• often hierarchical authoritative structure

• religious scriptural and tradition based

• corporate

• for-profit
• "bottom-line" focused

Coca Cola
Toyota
Macdonald's
Monsanto
Cargill
ADM
IBM
Microsoft . . .

International Governmental Organizations (IGOs)

• member states' charters and agreements

• ideologically / mission focused

• informal network

• ideologically / mission focused

Modern Microcultures

• dependent or semi-dependent on national state

• retain original ethnic or local differences

Basques

Mexican
Americans

American
Indians

American Indian
-- Wikipedia

e.g., Paul Buffalo

African-
Americans

The Shakers

Amish

Modern Folk Cultures

("peasant cultures")

• dependent on national state

• original ethnic or local differences reduced

modern Maya (Appeals to Santiago)

typically,
villages
in large
countries

e.g., Kypseli

e.g., Mexico, India, China, etc.

States

State
-- Wikipedia

• control by means of force (coersion) or threat of force from institutionalized body of persons
  
  
• legitimacy based on consent of the governened, but in many societies legitimacy is based on relision

• state is constituted legally
  
  
• manner of force is made explicit
  
  
• other force outlawed
  
  
• society is divided into political- economic classes
  
  
• aristocracy = state bureaucrats, military leaders, upper priesthood
  
  
• other people = producers
  
  
• full-time professionals in arts and crafts, etc. (specialization of labor)

Chiefdoms

Chiefdom
-- Wikipedia

• chieftainship, with prestige accorded person in office
  
  
• the chief rules by means of the authority of his office (which he often gets through inheritance)
  
  
• tends to become permanent or hereditary

• this and all higher levels are "organismic"
  
  
• nonegalitarian
  
  
• labor specialization
  
  
• larger populations
  
  
• higher population density

Trobriand
Islanders

Tribes

Tribe
-- Wikipedia

• lineages and pantribal sodalities
  
  (nonresidential associations)

• greater size
  
  
• segmented
  (more subdivisions)
  
  
• associations
  
  
• leadership is charismatic
  
  
• has more definite boundaries
  
  
• still largely familial
  
  
• remains egalitarian
  
  
• most common with horticulturalists and pastoralists

Yanomamö

Bands
(slides)

Band society
-- Wikipedia

• familial, via kinship ties

• bottom and beginning of societal levels
  
  
• lack special integrative mechanisms
  
  
• most common with foragers (including hunting and gatherers)
  
  
• leadership is charismatic
  
  

!Kung San

• Britain Is as Tribal Now as It Has Been for Millennia -- Guardian (22 March 2015)
  
  
• Ancient Boundaries Are the Strongest -- Telegraph (21 March 2015)
  
  
• Modern Workplaces Function as Tribal Communities -- ScienceNordic (08 May 2013)
  
  
• Chimps and Bees Do It, But Is Democracy Natural? -- DiscoveryNews (23 February 2012)

• The American Political Science Association
  
  
• Constitute: The World's Constitutions to Read, Search, and Compare -- Comparative Constitutions Project
  
  
• Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
  

© 1998 - 2025 Timothy G. Roufs    Page URL: http:// www.d.umn.edu /claweb/faculty/troufs/anth1604/capolitical_systems.html Site Information / Disclaimers ~ Main A-Z Index
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