Deck 7: The Sacred Chiefs Part III State-Based Systems

Question 1

According to the authors the greater the hierarchy there is in social organization

A) the more the spirits are thought to be further away
B) the number of spirits becomes less
C) the larger the territory the gods cover
D) a, b and c
E) none of the above

Answer 1

D

Question 2

What is the organizational feature that Johnson and Earle point to as the key difference between chiefdoms and early states?

A) the ability to perform complex celebrations
B) specialized institutions of regional control
C) tasteful representations of the human form
D) cross-cousin marriage
E) monumental architecture

Answer 2

B

Question 3

What is it about techniques of power that make it possible for larger and larger polities to emerge?

A) the development of more convincing creation myths
B) the emergence of more effective public health regulations
C) the increasing ability to extract resources from more and more distant locations
D) greater control over micro-organisms
E) improvement in the quality of mass entertainment

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Prestige goods systems are

A) based on the production of superior weapons
B) systems in which prowess in sports is an important basis off political power
C) systems in which elites control the importation of certain goods that must be
Obtained in order to get married
D) more stable than systems based on the ownership of land
E) systems in which the acquisition of high status goods by commoners is prohibited

Question 5

What were the main paths to chiefdom-formation according to Jonathan Friedman?

A) the Cumberland Gap
B) elite control over imported prestige goods that were needed for social reproduction, especially marriages
C) Easter Island
D) elite control over necessary means of production (farm land, fish ponds, etc.)
E) b and d
F) none of the above

Question 6

What are the important differences between state-based and complex chiefdom world-systems according to Chapter 7?

A) Territorial size of polities
B) Population density and size of settlements
C) Degree of specialization in control institutions
D) Strategies of chiefdom formation and strategies of state formation
E) The degree of core/periphery hierarchy
F) a, b, c, d, and e
G) none of the above

Question 7

What are the relations of production that Friedman and Rowlands say are most important in the evolution from tribes to chiefdoms?

A) control over the menu at feasts
B) the social appropriation of nature by local lineage production
C) relations within lineages
D) relations among lineages
E) relations between lineages and the community as a whole
F) control over craft production
G) b, c, d, and e
H) none of the above

Question 8

Why were chiefdoms relatively (in evolutionary comparison) disadvantaged in their ability to extract resources?

A) chiefs spent a lot of time under the influence of mind-altering substances
B) chiefs relied on kinship relations that usually entailed norms of reciprocity
C) chiefdoms relied mainly on bureaucratic organizations
D) chiefs could not convince most commoners to provide them with food
E) chiefs were more concerned with self-aggrandizement than with serving the people

Question 9

The primary job of women in chiefdoms is to make commodities for trade.

Question 10

Individual polities all go through the transitions in size and complexity depicted in Figure 7.1 in Chapter 7.

Question 11

In most chiefdom world-systems there was little interaction with less hierarchical polities.

Question 12

Paramount chiefdoms usually decline or collapse eventually.

Question 13

Once hierarchy emerges in some polities there are strong pressures for other polities in the same system to also become hierarchical.

Question 14

Chiefdoms were limited in the capabilities regarding the extraction of surplus from conquered peoples.

Question 15

States usually emerge in regions in which there have been no chiefdoms.

Question 16

Explain what it means for women's relationships with men to be "ambivalent."
You need to address all the following in your explanation:
a) The worth of female labor
b) The occasion for which the object was produced
c) Sexual freedom
d) Sibling relations
e) Bonds with other women
f) Violence against women
g) The age of the women

Question 17

How does the life of a chiefly woman compare with the life of a woman today?
You need to address all the following in your explanation:
a) The worth of female labor
b) The occasion for which the object was produced
c) Sexual freedom
d) Sibling relations
e) Bonds with other women
f) Violence against women
g) The age of the women
Please choose one of the following statuses of women to make your comparison:
a) A working class cashier in a supermarket
b) A middle class high school teacher
c) An upper middle class lawyer

Question 18

How would you compare the life of women in nomadic foraging societies with the life of women in simple horticultural societies and the life of women in chiefdoms?
You need to address all the following in your explanation:
a) The worth of female labor
b) The occasion for which the object was produced
c) Sexual freedom
d) Sibling relations
e) Bonds with other women
f) Violence against women
g) The age of the women

Question 19

Explain why chiefs are better candidates for individualism than either big-men of simple horticultural societies or the headman of nomadic hunter-gatherer societies. Please consider
a) the kind of work done
b) the amount of leisure time
c) dwelling size
d) kinship bonds

Question 20

Can you think of instances in which there are clear class relations within human social organization and this is coupled with a lack of hierarchy in the sacred world between sacred beings?

Question 21

Can you think of instances where there are clear egalitarian relations within a nomadic hunting-gathering society (or a simple horticultural society) and this is coupled with a clear hierarchy in the sacred world between sacred beings?

Question 22

Discuss the ways in which the rise and fall of chiefdoms is similar to and different from the rise and fall of states.

Question 23

How is the ownership of property different in chiefdoms than it is in less stratified societies?

Question 24

Discuss the relationship between population pressure and conflict as it operated in the Marquesas Islands as analyzed by Patrick Kirch.

Question 25

Discuss the nature and geography of core/periphery relations on the Chesapeake Bay in the late prehistoric period (just before the arrival of the Europeans) as portrayed in Chapter 7.