Chiefdom: A Political Association Headed by a Chief - Essay Sample

Introduction

The term chiefdom is a notional type of sociopolitical association in which economic and political power is administered by one person overt many communities. It can also be said to be a political component headed by a chief. The chief has power over many community groups. Due to the involvement of more than one community group, these chiefdoms are most of the time densely populated.

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A chiefdom is also a form of ranked political association in societies mostly based on kinship. A band is normally a very small group that is bonded by family ties that are politically independent. They are said to be nomads (Arnold & Jeanne E., et al, 490). Bands usually have no established or formal leadership due to the tendency to travel around. Bands are also said to be egalitarian communities, societies where all people of the same gender and age are viewed as equal. The tribe is another unit of society. This is a combination of non-kin groups, smaller kin which is linked by a common culture and usually acts like one. Most social scientists affirm that other than possessing the trait of hunting and gathering, the tribes most of the time engage in herding and agriculture. This makes it easier to sustain the larger yet also pretty small population.

Most of the tribes have formal governance. Power here can situational. Leadership is based on the personality and skills of an individual. The leaders have no power to put into effect their wishes or will on the group.

The state-level is most complex in terms of economic, political, and social organization. Here, there are formal social classes and the government. The state regulates social relation for example marriage to outline the obligations of the citizens and rights. Very little in daily life is not impacted. The state possesses power over their domain. They outline citizens' rights and responsibilities. They also monopolize the use of force and observance of law and order through courts, laws, and police. The state keeps track of its inhabitants in terms of age, number, location, gender and wealth by use of census.

Islamic and Christian Religion

Religion is one of the most essential factors that determine the way of life of all human beings. It consists of a set of beliefs that govern a group of people from the same religion and openly reflect on the world view of the character, behavior, and relationship between people of the same religion. There are different types of religion and in each religion, there are different ideas and set of beliefs that govern them. The beliefs are however linked to one supernatural being such as the spirits and God (Lim & Marvin, 305). This paper focuses on the differences and similarities between Islamic and Christian religions.

Both Islamic and Christianity are termed as Abrahamic religions, implying that both have the certainty they originated from Abraham. Both religions in question have a holy book which they use to better comprehend their impression of God. The Christians have the Bible while the Muslims have the Quran. Both references used contain histories of both religions going way back to how the world started. They also have stories of how the world will come to end.

Both religions have a religious leader whom they believe founded the religion. Christians have Jesus while Muslims have Mohammed. In the bible, Jesus is seen and referred to as the son of God while in Islamic religion the title Son of God is an offense. Death and resurrection of Jesus are always at the core of Christian message while in Muslim religion it is believed that it's just a Christian tale that Jesus died on the cross.

Despite numerous shared beliefs between Muslims and Christians, the two don't celebrate similar holidays. For example, Christians memorize the death and resurrection of Jesus while Muslims honor Muhammad's reaction of holy revelation.

Political Anthropology

In the description, political anthropology is a sub-discipline of cultural and social anthropology apprehensive with a comparative study on politics. 1940-1970 in Europe was the central area, particularly of social anthropology. Political anthropology has its origin in the 19th century. That time intellectuals such as sir Henry Maine and Lewis H. Morgan tried to get a history of the evolution of human society. The early approaches were speculative, ethnocentric, and most of the time racist. Present-day Political anthropology can be dated back to the 1940 African Political Systems publication edited by Meyer Fortes.

Political anthropologists have are concerned with circumstantial specificity administrative processes, the methods in which localities are merged into bigger scales of economic, political, and social life meanings and sentiments people introduce into their political practices. Several amounts of works on the topic of political anthropology give an overview and mark shifts and approach towards the field (Moberg & Mark, 47). Vincent 1978 elaborates on a procession line of attack to politics of decolonization. Vincent 2004 and Nugent and Vincent 2002 are collections of articles that show the width of civil anthropological scholarship. This includes shifts and thematic continuities that compromise the field.

Yanomami Political Structure

Yanomami also is known as the Yanomamo are a group that is about 35000 indigenous individuals living in villages about 200-250 in number. They are found in the Amazon rainforest along the border Brazil and Venezuela. The group was first recognized to be in existence in the year 1759. This happens after Apolinar Diez de la Fuente leading a Spanish voyage visited societies living along the Pandamo river. Between 1630-1720 other societies living in the region were reduced through a slave-hunting by Bandeirantes and Conquistadors.

The Yanomami didn't recognize themselves, but individuals allied by their political independent villages. Their communities were grouped together since they had similar kinship and ages, and warmongering coalitions join the communities together. The community had Carib speakers who lived nearby the Orinoco river.

The Yanomami are the biggest relatively isolated tribe in South America. Their political system is unique (Coello & Alexandre, 530). They have a un-centralized administrative group. These consist of the village head who is the dominant leader. Becoming the village head is earned all over the village and not inherited.

As seen earlier, the community is guided heavily by the Kinship system which acts as a host of the political alliances (LeBlanc Etal,30). They have established a strong trading and feasting system. Absence of trading they would be unable to form these alliances, important when they want aid in battle. They are able to come up with alliances within their own village through kinship. This ensures that they have someone to provide back up during disputes with other villages. The Yanomami are nicknamed "the fierce" ones since they are always in constant daily violence with other tribes.

During conflicts which typically ascend from cases of adultery, stinginess, thefts, and even failing to deliver an engaged woman. Men involved in such kinds of conflicts go beyond a rowdy shouting contest. A formal fight may take place. Conflict is prevalent among the Yanomami. It may arise from marital and sexual matters.

Ancient Civil Law

The Law of Athens is the best-known law in the legal system of ancient Greece. Even though there weren't any system of institutions observed and recognized by the nation as its lawful order, there were numerous primary approaches to legal issues.

It should be remembered that such joint foundations as there existed gave upsurge to a diversified personal lawful system conflicting to their explanation and completeness and reflecting the historical and ethnic background as well as transforming the economic, political, social and intellectual situations of their societies.

Greek lawful life was influenced by three factors. First, the existence of an array of city-states all administered and possessed its own customary rules. Secondly, there was the issue that in most Poleis laws were laid down in inscribed statuses(Le Bris & David, 15). Some were elaborate. This was a result of the mighty movement for lawful codification. Solon of Athens is the best recognized of a sum of famous lawgivers. The third factor for the Greek act was lack of jurisprudence equivalent to that of Romans.

Works Cited

Arnold, Jeanne E., et al. "Entrenched disbelief: complex hunter-gatherers and the case for inclusive cultural evolutionary thinking." Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 23.2 (2016): 448-499.

Coello de la Rosa, Alexandre. "The 'fierce people' in the context of US foreign politics: a historical anthropology approach to Napoleon Chagnon's interpretation of the Yanomami." Social Anthropology 26.4 (2018): 519-534.

Le Bris, David. "Testing legal origins theory within France: Customary laws versus roman code." Journal of Comparative Economics 47.1 (2019): 1-30.

LeBlanc, Steven A., M. W. Allen, and T. L. Jones. "Forager warfare and our evolutionary past." Violence and warfare among hunter-gatherers (2016): 26-46.

Lim, Marvin. "Human Dignity and Punishment in Judaic and Islamic Law: War and the Death Penalty." Sw. J. Int'l L. 22 (2016): 303.

Moberg, Mark. Engaging anthropological theory: a social and political history. Routledge, 2018.