USER MANUAL FOR EXAMS AND PERFORMANCE IN CLASS

Copyright Dr. Konstantinos Zorbas, Political Anthropology, Spring 2023, Shandong University

Political Anthropology Spring 2023: Questions from class presentations

2nd Week: The Paradigms of Political Anthropology - Overview and Introduction

First Question: What are the differences between minimalist and maximalist
approaches to the study of politics and forms of political organization? Which
disciplines in the social sciences does each of these two terms describe?

Second Question: Which Paradigms constitute the theoretical subject matter of

Political Anthropology? Provide an overview of the Paradigms in Political
Anthropology and discuss key theoretical concepts associated with each of these
Paradigms.

Third Question: How has Thomas Kuhn defined the meaning of Paradigms and
Theory change in his study entitled “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”? How
does a “paradigm shift” occur, according to this analysis, and what stages or processes
of transition are involved in this theory?

Fourth Question: Exercise (two parts): A. Identify and describe the logical
associations/continuities between the various Paradigms in Political Anthropology
(wherever applicable). B. Apply the concept of “paradigm shift” to an analysis of
Political Anthropology’s transition from social norms/institutions to a concern with
“rules” and processes in a dynamic political field (arena).

[Important Note: Questions Three and Four must be jointly answered. Together they
count for one Mega-question (to which an extra-grade will be assigned, depending on
your answers. Do not take them as separate questions and do not answer only one of
them or your paper will be marked as “zero”, no answer, at this point].

Recommended Readings (in dealing with the above questions):

- Aronoff, Myron. 2014. Anthropology and Political Science: A Convergent Approach.

Berghahn Books.

- Kuhn, Thomas. 2012 (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. University of

Chicago Press.

- Turner, Victor et. al. 2006 (1966). Political Anthropology. Routledge.

[A basic reading is the main textbook we use in class, Political Anthropology: Power
and Paradigms. However, in order to cover the above questions adequately, you will
have to read broadly and use the substantive materials (PowerPoint notes and other
data), which I present in the classes. You will have to check also the above
recommended books and to read at least several pages from each book. This will
count as a complete answer].
 USER MANUAL FOR EXAMS AND PERFORMANCE IN CLASS
Copyright Dr. Konstantinos Zorbas, Political Anthropology, Spring 2023, Shandong University

3rd Week: The Structure-Functionalist Paradigm: Nuer political organization

First Question: Drawing on your reading of Max Gluckman’s essay “The Peace in
the Feud”, what is the role of customary allegiances in controlling social conflicts and
feuding? (conflicting interests: local solidarity and agnatic descent...) Based on which
social features does Evans-Pritchard describe the Nuer as a stateless people, and what
kinds of sanction/redress existed among them?

Second Question: Provide a brief description of the climatic phenomena that

constitute the West African Monsoon system and the Harmattan season. Describe
also the geography and ecology of the Sahel Region.

Third Question: Provide a brief outline of the ecology, physical environment, and
political geography of the Nuer people’s territory in Sudan. How did these conditions
influence their nomadic mode of subsistence, as well as their definitions of political
boundaries (dividing them into separate, kin-based units)?

Fourth Question: Which (expansionist) state-systems did the Nuer militarily

confront during the latter part of the 19th century? Discuss briefly the history of
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (mentioning also any events of historical importance).

[Note: Questions 2 and 3 must be jointly answered; for details, see the Note in the
previous page]

Fifth Question: What kinds of supernatural punishment for various offences were
sanctioned in the Nuer society? What was the logic of the idea of “ghostly vengeance”,
and why is this equal to divine justice/retribution? What was the role of the “arbitrator”
(Man of the Earth) in the dispute-settlement procedure among the Nuer?

Sixth Question: What was an agnatic group of avengers and according to which rules
(of genealogical descent/proximity or use of various kinds of weapons) was feuding
being waged among these groups?

Seventh Question: Provide a background to the political controversy between

exponents of direct and indirect (British) colonial rule in East Africa. What was
Malinowski’s position regarding the colonial implementation of Western (positive)
law in pre-industrial indigenous societies, and what kinds of social functions did he
attribute to magical beliefs and witchcraft?

Recommended Readings:

- Gluckman, Max. 1955. “The Peace in the Feud”. Past and Present, vol. 8: 1, pp. 1-
14.

- Evans-Pritchard, Edward. 1940. The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood

and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

- Foks, Freddy. 2018. “Bronislaw Malinowski, “Indirect Rule”, and the Colonial
Politics of Functionalist Anthropology”. Comparative Studies in Society and History.
 USER MANUAL FOR EXAMS AND PERFORMANCE IN CLASS
Copyright Dr. Konstantinos Zorbas, Political Anthropology, Spring 2023, Shandong University

4th Week – Domains of Political Power

First Question: Which (two) kinds of resources does the author of the textbook
identify as important aspects of political power? How are these resources related to
maintaining political authority and maximizing power (or even to accessing other
benefits associated with political offices)? Discuss at least one ethnographic example.

(Attention! Your written responses should provide evidence of a methodological

approach to the various parts that constitute the above question. This methodology
should involve a process of “parsing” each of the key themes or concepts (e.g. power,
authority maximization, resources or capital, agents and risks involved, etc.) and
showing the logical associations between all these variables, as well as identifying
possibilities of political courses of action based on these sets of relations. I
recommend you to expound on this analysis by means of using Bailey’s non-
mathematical model of game theory).

Second Question: According to which anthropological paradigm are complex social

evolution and early-state formation explained by reference to an increase in using
energy resources? Draw on examples from various materialist contributions by
anthropologists.

Third Question: Which modes of production does Eric Wolf distinguish in his study
“Europe and The People Without History” and what are the differentiating features of
each of these modes? Describe the historical and colonial conditions that led to the
capitalist transformation of Native American Indian societies in the United States
during the 17th century.

Fourth Question: What kinds of personality features are generally regarded as

desirable or appropriate for the appointed incumbents of political offices? What sorts
of ideological and pragmatic motivations underpin relations of loyalty between
political office-holders and their supporters? In what ways are loyalists, followers,
and sponsors different from each other (in terms of providing support)?

Fifth Question: Which differences hold between the conditions of “status” and
“office”? How are formal and substantive kinds of rationality reflected in
traditional and rational-legal forms of authority respectively?

Sixth Question: What are the key features of charismatic authority and what
processes, associated with leadership and formal organization, are involved in what
Weber calls “the routinization of charisma”?

Recommended Readings:

- Kurtz, Donald. 2001. Political Anthropology: Power and Paradigms (Chapter 2).

- Wolf, Eric. 1982. Europe and the Peoples Without History. University of California
Press.
 USER MANUAL FOR EXAMS AND PERFORMANCE IN CLASS
Copyright Dr. Konstantinos Zorbas, Political Anthropology, Spring 2023, Shandong University

- Weber, Max and Henderson, A.M. 2012 (1947).Theory of Social and Economic
Organization. Martino Fine Books.

- Tambiah, Stanley. 1984. “The Sources of Charismatic Leadership: Max Weber

Revisited”. The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of the Amulets. Cambridge
University Press.
 USER MANUAL FOR EXAMS AND PERFORMANCE IN CLASS
Copyright Dr. Konstantinos Zorbas, Political Anthropology, Spring 2023, Shandong University

5th Week: Legitimation of Authority and Political Evolution: Polynesian ethnography

First Question: Which are the distinctive elements of the Trobriand ceremonial
exchange system in relation to other similar practices of trade that occurred across
the Massim region? What principles of gift-giving and reciprocity between Trobriand
and Dobuan (Dobu) chiefs were in effect as part of the kula ring? Provide a summary
of Malinowski’s account of the functionality of canoe magic and other spells and
magical rites that the Trobriand islanders practised en route to Dobu island (Papa New
Guinea).

Second Question: In what ways the office and transactional political activities of Big
Men differ from other chiefly positions of hereditary rank, which are found in
Melanesia? In what form do traditional elements of pre-colonial chieftainship
constitute a sphere of “parallel politics” in Micronesia?

Third Question: What does Michael Allen mean by arguing that in Melanesia we
find signs of political autonomy, namely, institutions separated from the constraints of
kinship? What kinds of social/ritual groups (beyond the level of kinship relations)
form the ground for the development of political relations in these Melanesian
societies?

Fourth Question: Which type of political system is described as a “territorial lineage

group with ascribed leadership of the gerontocratic type”? What are the social features
of a tribal gerontocracy, and why leadership in these structures is of the “ascriptive
type”? Provide a summary of the author’s description of social organization and
leadership among the Avatip (north Vanuatu).

Fifth Question: Types of political action beyond the level of kinship: A) how are
“multi-lineal” age grades formed, and, B) how is extended membership into this kind
of initiatory group associated with an ideology of widening the agnatic genealogical
group in order to include a larger number of remote apical ancestors?
(Initiation age grade as a formation of “fictive kinship”, involving the discovery of
common ancestry for a number of initiates deriving from different lineage groups).

(Note: Questions Four and Five form a Mega-question and must be jointly answered;
no grades will be assigned to any answers that cover only one of these two questions).

Sixth Question: Drawing on Michael Allen’s article (Elders, Chiefs, and Big Men),
discuss a typology of “non-descent forms of political association” (for example, age
grade initiation groups and customs of ceremonial exchange, or Bigmanship and
multi-lineage political units among the Wogeo people, New Guinea, or “secret
societies”, Mota island).

Recommended Readings:

- Goody, Jack (ed.). 1973. Succession to High Office. Cambridge University Press.

- Allen, Michael. 1984. “Elders, Chiefs, and Big Men: Authority Legitimation and
Political Evolution in Melanesia”. American Ethnologist.
 USER MANUAL FOR EXAMS AND PERFORMANCE IN CLASS
Copyright Dr. Konstantinos Zorbas, Political Anthropology, Spring 2023, Shandong University

- Lewellen, Ted. 2003. Section “Parallel Politics in Micronesia” (Chapter 7). Political
Anthropology: An Introduction.