Anthropology Most Human Cultures Can

Anthropology Most human cultures can be classified based on their social and political systems, especially as those systems impact issues such as class stratification or gender. Political organizations vary considerably but usually fall well within one of the following four categories: bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. Although often described as more or less advanced than one another, these four designations do not necessarily imply that one culture is morally or culturally superior to any other. A state can be enormously tyrannical in spite of its relatively complex and hierarchical system.

In contrast, a band might be egalitarian. Bands are the least complex of the four political types, followed by tribes, chiefdoms, and states. Societies may or may not evolve through each of these four political organizations. Population, population density, and geography are some of the factors that may impact the shape of a society's political structure. Bands are "small, autonomous groups of people...loosely associated with a territory on which they hunt," ("Types of Societies"). Thus, bands are not necessarily stationary and many are in fact nomadic.

Hunter-gatherer cultures almost always exhibit a band-like political and social structure. A more formal or hierarchical form of government is completely unnecessary and most likely not wanted in a band. Instead, the small society maintains law and order via simple sociological and psychological mechanisms. Encouraging lawful behavior may be accomplished by social sanctions such as gossip ("Types of Societies"). Roles and duties are frequently shared among members of the band with some possible gender or age-based task differentiation. A band has no formal leader.

Likewise, tribes do not have formal political leaders. A tribe may be comprised of more than one band and therefore, tribes are by definition larger social organizations than bands are. Because of the greater number of people that compose a tribe, tribes are infrequently nomadic. A larger population makes hunting and gathering less feasible, while an agriculture-based sedentary society are conducive to the tribal way of life. Tribes boast leaders, but the leaders are not always endowed with political authority so much as they are with general social power.

A tribal leader serves as a sort of advisor and is often a religious figure as well. Tribal societies maintain law and order using different methods. However, like bands, social pressures are the most common means of encouraging certain acceptable behaviors and discouraging others. Tribal elders or leaders might be called upon to mediate disputes but tribes are not highly structured or hierarchical. Like bands, tribes are often egalitarian societies in which kinship is the main method of determining social roles.

Tribal society is not stratified according to class or other markers of social status. Goods like food are distributed evenly among members of a tribe. Chiefdoms, on the other hand, are hierarchical and relatively complex. A chiefdom can be described as a tribe with a stronger, more centralized, and more hierarchical political structure. Unlike either bands or tribes, chiefdoms are stratified societies. Some roles are deemed more valuable than others and the individuals who fill those roles possess more power.

Power and wealth are linked in a chiefdom, too, with those at the highest rungs of the social ladder possessing the most wealth. The political leaders in a chiefdom usually perform multiple duties including maintaining law and order, communicating politically with rival or allied societies, and managing surplus goods. Bureaucracies and hierarchies are commonplace in chiefdoms. Large chiefdoms may be unstable because of the sharp demarcation between those in power and the common people ("Types of Societies").

States differ from chiefdoms in part because of how power is defined and passed on. In chiefdoms, power is often hereditary but in a state system political power it is usually not based on kinship. States are the most complex of the four main political structures. Large and densely-populated societies evolve into states because of the need for centralized political power. The Basseri are a nomadic society that exhibits features of being a band, a tribe, and a chiefdom.

For example, families often live together in tents, and each tent forms the basic social unit as with a band (Johnson). Many decisions are made with consensus, and task differentiation with regard to the acquisition of food is not stratified. However, the Basseri do have a rigid kinship-based centralized political system. Therefore, the Basseri are not a band or a tribe; they are a chiefdom. Political power is centralized even though the society is nomadic, and the Basseri government is hierarchical.

Basseri culture is also hierarchical and stratified at the very top; a chief possesses the most power followed by a range of "headmen," (Johnson). Kinship is key to determining political succession and the chief's relationship with the Basseri is kinship-based too. Like many chiefdoms, the status gap between the chief and his henchman is large even if the rest of Basseri society is not socially stratified. Haiti exhibits all the features of a modern state, including worldwide recognition as such.

Even if the Haitian government is notoriously corrupt, its essential structure is that of a state including rotating heads of state and a plethora of variously ranked government officials. The Haitian central government controls everything from commerce to maintaining law and order. The government is functionally and geographically centralized, and not based on kinship. Haitian society itself demonstrates features of being a state including class stratification and role differentiation. Moreover, Haiti is a diverse culture impacted heavily by colonization and the slave trade.

Indigenous peoples, African slaves, and French colonizers all mingle in the Haitian gene pool. The society's diversity demands a centralized government not based on kinship. Haitian society is hierarchical and socially stratified but unlike the Basseri does not exhibit the kinship-based features of a chiefdom. Moreover, the political leaders in.