10.1: Socio-political Organization

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

Political organization describes how the people of a community organize themselves and their relationship with other communities around them. What kind of leadership do they have? How do they make decisions for the group, such as the rules to follow? How do they make the decision to migrate to another site or area? How do they deal with internal and external conflicts, including incursions by groups from nearby territories? What is the social structure of the community? Archaeologists use a system of classification developed by anthropologist Elman Service. These levels of political organization are known as: bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. These same categories are used to classify both past and living societies that can be directly observed. The levels of political organization are typically closely associated with a specific mode of subsistence and social system.

Levels of Political Organization

In reality, of course, societies often fall somewhere along a continuum of degrees of political organization and do not necessarily fit neatly into traditional categories. Archaeologists assess the complexity of a group’s political organization by analyzing its settlement patterns and written records. By comparing them with the political structures observed in other cultures, archaeologists can infer how the group that lived on a site may have been organized.

Bands

The first category of political organization is the band, which refers to mobile hunter-gatherer groups that typically number less than 100 individuals and are rarely integrated politically with others. These relatively small societies tend to forage for food over a large area and are nomadic, moving frequently with the seasons and availability of various food resources. Consequently, their sites are some of the most difficult to identify archaeologically because they leave few artifacts behind in widely distributed archaeological deposits. The number of individuals and families making up nomadic bands varies with the season, as family and gender groups separate for a time and then rejoin in seasonal movements known as seasonal rounds. Usually, leadership in a band is informal and temporary, and many decisions are made by the community, though individuals who are admired can have greater influence. One example of a society organized as a band is the Paiute from the Great Basin of the western United States, who were studied extensively by archaeologist Julian Steward. In the pre-contact era (before colonists from Europe came to North America), the Paiute lived in family bands and moved frequently to access various seasonally available food resources, including grass seeds, pinyon nuts, ducks, geese, and jackrabbits. Archaeological evidence uncovered from their occupation sites consists primarily of projectile points and other lithic artifacts and a few other items, such as tule reed and feather duck decoys that were stored in caches in protected areas for future use. Bands typically leave behind little evidence of areas they occupy—occasionally, archaeologists find remains of temporary sites used for making projectiles and for butchering and preparing food.

band

The smallest unit of political organization, consisting of only a few families with no formal leadership positions. Typically, they have a population of less than 100, are a nomadic society, are hunter-gathers, and have an egalitarian social system.

seasonal rounds

Patterns of movement from one resource to another in an annual cycle.

caches

Collection of tools and/or materials stored for future use.

Tribes

A second political organization is the tribe, which consists of several small territorial populations that mostly act autonomously but sometimes interact with other groups linked to them by customs, kinship, and/or age for political or military purposes and sometimes send representatives to tribal gatherings. They usually join together in pursuit of a limited objective or gather informally in social customs. Tribes tend to be egalitarian and produce their own food by subsistence horticulture and/or tending herd animals (pastoralism). They typically are more sedentary than bands, establishing relatively permanent settlements in which hundreds of individuals live. Tribal archaeological sites include villages containing numerous semi-permanent dwellings indicated by post holes, hearths, and/or food storage pits that reveal both longer-term occupations and the relatively coordinated labor of a greater number of individuals. Leadership in individual tribal groups typically consists of part-time leaders.

tribe

Political units organized around family ties that have fluid or shifting systems of temporary or part-time leadership and living in semi-permanent or permanent settlements with a population in the hundreds. Typically, they are an egalitarian society that practices horticulture and/or pastoralism.

Chiefdoms

Chiefdoms represent a shift from the loosely organized political structure of tribes to more formal political structures involving multiple communities. The chief has greater authority and higher social standing (rank) than the rest of the communities’ members, and the role is permanent and can be hereditary and passed on to children. Chiefdoms typically are densely populated and use intensive agriculture, horticulture, and/or pastoralism. Chiefs typically do not have the power to compel others to obey them but are highly respected, often as religious authorities, and redistribute goods, direct public behavior, and perform other leadership tasks. Societies organized as chiefdoms often erect large-scale monuments made possible by the coordinated labor of a large number of people. One such monument is Stonehenge in England. These early, relatively hierarchical political organizations also led to differentiated burials in which individuals were buried with items valued by their cultures that pointed to differences in status.

chiefdom

Large political units involving multiple communities in which a permanent chief, who usually is determined by heredity, holds a formal position of authority. Typically, they are a sedentary, ranked society with large populations and practice horticulture or agriculture.

States

State societies represent an even greater level of integration between communities; they are autonomous political units that link and govern many communities in a territory. States are characterized by centralized governments that have the power to collect taxes, draft people for labor and to fight wars, and enact and enforce laws. States typically rely on intensive agriculture and pastoralism for subsistence and therefore need additional territory as they expand. Consequently, colonialism was a common way to obtain access to needed resources. States tend to incorporate multiple communities, often separated by great distances. In addition, state societies are stratified, assigning individuals to classes or castes, and frequently construct large public monuments such as palaces, temples, and public buildings.

state

The most complex form of political organization characterized by a central government that has formal power and authority. They are autonomous units that link and govern many communities in a territory. They are typically stratified societies that rely on intensive agriculture.

State societies typically leave behind abundant archaeological evidence, including terraced fields, highways, record-keeping devices (e.g., the Incan complex system of knotted string known as khipu), monumental buildings and cities (e.g., Machu Picchu and Cuzco in South America), and mummified human remains. These elements of infrastructure and monumental works are characteristic of state societies because they are possible only when rulers can conscript thousands of human laborers and compel taxes.

 

khipu

Knotted strings used for collecting data, record keeping, and government management. Also spelled quipu.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Quipu in the Museo Machu Picchu, Casa Concha, Cusco.

Grave goods in state-level societies vary substantially because of social stratification in those cultures. A well-known, one-of-a-kind example of the grandiosity of grave goods often included in burials of state leaders is the burial of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, which included 6,000 life-size warriors molded from terra cotta and a depiction of the world in miniature, complete with stars above and rivers made of liquid mercury.

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

While political organization looks at the relationship of a community with others around it, social organization looks at the internal organization of the people within the community. Social systems are typically based on whether the resources and advantages of the society are equally available to everyone or available only to higher-status individuals. An increase in social stratification in society leads to an increase in differential access to resources. Sociologist, Max Weber, identified three dimensions of social stratification (Kottak, 2012):

• wealth: things that are considered valuable in a culture, such as land, tools, money, goods, and wealth; a person's material assets.
• power: the ability to exercise one's will over others; often making others do things they do not want to do, such as slave labor.
• prestige: particular honor or respect; approval for acts, deeds, or qualities considered exemplary.

Egalitarian

In egalitarian societies, individuals are not grouped by access to economic resources, power, or prestige. They can individually achieve status in their lifetimes, but their status is not passed down to other members of their families. Everyone in an egalitarian society is born with an equal opportunity to attain society’s advantages, and prestige is granted to anyone who earns it through exceptional skills or efforts. Most egalitarian societies were comprised of foragers, horticulturalists, and pastoralists. They relied heavily on sharing to attain needed items, which ensured equal access to economic resources and functionally separated actual wealth from recognition of skill. In these societies, there is no dominant leader, and the group uses social leveling mechanisms to maintain equality. These devices consist of behavior such as ridiculing, teasing, and shunning of would-be leaders that reduce their status in the group and prevent them from becoming more powerful than others.

egalitarian

Societies in which there is no great difference in status or power between individuals. Foragers, horticulturalists, and pastoralists are typically egalitarian societies.

social leveling mechanisms

Practices that ensure an individual does not gain more power than others such as ridiculing, teasing, and shunning.

Ranked

Ranked societies, which are typically agricultural and sometimes pastoral, assign individuals to social groups that have unequal access to prestige (but not to wealth or power). Coastal fishing societies in northwestern North America were rank societies. The abundance of salmon and their success in harvesting and preserving the fish allowed them to stockpile food resources that were subsequently given away in ceremonies known as potlatches that served to reinforce the host’s social status as high ranking. Rank societies were often ruled by chiefs since no one had the ability to force people to work but could influence others to work by working hard themselves.

ranked

Societies in which there is unequal access to prestige but little difference in wealth and power; prestige was gained through a demonstration of generosity. Typically, ranked societies practice horticulture or agriculture.

potlatch

A gift-giving ceremony of the Northwest Pacific Coast Native Americans in which distribution of gifts affirms or reaffirms an individual's status in the community.

Stratification

When some groups have greater access to these societal advantages because of their identities rather than having to earn them, the society is considered to have social stratification: unequal access to resources, power, and/or prestige. Evidence of social stratification first appears in the archaeological record at the same time as the development of agriculture. At the ancient Egyptian site of Gebel el Silsila, for example, the remains of four young children (between four and nine years old) showed evidence of mummification and were buried, likely in a wooden coffin, with multiple valued items as grave goods, including amulets, a bronze bracelet, and pottery. Since the children would not have earned the status associated with those items (achieved status) in their short lives, they likely inherited their status through kinship, which is called ascribed status.

social stratification

Individuals have unequal access to resources, positions of power, and/or prestige. Associated with state-level societies.

achieved status

Individuals receive a status based on meeting certain criteria through personal efforts or the efforts of others (Kottak, 2012). They can be positive or negative.

ascribed status

A status an individual has no choice or control over (Kottak, 2012). You are born into it or grow into it, such as family prestige or status attained at a certain age.

In class societies, social groups have unequal access to economic resources, power, and prestige. Some have greater opportunities in life simply because of the social group into which they are born. Class societies are also called fully stratified societies. They can be open-class societies, in which individuals can move into a different class, or closed-class societies (caste societies), in which individuals can never change their class status. Because many past class societies have assigned classes based on specialized professions and crafts, archaeologists can infer the presence of a class society from dedicated sections of cities by occupation.

class

Social groups with unequal access to economic resources, power, and prestige.

open-class societies

The division of society into hierarchical levels in which individuals have social ability and can move between classes, either into a higher or lower class.

closed-class societies

The division of society into hierarchical levels; one’s position is determined by birth and remains fixed for life (Stratified Societies and States, 2021). A characteristic of a caste system.

---

REFERENCES

Kottak, C. P. (2011). Mirror for Humanity: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Stratified Societies and States. (2021, July 23). Retrieved July 26, 2021, from https://socialsci.libretexts.org/@go/page/56436

---

Images

Figure 10.1.1 Quipu in the Museo Machu Picchu, Casa Concha, Cusco. (2018). By Pi3.124 under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

---

A derivative work from

"Digging into Archaeology: A Brief OER Introduction to Archaeology with Activities" by Amanda Wolcott Paskey and AnnMarie Beasley Cisneros, Faculty (Anthropology) at Cosumnes River College & American River College, ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI), 2020, under CC BY-NC 4.0.