Power and political organisation
Every society settles disputes and makes group decisions, but not every society has a government.
Bands and tribes
Bands are small, mobile groups, usually foragers, with informal leaders whose influence rests on skill and respect. Tribes are larger, often horticultural or pastoral, and linked by kinship groups or age sets. Neither has a permanent central authority, so they are called acephalous, 'headless', societies. Leaders such as a 'big man' gain followers by generosity, not by force.
Chiefdoms and states
Chiefdoms have a permanent, often hereditary chief who ranks above others and redistributes goods. States have a central government with officials, laws, taxes, and the power to use force across a territory. Modern nation-states also claim a shared national identity, described by Benedict Anderson as an 'imagined community' of people who will never all meet.
Authority, power, and resistance
Power is the ability to make others act as you wish; authority is power seen as legitimate. Coercive power relies on force or threats. Hegemony describes power maintained because the dominant group's ideas come to seem natural. People resist power in many ways, from everyday foot-dragging to mass movements such as the Arab Spring.
Flashcard
A society without a permanent central ruler
Check your understanding
A leader gains followers by hosting feasts and giving gifts, but cannot force anyone to obey. This describes a: