The Cultural Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology
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Essay one
Cultural Anthropology
The system and the levels of authority provide the main difference between tribes and bands from chiefdoms and state societies. To fully understand this, one needs to concentrate on the hierarchy of each to understand how they operate. In bands and tribes, people live together as a community. Their roles are gathering food, and most are pastoralists especially tribes. Both tribes and clans do not believe in the individual ownership of property. They rather possess a sharing view, and that property is owned by the group (Political organizational and social control chapter 13, page 2). They exist in small groups and occasionally move from place to place in search of pasture. In these groups, there is no single person who has overall authority. On the other hand, the state societies and chiefdoms have strict ownership laws and one person has overall authority. Those in power sometimes tax the commoners, and the difference between common people and those in authority is visible. In these systems, there is private ownership which means that every person can own property. It is different from bands and tribes where everybody is related either by blood or marriage. This means that they are families and distribution of products is through sharing. They share what they have equally among themselves. In states and chiefdoms, the distribution process is different in that people are required to work for what they get.
Economic factors have an impact on the political decisions made. In bands and tribes, there are no political decisions made as everyone is family, however, in chiefdoms economic decisions affect politics. In the state societies, the governing council can make a decision to impose new taxes to maximize revenue. In chiefdoms, those in authority can choose to make decisions that will make easier economic relations. In both state societies and chiefdoms, political decisions are made in response to economic factors.
Essay two
Anthropologists use the word descent to refer to the rules that are used by cultures to identify affiliations with one's parents. These rules create a platform for the formation of social groups. These groups involve close relatives that live close to each other. In fact, these groups play a vital role in the lives of the other members (kinship and descent chapter 10, page 6). The rules of descent can be categorized into two categories, which are cognatic (also known as multilineal) and unilineal descent. In unilineal descent, people follow their ancestry either using their mother’s line or their father’s line but never both at the same time. Those that chose the mother's side are known as matrilineal descent groups while those that opt for their fathers are known as patrilineal descent groups. This type of descent group functions in a unique manner in that members choose t...