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Introduction to Social Anthropology SOC1016b

Introduction to Social Anthropology SOC1016b. Lecture 9 Politics, violence, feud and the maintenance of order. Political anthropology. Concepts: Aggression Violence War, raid, feud Terror Key issues: cultural interpretation of behaviour - what is labelled violence?

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Introduction to Social Anthropology SOC1016b

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  1. Introduction to Social Anthropology SOC1016b Lecture 9 Politics, violence, feud and the maintenance of order

  2. Political anthropology • Concepts: • Aggression • Violence • War, raid, feud • Terror • Key issues: • cultural interpretation of behaviour - what is labelled violence? • is such behaviour assessed by the intention or the consequence? • what are the social mechanisms by violence is organised? • Can people live without government? • How are disputes settled?

  3. Ethnography of the Yanomamo. • Yanomamo were studied by Napoleon Chagnon, and also Lizot and Donner. • Known as the Fierce People, which is title of Chagnon’s book. • described as aggressive, assertive, short tempered, and quick to violence • Live on Venezuela/ Brazil border. Head waters of the Orinoco river. • Very hot steamy dense tropical rainforest cut by rivers. • Remote and not ‘pacified’ i.e. policed directly by the state. This was Chagnon’s reason for studying them. • http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-2548114635643820643&ei=jiIASsi-LcTC-AbAiqinAQ&q=Yanomamo&hl=en&emb=1

  4. Yanomami inter group relations • Horticultural society, bananas, plantain gardens. Some hunting by game animals few and scarce. • Shabono - circular village hut. • Central agnatic core - group of brothers and patrilineal cousins and allies. • Typically 40-100 people. • Relationships to other groups are fraught with danger; four ways to relate to other groups - all somewhat similar. • Trade • Feasting • Exchange of women. • War

  5. Shabono

  6. http://www.throckmorton-nyc.com/images/pages/E36616.htm

  7. http://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/macionis9/medialib/intros/chapter02/0202.htmlhttp://cwx.prenhall.com/bookbind/pubbooks/macionis9/medialib/intros/chapter02/0202.html

  8. Rules of violence • Chest pounding, • Club fights • Raiding

  9. Why do the Yanomamo go to war with one another? • They say - shortage of women. • Harris comment; • short of women because of systematic female infanticide practised by the women. • He presents a materialist explanation; • short of protein, therefore prefer male hunters as children • newly settled hunters and gatherers without the overall social mechanisms for dispute settlement, such a chiefdoms or elaborated kinship organisations.

  10. violence is culturally and socially constructed • Yanomomo society is violent • it is not chaos or anarchy • violence is conducted according to rules • There is no conquest or subjugation by the Yanomamo • because there is no mechanism for rule or for economic exploitation (only reproductive exploitation) • it requires states to organise war - carry though violence to achieve political ends, and to organise social subjugation.

  11. Is it possible to live without government • Order – settlement of disputes without violence • Power - “the ability, by what ever means, to enforces one’s own will on other’s behaviour” • Coercion v Legitimacy. • Weber’s three types of authority. • Traditional, Charismatic, legal-rational

  12. The Nuer studied by E.E.Evans-Pritchard • Southern Sudan • Transhumant cattle herders, move with Nile floods. Grow some maize and millet. • Reputation as • aggressive and quick to violence • independent and egalitarian http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0VBnrIkAtA

  13. http://www.artnet.com/artwork_images_1050_107975_Hugo-Adolf-Bernatzik.jpghttp://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/nuer/slides/full/046.jpghttp://www.artnet.com/artwork_images_1050_107975_Hugo-Adolf-Bernatzik.jpghttp://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/nuer/slides/full/046.jpg

  14. Evans-Pritchard describes them as poets of cattle.

  15. http://www.anthrophoto.com/cgi-bin/ImageFolio31//imageFolio.cgi?direct=Humans/Africa/Nuerhttp://www.anthrophoto.com/cgi-bin/ImageFolio31//imageFolio.cgi?direct=Humans/Africa/Nuer

  16. Patrilineal kinship. Segmentary lineage system http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/descent/unilineal/segments.html Ordered anarchy

  17. Feud Complementary opposition. http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/nuer/slides/full/085.jpg

  18. Dominant clan. Leopard-skin chiefs/ priests of the earth http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/nuer/slides/

  19. http://www.anthrophoto.com/cgi-bin/ImageFolio31//imageFolio.cgi?direct=Humans/Africa/Nuerhttp://www.anthrophoto.com/cgi-bin/ImageFolio31//imageFolio.cgi?direct=Humans/Africa/Nuer

  20. Settlement of feud • The symbolism of ‘blood’ in ‘blood feud’ • The ‘order’ is in the system • Social structure sets up motivations and mechanisms for settling disputes • Traditional and charismatic authority of the leopard skin chief helps settle those conflicts participants want to avoid. • Sanctuary. Compensation in cattle • Excellent re-study by Sharon Hutchinson Nuer Dilemmas

  21. Conclusion • Can individual emotional predispositions explain group behaviour? • It takes civilisation to organise killing on a mass scale.

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