Anthropology 112

Political – Scale Cultures, cont.:

The Pacific Islands

Jodi Perin

Quick Review: Cultural Scale

Tribal World/domestic scale - dawn of humans through (to some extent) today

The production, maintenance, and reproduction of human beings and culture: relatively egalitarian, low population densities; relatively minimal technology and stuff

Imperial World/political scale - 7,000 years ago through (to some extent) today

The production and maintenance of centralized political power (e.g. taxation, conquest, urbanization, etc.): inegalitarian; higher population densities; cities; lots of stuff for elites only

Commercial World/commercial scale - approx. 1600 A.D. to today

The production and maintenance of private profit-making business enterprises (e.g. industrialization, corporations, etc.), inegalitarian, high population densities; mega-cities; more and different technology/ stuff but very unevenly distributed

What are political scale societies like?

Power and Authority

Power is the ability to exercise one’s will over others. Authority is the socially approved use of power. Politics is the process by which decisions are made, rules are

established, competitions for leadership positions are regulated, and disputes are minimized.

Chapter 6: The Pacific Islanders: Ranked Chiefdoms

Where is Bodley getting his information?

Chapter 6: The Pacific Islanders: Ranked Chiefdoms

“Remote from the centers of power in the industrializing world and offering relatively few resources to attract outsiders, many Pacific Islands maintain much of their traditional cultural systems today. They also offer ideal material for examining the contrasts between tribes and states and for understanding the development of political scale cultures.” - Bodley pg. 167

Living in the Island World

•vast ocean with widely separated islands•no drinking water•little/no soil•few native plants/animals•few sources of protein•vulnerable to tropical storms/typhoons•islands often very small (average approx. 1 square mile)•relatively high population densities•required a lot of ingenuity to settle and live here!

Food, technology, and stuff

fishing and gathering of marine animals• Fish ponds

gardening (bulk of calories) - e.g. bananas, yams, taro, etc.• irrigation

fishing gear canoes

Chiefdoms: living with Inequality

Chiefs controlled access to productive land and typically had the best stuff (e.g. houses, clothing, food, surplus)

Specialists (priests, canoe-makers, etc.) Commoners worked the land

Chiefdoms: living with Inequality

“Larger chiefdom societies societies so restricted human freedom and apportioned benefits so unequally and were so out of step with the lifestyles and personalities familiar to tribal people, that they could only have been sustained with coercive institutions directed by the principal beneficiaries of this enormous cultural transformation . . .The central organizational problem that rulers must repeatedly solve is that people naturally don’t like to be commanded by others, and they don’t like social inequality unless they’re at the top” - Bodley pg. 179

Why chiefdoms? And how?

Islands were quickly populated Eventually it became difficult

for people to separate and be independent

Chiefs styled selves as superior human beings, and could pass along their rank to offspring• ascribed vs. achieved status

Supporting ideology• mana• tabu

Self-denfenseA chief’s residence in the Trobriand Islands

Chiefdoms and the Politicization Process

The first step to kindgoms, city-states, and empires

“social circumpscription” (Bodley pg. 184)

Chapter 6: The Pacific Islanders: Ranked Chiefdoms

•Tikopia •3 square miles, (part of Solomon Islands)•Variable population (1200 people in 1928)•Status/kinship system•Chief (Ariki) w/ fairly limited power over land•No real social classes

•The Hawaiian Islands•Relatively large (>7000 sq. miles)•Extensive irrigation•Ruling elite gained control of islands between 1550 and 1792 AD) >>enormous chiefly power•Chiefdom supported by religious ideology

•e.g. Prostration tabu•Commoners had limited access to land and status•outcast class

The Pacific Islands, 20th - 21st centuries

By the end of the 19th century, most of the Pacific Islands had become colonies of U.S. or European powers; affect on island populations varied

Numerous anthropological studies (20th century) Some islands settled extensively by outsiders

(e.g. Hawaii, New Caledonia, Fiji) Demographic shifts Increasing integration in world economy (e.g.

tourism)

Pacific Islands today

Increasing vulnerability to environmental and climate change (e.g. Tuvalu)

Demands for indigenous rights and/or independence among islands settled by outsiders (e.g. New Caledonia, Hawaii)

Increasing number of indigenous pacific islanders joining in academic and media accounts of the area (e.g. The Whale Rider)

Discussion

In your groups create a list of forms of power and authority that exist in your everyday lives. Focus on examples where you have power and authority or where you feel the influence of forms of power and authority in your life. Which of these are legitimate, in your mind, and which are not?