The successful cross-cultural study of politics entails two important steps: (1) the identification of appropriate concepts and the specifi cation of their interrelationships, and (2) consideration of how micro- level processes within communities are related to macroprocesses between them. It is argued here that the concepts of authority, conflict, and community provide the theoretical foundation for the cross- cultural study of politics. Each concept can be viewed as a distinct dimension of political life; while taken together, the three can help us understand a wide range of significant political behaviors. These concepts are also crucial in helping to link the more process-oriented view of politics that has dominated political anthropology and political science in recent years with the more structural and static concerns that have been dominant in macrocomparative research, such as cross- cultural studies. Finally, it is argued here not only that explicit attention to political processes within communities offers a dynamic set of research questions for the cross-cultural study of politics but also that more sophisticated cross-community studies can point to important theoretical relationships in the comparative study of politics within communities.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Arendt, Hannah1958What Is Authority? In Nomos I: Authority. Karl Friedrich, ed. pp. 91-141. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
2.
Axelrod, Robert1984The Evolution of Cooperation. New York : Basic Books.
3.
Bailey, Fred G.1970Stratagems and Spoils. Oxford : Basil Blackwell.
4.
Barry, Herbert H., III , Irwin L. Child, and Margaret K. Bacon1959Relations of Child Training to Subsistence Economy. American Anthropologist61: 51-63.
5.
Barth, Fredrik1959Political Leadership among the Swat Pathans. New York: Humanities Press.
6.
Barth, Fredrik, ed. 1969Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Cultural Difference. Boston: Little Brown.
7.
Bates, Robert1983The Centralization of African Societies. In his Essays on the Political Economy of Rural Africa. pp. 21-58. New York: Cambridge University Press.
8.
Beals, Alan R., and Bernard J. Siegel1966Divisiveness and Social Conflict . Stanford: Stanford University Press.
9.
Cobb, Roger, and Charles D. Elder1972Participation in American Politics: The Dynamics of Agenda Building. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
10.
Cohen, Abner1969Custom and Politics in Urban Africa. Berkeley and Los Angeles : University of California Press.
11.
1974Two-Dimensional Man: An Essay on the Anthropology of Power and Symbolism in Complex Society. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
12.
Cohen, Ronald1975Introduction. In Origins of the State: The Anthropology of Political Evolution . Ronald Cohen and Elman R. Service, eds. pp. 1-20. Philadelphia : ISHE.
13.
Coleman, James S.1957Community Conflict. New York : Free Press.
14.
Deutsch, Karl, et al. 1957Political Community and the North Atlantic Area. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
15.
Edelman, Murray1964The Symbolic Uses of Politics. Urbana : University of Illinois Press.
16.
Elder, Charles D., and Roger W. Cobb1983The Political Uses of Symbols. New York and London: Longman .
17.
Fortes, M., and E. E. Evans-Pritchard , eds. 1940Introduction. In their African Political Systems. pp. 1-23. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
18.
Freud, Sigmund1922Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego. New York: Norton.
19.
Fried, Morton H.1967The Evolution of Political Society. New York: Random House.
20.
Geertz, Clifford1973Religion as a Cultural System. In his The Interpretation of Cultures. pp. 87-125. New York: Basic Books, Harper Torchbooks.
21.
Gibbs, James1963The Kpelle Moot Africa: 33: 1-10.
22.
Gluckman, Max1963Order and Rebellion in Tribal Africa. New York: Free Press.
23.
Greenberg, Jay R., and Stephen A. Mitchell1983Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
24.
Gulliver, P.H.1979Disputes and Negotiations: A Cross-Cultural Perspective . New York: Academic Press.
25.
Gusfield, Joseph1963Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
26.
Harris, Marvin1979Cultural Materialism: The Struggle for a Science of Society . New York: Random House.
27.
Harrington, Charles, and John W. M. Whiting1972Socialization Processes and Personality. In Psychological Anthropology. 2d ed. Francis L. K. Hsu, ed. pp. 469-507. Cambridge : Schenkman.
28.
Hegland, Mary1983Ritual and Revolution in Iran. In Culture and Political Change. Political Anthropology. Myron J. Aronoff , ed. 2: 75-100. New Brunswick, N.J., and London: Transaction Books.
29.
Hendrix, Lew1985Economy and Child Training Reexamined. Ethos:13: 246-261.
30.
Herdt, Gilbert1987The Sambia: Ritual and Gender in New Guinea. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
31.
Huyghe, Bernard1986Toward a Structural Model of Violence: Male Initiation Rituals and Tribal Warfare. In Peace and War in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Mary LeCron Foster and Robert A. Rubinstein, eds. pp. 25-48. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books.
32.
Jervis, Robert1976Perception and Misperception in International Politics . Princeton: Princeton University Press.
33.
Jervis, Robert, Richard Ned Lebow, and Janice Stein, eds. 1985Psychology and Deterrence. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
34.
Jones, Ernst1974The Psychology of the Constitutional Monarchy. In Psycho-Myth, Psycho-History: Essays in Applied Psychoanalysis. Ernst Jones, ed. Vol. 1, pp. 227-233. New York: Hillstone. (Originally published in 1936.)
35.
Kertzer, David 1. 1983The Role of Ritual in Political Change. In Culture and Political Change. Political Anthropology. 2: 53-74. New Brunswick, N.J., and London: Transaction Books.
36.
Lebow, Richard Ned1981Between Peace and War: The Nature of International Crisis . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
37.
Leach, E.R.1954The Political Systems of Highland Burma. Boston: Beacon Press.
38.
Levinson, David, and Martin J. Malone1981Toward Explaining Human Culture: A Critical Review of the Findings of Worldwide Cross-Cultural Research. New Haven: HRAF Press.
39.
Lowie, Robert H.1927The Origin of the State. New York: Harcourt Brace.
40.
1948Some Aspects of Political Organization among the American Aborigines. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute77-78: 11-24.
41.
Lukes, Steven1977Political Ritual and Social Integration. In Essays in Social Theory. Steven Lukes, ed. pp. 52-73. New York: Columbia University Press.
Middleton, John, and David Tait, eds. 1958Tribes without Rulers: Studies in African Segmentary Systems. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
44.
Nader, Laura, ed. 1969Law in Culture and Society. Chicago: Aldine .
45.
Nader, Laura, and Harry F. Todd, eds. 1976The Disputing Process-Law in Ten Societies. New York: Columbia University Press.
46.
Naroll, Raoul1966Does Military Deterrence Deter? Trans-Action3: 14-20.
47.
1970What Have We Learned From Cross-Cultural Surveys? American Anthropologist72: 1227-1288.
48.
1983The Moral Order: An Introduction to the Human Situation. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.
49.
Otterbein, Charlotte Swanson, and Keith F. Otterbein1973Believers and Beaters: A Case Study of Supernatural Beliefs and Child Rearing in the Bahama Islands. American Anthropologist75: 1670-1681.
50.
Otterbein, Keith F.1987The Ultimate Coercive Sanction. New Haven: HRAF Press.
51.
Paige, Karen Ericksen, and Jeffrey M. Paige1981The Politics of Reproductive Ritual. Berkeley: University of California Press.
52.
Przeworski, Adam, and Henry Teune1970The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry. New York: John Wiley.
53.
Ross, Marc Howard1981Socioeconomic Complexity, Socialization, and Political Differentiation : A Cross-Cultural Study. Ethos9: 217-247.
54.
1983Political Decision Making and Conflict: Additional Cross-Cultural Codes and Scales. Ethnology22: 169-192.
55.
1985Internal and External Violence and Conflict: Cross-Cultural Evidence and a New Analysis. Journal of Conflict Resolution29: 547-579.
56.
1986a A Cross-Cultural Theory of Political Conflict and Violence . Political Psychology7: 427-469.
57.
1986b The Limits to Social Structure: Social Structural and Psychological Explanations for Political Conflict and Violence. Anthropological Quarterly59: 171-176.
58.
1986c Female Political Participation: A Cross-Cultural Explanation . American Anthropologist88: 843-858.
59.
1988 a Cross-Cultural Sources of Conflict and Aggression in Human Societies. Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston, Mass.
60.
1988b Political Organization and Political Participation: Exit, Voice and Loyalty in Preindustrial Societies. Comparative Politics21: 73-89.
61.
Sahlins, Marshall1963Poor Man, Rich Man, Big-Man, Chief: Political Types in Melanesia and Polynesia. Comparative Studies in Society and History5: 285-303.
62.
Schapera, I.1956Government and Politics in Tribal Societies. London: Watts.
63.
Service, Elman R.1975Origins of the State and Civilization. New York: Norton.
64.
Shils, Edward, and Michael Young1953The Meaning of the Coronation. Sociological Quarterly1: 63-81.
65.
Swartz, Marc J.1968Introduction. In Local-Level Politics. Marc J. Swartz, ed. Chicago: Aldine.
66.
Swartz, Marc J., Victor Turner, and Arthur Tuden 1966Introduction. In their Political Anthropology. pp. -Chicago: Aldine.
Turner, Victor1957Schism and Continuity in an African Society. Manchester. Manchester University Press .
69.
1968Mukanda: The Politics of a Non-Political Ritual. In Local-Level Politics. Marc J. Swartz, ed. pp. 135-150. Chicago : Aldine.
70.
Whiting, Beatrice B.1965Sex Identity Conflict and Physical Violence: A Comparative Study. American Anthropologist 67, pt. 2: 123-140.
71.
1980Culture and Social Behavior: A Model for the Development of Social Behavior. Ethos: 8: 95-116.
72.
Whiting, Beatrice B., and John W. M. Whiting1975a Children of Six Cultures: A Psycho-Cultural Analysis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
73.
Whiting, John W. M., and Beatrice B. Whiting1975b Aloofness and Intimacy between Husbands and Wives. Ethos: 3: 183-207.
74.
Whiting, John W. M., Richard Kluckhohn, and Albert S. Anthony1958The Function of Male Initiation Ceremonies at Puberty. In Readings in Social Psychology. 3d ed. Eleanor E. Maccoby, T. M. Newcomb, and Eugene L. Hartley, eds. pp. 359-370. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
75.
Yngvesson, Barbara B.1976The Atlantic Fishermen. In The Disputing Process-Law in Ten Societies. Laura Nader and Harry F. Todd, eds. pp. 59-85. New York: Columbia University Press.
