forced displacement, dispossession, and insecurity in the forested region where modern-day Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Côte d’Ivoire converge. The essay analyses the ways that the rights and responsibilities that inhere in the MB-ZS relationship are both invoked ‘aspirationally’ by those with no prior link of kinship and parried by those who should in principle be bound by them. This degree of play suggests that the avunculate in this region is best understood as one of several idioms used to legitimate claims made on others, often in times of uncertainty and instability. Rather than treat this relationship as an always-already existing social institution, the article suggests that it is also the product of a historical experience of persistent warfare, displacement, and flight. How does a refugee manage her arrival in a village where she knows no one? When talking with Loma-speakers in southeastern Guinea about the ways that people are related to one another, men in particular often refer to the institution of Mother’s Brother-Sister’s Son (keke-daabe) relations to explain their mutual rights and respon- sibilities. However, as I describe below, these ostensible rights and responsibilities are flouted or cancelled out as often as they are respected. Meanwhile, the stranger arriving in a new village might at first seem to be excluded from such pre-existing relations. -
Owh6sigrist 01.Pdf
Christian Sigrist: Segmentary Societies: The Evolution and Actual Relevance of an Interdisciplinary Conception. in: Bernhard Streck (Hg.): Segmentation und Komplementarität. Organisatorische, ökonomische und kulturelle Aspekte der Interaktion von Nomaden und Sesshaften. Beiträge der Kolloquia am 25.10.2002 und 27.06.2003. Halle 2004 (Orientwissenschaftliche Hefte 14; Mitteilungen des SFB „Differenz und Integration“ 6) S. 3–31. © Christian Sigrist 2004 Segmentary Societies: The Evolution and Actual Relevance of an Interdisciplinary Conception* Christian Sigrist 1. The evolution of the conception in a colonial context and its sociological and anthropological roots In the first year of the Second World War Meyer Fortes and Edward Evans-Pritchard published a reader on African Political Systems (APS) as an attempt to bring into focus one of the major problems of “African sociology” (1940: VII): This epistemic designation appears to be remark- able. The editors could have named it as well: African ethnology. The deviation from academic routine corresponded on the one hand to the epistemological orientation of the “British School” of social anthropology. On the other hand, it ostentatively elevated African societies on the same cognitive level as “advanced” industrial societies paying tribute to rising sensitivity among African intellectuals. And thirdly, the title reflects acute political concerns of colonial policy, particularly in the field of indirect rule. The authors drew attention to the contradictory results of British interventions in the domain of indirect rule in different types of societies. Whereas non-centralised societies were exposed to a process of centralisa- tion by the introduction of chieftainship, in the centralised ones the power of traditional chiefs was diminished. -
Kinship, Lineage, and an Evolutionary Perspective on Cooperative Hunting Groups in Indonesia
KINSHIP, LINEAGE, AND AN EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE ON COOPERATIVE HUNTING GROUPS IN INDONESIA Michael S. Alvard Texas A & M University Work was conducted among traditional, subsistence whale hunters in Lamalera, Indonesia, in order to test if strict biological kinship or lineage membership is more important for explaining the organization of cooper- ative hunting parties ranging in size from 8 to 14 men. Crew identifications were collected for all 853 hunts that occurred between May 3 and August 5, 1999. Lineage identity and genetic relatedness were determined for a sam- ple of 189 hunters. Results of matrix regression show that genetic kinship explains little of the hunters’ affiliations independent of lineage identity. Crew members are much more closely related to each other than expected by chance, but this is due to the correlation between lineage membership and genetic kinship. Lineage members are much more likely to affiliate in crews, but kin with r < 0.5 are just as likely not to affiliate. The results are discussed vis-à-vis the evolution of cooperation and group identity. KEY WORDS: Affiliation; Cooperation; Culture; Hunting; Indonesia; Lineage theory People frequently form cooperative groups in order to realize the benefits of collective action. Although humans are not the only species that forms social groups, we are unique in the degree to which we regularly rely on the help of conspecifics to satisfy basic needs such as subsistence, defense, and offspring care (Hill 2002). In simple foraging groups, people help one an- Received June 8, 2002; accepted July 31, 2002; revised version received December 14, 2002. Address all correspondence to Michael S. -
Social Structure and Conflict
Social Structure and Conflict: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa Jacob Moscona*† M.I.T. Nathan Nunn*‡ Harvard University, NBER and BREAD James A. Robinson*§ University of Chicago, NBER, and BREAD 30 September 2017 Abstract: We test the long-standing hypothesis that ethnic groups that are organized around ‘segmentary lineages’ are more prone to conflict and civil war. Ethnographic accounts suggest that in segmen- tary lineage societies, which are characterized by strong allegiances to distant relatives, individuals are obligated to come to the defense of fellow lineage members when they become involved in conflicts. As a consequence, small disagreements often escalate to larger-scale conflicts involving many individuals. We test for a relationship be- tween segmentary lineage organization and conflict today across 145 African ethnic groups for which data are available. Using a number of estimation strategies, including an RD design at ethnic boundaries, we find evidence that segmentary lineage societies experience significantly more conflict today. In addition, we also find that for segmentary lineage societies, adverse weather shocks are more likely to result in conflict than for non-segmentary lineage societies. Key words: Conflict, Civil War, Social Structure, Segmentary Lineage, Kinship jel classification: D74,O55,Z1. *For helpful feedback and comments, the authors thank Jean Ensminger, Francisco Gallego, Joseph Henrich, and Sara Lowes, as well as seminar participants at UC Berkeley, Brown, Chicago Harris, UC Irvine, Princeton, Stanford, and various conferences. We thank Ariel Gomez of excellent research assistance. †Department of Economics, M.I.T., 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, ma 02142, U.S.A. (e-mail: [email protected]; website: http://economics.mit.edu/graduate/directory). -
Segmentary Versus Centralized States Among the Ancient Maya
Anthropology Faculty Publications Anthropology 12-1-1996 Questions of Political and Economic Integration: Segmentary versus Centralized States Among the Ancient Maya John W. Fox Garrett W. Cook Arlen F. Chase University of Nevada, Las Vegas, [email protected] Diane Z. Chase University of Nevada, Las Vegas, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/anthro_fac_articles Part of the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Repository Citation Fox, J. W., Cook, G. W., Chase, A. F., Chase, D. Z. (1996). Questions of Political and Economic Integration: Segmentary versus Centralized States Among the Ancient Maya. Current Anthropology, 37(5), 795-801. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/204563 This Article is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Article in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Article has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Questions of Political and Economic Integration: Segmentary Versus Centralized States among the Ancient Maya Author(s): John W. Fox, Garrett W. Cook, Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. -
Beyond Fictions of Closure in Australian Aboriginal Kinship
MATHEMATICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURAL THEORY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL VOLUME 5 NO. 1 MAY 2013 BEYOND FICTIONS OF CLOSURE IN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL KINSHIP WOODROW W. DENHAM, PH. D RETIRED INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR [email protected] COPYRIGHT 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY AUTHOR SUBMITTED: DECEMBER 15, 2012 ACCEPTED: JANUARY 31, 2013 MATHEMATICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURAL THEORY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ISSN 1544-5879 DENHAM: BEYOND FICTIONS OF CLOSURE WWW.MATHEMATICALANTHROPOLOGY.ORG MATHEMATICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURAL THEORY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL VOLUME 5 NO. 1 PAGE 1 OF 90 MAY 2013 BEYOND FICTIONS OF CLOSURE IN AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL KINSHIP WOODROW W. DENHAM, PH. D. Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Dedication .................................................................................................................................. 3 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 3 1. The problem ........................................................................................................................ 4 2. Demographic history ......................................................................................................... 10 Societal boundaries, nations and drainage basins ................................................................. 10 Exogamy rates ...................................................................................................................... -
Shifting Gender Positions Among Hindi-Speaking Hijras
10 hijras1 Kira Hall and Veronica-O'Donovan I was disowned by th~Hindus and shunned by my own wife. I was exploited by the Muslims who dis- dained my company. Indeed I was like a hijda who was neither one thing nor another but could be mis- used by everyone. (Singh 1989: 55) Introduction The hijras occupy a marginalized position in the Indian social matrix, as their ambiguous gender identity provokes conflicting feelings of awe and contempt. Discussed variously in the anthro- pological literature as 'transvestites', 'eunuchs', 'hermaphrodites', and even 'a third gender',2 most of India's hijras were raised as boys before taking up residencein one of the many hijra commu- nities which exist in almost every region of India. Since the late 1980s, several European and American cultural theorists (e.g. Nanda 1985, 1990, 1993, 1994, Bullough and Bullough 1993) have pointed to the visibility of the hijra in Indian society in order to suggestthe cultural possibility of a more liberating, non-dichoto- mous organization of gender. Indeed, the hijras' livelihood is contingent upon their inextricable position in the social structure; according to tradition, they are expectedto sing and dance at births and weddings, where they are rewarded with gifts of clothes, jew- ellery, and money. SHIFTINGGENDER POSITIONS 229 Yet the life-stories of the Hindi-speaking hijras we interviewed in Banaras during the spring and summer of 1993 reflect a very dif- ferent reality from that suggested by these theorists - a reality basedon familial rejection, cultural isolatio n and societal neglect. When the hijra lifestyle is discussedwith respect to this contem- porary reality instead of historical or mythical representation,3 their identification as a uniquely situated third sex becomesmuch more complicated. -
IN SOUTH & SOUTH East Asia
A REGIONAL CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF THE LGBTI MOVEMENT IN SOUTH & SOUTH EAST ASIA PB A Published by COC Netherlands, July 2017 Author: Sheherezade Kara Thanks to Cianán Russell, Edmund Settle, Grace Poore, Hiker Chiu, Jack Byrne, Midnight Poonkasetwattana, Morgan Carpenter, Pooja Patel, Rima Athar, and Ryan Silverio for taking the time to contribute information via interview or in writing, and in peer reviewing the final draft. Layout: Luiz De Barros This publication is published under Creative Commons 4.0 You are free to share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format under the following conditions: • Attribution: You must attribute the work to COC Netherlands (But not in any way that suggests COC Netherlands endorses you or use of the work). • Non-commercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes • No derivatives: I f you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. Proposed citation: Kara, S. (2016) Partnership for Rights, Inclusivity, Diversity and Equality: A Regional Contextual Analysis of the LGBTI Movement in South and South East Asia. Amsterdam: COC Netherlands. This document is published by COC Netherlands for the PRIDE programme, supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ISBN: 978-90-6753-053-8 B C A REGIONAL CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF THE LGBTI MOVEMENT IN SOUTH & SOUTH EAST ASIA B C TABLE OF CONTENTS List of acronyms and initialisms .................................................................................................................................... -
African Family and Kinship Brian Siegel
Furman University Furman University Scholar Exchange Anthropology Publications Anthropology 1996 African Family and Kinship Brian Siegel Originally published in Understanding Contemporary Africa, 2nd edition, edited by April A. Gordon and Donald L. Gordon. Copyright © 1996 by Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. Used with permission of the publisher. www.rienner.com Recommended Citation Siegel, Brian, "African Family and Kinship" (1996). Anthropology Publications. Paper 3. http://scholarexchange.furman.edu/ant-publications/3 This Book Chapter is made available online by Anthropology, part of the Furman University Scholar Exchange (FUSE). It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology Publications by an authorized FUSE administrator. For terms of use, please refer to the FUSE Institutional Repository Guidelines. For more information, please contact [email protected]. African Family and Kinship Brian Siegel (from "Family and Kinship," pp. 221-47 in April A. Gordon and Donald L. Gordon, eds., Understanding Contemporary Africa, 2nd ed., Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1996) “Don’t be fooled,” advised a senior Zambian bureaucrat. “Here in Africa, the family is first. This will never change.” I was on my way to study the labor strategies of Copperbelt market gardeners, and I had told him my plans to consult the local officials charged with “developing” the “static rural masses.” One should not, he advised, accept such programs at face value, for government offices and officials would never inspire the same loyalties as those of family ties. The significance of such ties was dramatically illustrated in 1983, when 1.3 million migrant workers from Ghana—nearly one-tenth of all Ghanaians—were suddenly deported from Nigeria. -
Paths to Inclusive Political Institutions*
Paths to Inclusive Political Institutions Daron Acemogluy James A. Robinsonz January 19, 2016. Abstract In this paper we present a new approach to thinking about the circumstances under which inclusive political institutions, consisting of a state with capacity and a broad distribution of political power, emerge. Di¤erent scholars have emphasized di¤erent paths towards such institutions, with some emphasizing modernization, and others emphasizing the necessity of state building as a prerequisite for democracy. We argue however, using the examples of Ancient Athens and Early Modern England, that inclusive political institutions emerge from a balanced increase in state capacity and the distribution of power. This path emerges in a particular basin of attraction. Though this basin depends on many parameters, we emphasize the crucial nature of informal institutions and social norms which put Athens and England onto this path. Outside of this basin a number of things may occur; social norms may be such as to stop a state forming, an outcome we illustrate with the Tiv of pre-colonial Nigeria; or when society is weaker a form of state formation can occur which creates a ‘Paper Leviathan’ which we illustrate with Colombia; …nally when civil society is prostrate ‘Real Leviathans’can be created, an outcome we illustrate with contemporary Rwanda. None of these latter paths lead to inclusive institutions or sustained prosperity. JEL Classi…cation: D7, H1, N4, P5. Keywords: Political Institutions, State Formation, Civil Society, Social Norms, Informal Institutions. We thank Steve Hindle and Josh Ober for their invaluable comments and suggestions. This paper was written in honor of Mark Harrison at the time of his retirement from the University of Warwick. -
Revisiting Matrilineal Priority
REVISITING MATRILINEAL PRIORITY Chris Knight Professor of Anthropology University of East London Nineteenth century anthropologists widely agreed that early human society was not based on the nuclear family. Lewis Henry Morgan instead championed the matrilineal clan as the first stable institutional framework for human family life. In this, he was supported by theorists who later came to include E. B. Tylor, Friedrich Engels, W. H. R. Rivers, Emile Durkheim and Sigmund Freud. Until the 1920s, most anthropologists still accepted a ‘stages’ view of the evolution of kinship, in which matrilineal descent systems universally preceded their patrilineal counterparts. When Morgan’s evolutionist schema was discredited early in the twentieth century, it was largely on the basis of two interventions. First, Franz Boas claimed to have discovered a Vancouver Island tribe (the Kwakiutl) in the throes of transition from patrilineal to matrilineal descent, reversing Morgan’s supposedly universal sequence. Second, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown offered an explanation of the ‘avunculate’ in terms of universal psychological and sociological principles, claiming that the ‘matrilineal survival’ interpretation of this peculiarity of kinship could therefore be dispensed with. In this article, I make no attempt to return to the debate or adjudicate on the substantive issues involved. My more modest aim is to recall key features of the debate, highlighting the motivations and agendas involved at the time. * * * * * If there is one thing on which all schools of social anthropology are agreed, it is that the nineteenth century ‘mother-right’ theory of early kinship is of no more than historical interest. Of all the theoretical conquests achieved by Boas, Kroeber, Lowie, Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown and their allies during the first decades of the twentieth century, the overthrow of the Bachofen-Morgan evolutionary scheme has appeared the most secure.