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Lesson7-PoliticalSocialRelations.pdf
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Political & Social Relations Lesson 7
Introduction
This is the third in a series of lessons related to domains of culture. As a refresher, the other two were covered in lessons 5 and 6 respectively. Recall, they covered:
Lesson 5
Language & Communication
Lesson 6
Family & Kinship
Understanding Political and Social Relations is important to cross-cultural competence (3C) because it gives you information about how people interact with each other, how they transmit culture, how they enforce laws and standards, and how they form governments to organize and maintain order in their societies.
Lesson 7
Political & Social Relations
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The domain of Political & Social Relations is a natural follow-on from the Family and Kinship from Lesson 6. As stated in Lesson 6 the ways families organize is the basis for the ways the rest of society organizes. Lesson 7 picks it up from there by discussing the domain of Political and Social Relations which includes any form of group organization and the interpersonal activities that take place between people in society.
Lesson Objectives
It's important to keep Lesson Objectives in mind as you go through this lesson. All of your exam questions - and improved life skills - are based on these objectives. While reading through this lesson, keep the following learning objectives in mind:
1. Define the domain and identify cultural universals of political and social organization
2. Differentiate characteristics of various types of political organization (centralized vs. decentralized, tribes, states)
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3.Recognize how political systems and social relations form, evolve, and influence daily life in different societies
4. Compare and contrast values that are associated with political and social life in the U.S. and with other societies
Auxiliary Objective
The following statement sums up what to achieve by combining your knowledge of the OODA loop with the knowledge derived from the objectives above:
Demonstrate how to use the OODA loop to encompass the local culture's social or political organizational framework in your decision-making.
Lesson Enhancement
The required reading(s) appear throughout the lesson. For your convenience, they also appear at the beginning of the lesson in case you want to read ahead.
NASA Psychologist Assists Trapped Chilean Miners
NPR Morning Edition. 2010
Self-Governance in San Pedro Prison
David B. Skarbek. The Independent Review, v. 14, n. 4, Spring 2010, ISSN 1086–1653, Copyright © 2010, pp. 569–585.
CULTURE IN GOVERNANCE, Does it work? Four Ugandan experiences
The Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda, 2010.
BEST way to OPEN internal links like these is by first RIGHT CLICKING the link and SELECTING "Open Link in New Window".
What Do We Mean by Political & Social Relations?
Political relations are the ways in which members of a community organize leadership, power and authority. Social relations are all of the ways in which individuals are linked to others in their community.
More specifically, Political and Social Relations entail:
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how and why people organize themselves into communities, clans, teams, interest groups, professional groups, and ethnic, regional, and national groups
the institutions that arise from such groups, like schools, city councils, prisons, libraries, militaries, charities, and homeowners associations
the organization of relationships based on status and hierarchies
how and why people decide who will be the leaders in their groups, or what will be the structure of their groups
how and why rules and laws are created and arbitrated, and who arbitrates them
We are all a part of social groups, and we are all concerned with who our leaders are and how we are governed. You will find that political & social relations are among the most influential and wide-reaching aspects of any culture.
When you learn to interpret others' political and social relations, you will be more able to tell friend from foe, who's related to whom and what that relationship implies, and who people are likely to turn to in times of crisis.
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Cultural Universals
As you know by now, every cultural domain includes universals, or, aspects that apply to all cultures everywhere, but that may be enacted in different ways. In this lesson, the universals include aspects of political and social relations that are common to people in all cultures.
Remember that our focus is culture-general information, but we'll provide culture-specific examples to illustrate these principles.
What do all cultures share in terms of political and social relations?
1 When groups larger than the nuclear family live together, they coordinate and organize themselvesin order to ensure that the group members can coexist relatively peacefully.
2 Every social group has a form of hierarchy and status, whether it is acknowledged or not.
3 Every social group enforces behavioral standards, whether by law, coercion, positive reinforcement, shaming (causing to feel disgrace), or ostracism (isolation or banishment). Enforcing standards makes people more loyal to the group, as long as the standards are reasonable to the majority.
4
People express their loyalty to a group, their status, and their power through symbols and other visible markers.
This universal also fits in the communication domain because people are communicating their allegiance in particular ways. You will see this again in Lesson 9, Aesthetics and Recreation.
5 In addition to reinforcing behavior and judging disputes, groups organize themselves in order toprotect their resources (food, land, people).
There are many, many variations in how cultures apply these universals, even more than in the case of family structures. In fact, conflicts usually arise as a result of the different objectives, values, and practices held by competing groups and alliances. Studying some of the types of social and political organization will help you understand what to expect when you are in different cultural contexts.
The patterns of relationships between people in a different culture give clues to how those people will interact with you, and how you will be expected to act. Preparing for such interactions will build your cross-cultural competence.
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Terminology: Is There a Difference Between Political & Social Relations?
Political relations indicate the differences between individuals' exercise of power and the ways groups of people govern themselves. The term usually includes some form of government institutions, laws, and regulations. Political relations are also referred to as political organization or political activities. The term has a more specific meaning than the term social relations.
Social relations refer more generally to the patterns of relationships among people. Social relations may sometimes revolve around political ideas, but they often exist outside of the political institutions themselves. Social relations may also result in the creation of some institutions, but they are less formal than those created by political relations and often have nothing to do with politics at all. Social relations are sometimes referred to as social organization or social activities.
The first kind of social relations we experience in our lives is the family. You learned in Lesson 6 that families can be organized in all kinds of ways, and you learned about people's specific patterns of organization according to their cultures.
We discussed the power that families have to regulate our behavior and instruct us in the norms of our culture. That indicates political relations. Parents, grandparents, and other members of the family govern what children can and can't do, and the family group influences whom a person may marry and what career a person might choose. Even though you may not think of your family as "governing" you, they do set rules and standards and help you fit in to your social group. When a group enforces rules and standards, they are utilizing power, and political relations involve the use of power and influence. They also prepare you for political relations by teaching you how to react to elders, police, and bosses, and how to treat people less powerful than you are.
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You will find that nearly every group entails both social and political relations, since people have a tendency to create order and hierarchies in all their relationships.
Cultural Log Exercise 7.1: How Groups Get Things Done
Political & Social Relations in Other Cultures
In the U.S., there is a more distinct division between political and social activities.
We elect or appoint leaders based on their qualifications and based on their goals for the position. Although we have cases where "old boy networks," nepotism, and conflicts of interest affect people's promotions at work or access to elected positions, our system is set up with rules for keeping our personal lives and professional lives separate. We have laws that protect workers and give them routes to protest against mistreatment. We are discouraged from "bringing our personal lives to work."
This is not the case in every culture. However, remember that cultures with other systems of organization and hierarchy have just that: systems that work for them.
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Case study: The Role of Tribes
Imagine you are a 5-level biomedical equipment technician on a deployment to Iraq for the first time. You've been assigned to accompany a team to local hospitals outside Baghdad, and help the hospital staff inspect and repair some of their equipment. You want to know more about the Iraqi people and what issues you might encounter in your role. After searching through some general Internet sites, your superintendent points you to the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity reports on Intelink. In the Iraq Transitional Country Handbook, you find the following text:
Role of Tribes in Society
THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY (FOUO)
At least three-quarters of the Iraqi people belong to one of the country's 150 tribes. Social relationships in Iraqi Arab culture require individuals to merge identity and personality within the framework of the communal group. Instead of asserting their separateness and privacy as individuals, Iraqi Arabs tend to interact as members of a group -- family, clan, village, neighborhood, tribe, etc. Iraqi Arabs display a high need for social approval and group norms. Shaming is the primary instrument with which Iraqi Arab society enforces conformity. The group often determines a person's identity, status, and prospects for success in life. Conformity is related to and reinforced by a reverence for tradition.
Within Arab culture, therefore, the group takes precedence over the individual. Loyalty to the group is highly valued, and responsibility is generally considered to fall upon the group in its entirety rather than on any particular individual. Cousins, neighbors, and friends can develop bonds as strong as any between close family members. Kinship ties are fabricated, denied, and manipulated. Because of the primacy of the group, obligations of group members to one another are wide, varied, and powerfully compelling. The extended family is the fundamental unit of political and social action. Related kin groups may be allies or enemies, depending upon the existing economic and political conditions.
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Iraqi tribes are characterized by solidarity, hospitality, and independence. Tribal values also include loyalty, courage, gallantry, manliness, and mastery of arms. In general, the degree of hierarchy and centralization in a tribe correlates with the length of time it had been sedentary. Tribal membership did not impose a rigid structure on behavior. The tribe provided its members with an identity, a sense of security, and conflict resolution, but everyday behavior was pragmatic and adaptive to specific situations.
Source: https://www.intelink.gov/mcia/products/handbook/irqhb_trans/index.htm
CAC required
THE PRECEDING TEXT IS FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY (FOUO)
The information above is one example of a different system of political & social relations that may seem unusual for Airmen deployed or stationed overseas.
Now imagine you receive this information in the course of your duties.
How do you interpret it?
How can you apply it to your job?
Respond to the following questions for some guidance:
Recall, the steps of the OODA Loop led you to Observe and Orient to the environment you are in. This is valuable in assessing unfamiliar situations and behaviors before you make decisions about people's behavior and take action based on incorrect information.
How and Why Do People Create Communities?
There are two principal reasons why people create communities:
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Family, Identity, and Socialization—you can think of these as processes of enculturation and perpetuating culture over time and generations of people. Enculturation is the process of learning about and becoming a member of a culture.
Governance, Protection, Resolving Conflict—you can think of these as processes of organizing and managing groups of people in order to live together with less conflict. These processes also perpetuate identity and culture over time and generations, but their main function is to organize and provide mechanisms for controlling behavior outside the immediate family.
How people create communities varies from culture to culture, but follows general patterns. You've already learned about some of these patterns: family, ethnic groups, interest and hobby groups, etc.
Let's first examine the reasons why before returning to more discussion about how communities are formed.
Creating Communities
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Principle Reason #1: Family, Identity, Socialization
You learned in previous lessons that people are drawn to one another to create families, to reinforce their identity, and to create communities that help socialize young people into a culture's behavioral norms and cultural values.
The socialization process occurs throughout our lifetime. It begins at birth with our family providing positive reinforcement for acceptable behavior and negative feedback for unacceptable behavior. Socialization goes hand in hand with enculturation. We use the term socialization here to refer to both the process of becoming a member of a social group and a culture.
As you recall from Lesson 2, there are many groups and institutions that socialize people as they grow up. The text below provides a brief review of these:
After the family, schools fulfill the next largest socializing function in OUR society: they teach children the beliefs, values, and customs of the larger society. As a child grows older, the peer group begins to play a larger role in his or her social development. Conforming to one's peer group is an example of the socialization process at work. Through adulthood, various groups influence a person's life and help shape his or her identity: clubs, activities, professions, workplaces, and political organizations. Along the way, at least in most countries, the state is ever-present. We learn about being a citizen at school, from our parents, through encounters with police and the courts, and through the media.
This lesson focuses more on the formation and functions of those groups apart from their role in socialization. We concentrate more on the types of groups you might encounter in other cultures, the forms of authority present in those groups, and the reasons conflicts may arise between groups.
Click below to learn more about socialization of children in various cultures.
Creating Communities
Principle Reason #2: Governance, Protection, Resolving Conflict
In anthropology and sociology, political organization describes the ways people govern themselves as their societies get larger. In general, smaller societies of a few hundred people need less organization and leadership than larger societies (1000+ people) that might contain many unrelated groups of people.
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Smaller groups usually manage to take care of sorting out food issues, education, territory, and enforcing laws and norms without expansive systems of institutions like our school systems, military, courts, and Food and Drug Administration.
Unfortunately for our discussion, there are very few isolated small societies left in the contemporary world. However, small groups of people (e.g., the PTA at a school, a Little League team, a small bicycle factory, or a condo residents' association) follow similar patterns.
See this short article below for an example.
In the CNN story, the owner of a small construction company works with his employees to keep them all in business. They are rewarded for loyalty by a stake in the company.
Two general rules for organization seem to be followed across human history. The more people in a society:
1 the more political organization they are likely to have
2 the more specialized people's roles (jobs, functions) become
Statement #2 means that certain jobs or functions will be performed by people who specialize in that one role, such as farming; processing food (baking, canning, etc.); raising animals for meat; processing material for clothing; and providing services like cleaning, education, medical care, religious leadership, and providing legal advice.
In smaller societies, people usually hold multiple roles, such as those we would separate into "home" and "work" activities: growing their own food, making their own bread, raising and slautering their own animals for meat, weaving items for clothing or furnishings, acting as a spiritual leader, serving as a political leader, teaching children, representing the group in state political life, selling products at the local market, etc.
In smaller groups, like the one in the article above, there is also less specialization, since members usually need to perform more than one role. An example is a small office of four people. One is officially the receptionist, but what happens when that person is out to lunch? Doesn't anyone answer the phones or greet
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customers? It's likely that other people take up the slack and perform that receptionist role in addition to their own. Nevertheless, everyone still knows his or her "rank" in the office: there is a boss, a receptionist, and two salespeople, for example, and that hierarchy is maintained.
As you can see, economic resources (food, number of people, land) matter in how much and what kind of political organization is needed.
If there are few resources and many people, then there will likely be more conflict. People develop institutions (like schools, armies, councils, etc.) to deal with the potential for conflict or to arbitrate disputes over resources.
You may remember the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground for 69 days in 2010 after the mine where they were working collapsed.
They reported that by their 17th day underground, they had organized their living space into eating and sleeping quarters, had appointed three leaders, including a spiritual leader, and held group meetings every day to deal with the stresses of living in such a cramped, resource-poor environment.
To review the reading see below.
The next pages will outline common types of political organization and the economic systems likely to co-exist with that type of organization. These constitute how people create and organize their groups, and the functions of those groups.
Types of Political Organization
There are four types of political organizations. Each is described in further detail below:
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1. Larger Communities with Centralized Governance:
Centralized means that power and authority are organized around a core (central) location, governing body, or person. When we talk about centralized governance, we mean that money and resources flow from the people to the central government and then are redistributed to the people. The United States is one example of a centralized government.
The next several pages discuss types of political organization, starting with states, which are among the largest and also a type most Americans are familiar with.
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States
States are the most common form of national political organization in the world today. It is important to remember that when we speak of a "state" in this course, we are talking about a country, like Korea, Germany, or Liberia--not one of the 50 states of the US.
States maintain control over a territory, organize and equip armed forces to protect their borders, have a designated system for conflict resolution, and usually support all the smaller civic and social organizations within it (schools, hospitals, local governments, etc).
In states, authority over territory, institutions, and military is generally distributed across hierarchically-organized bureaucracies. Distinct institutions, like the House of Representatives and the local courts systems, are allocated certain rights and responsibilities in the exercise of legitimate (given by the state) power.
There are many forms of state governments, but most can be generalized as those with power in the hands of a few (monarchies, oligarchies, dictatorships) and those with power in the hands of the majority (democracies, constitutional monarchies, republics). Those state governments operate under certain ideologies and practices, such as pluralism, Islamism, meritocracy, socialism, fascism, etc.
This is not a course about government, so we won't go into detail about how state governments operate. However, we will draw your attention to four characteristics of states, and compare these to the other groups discussed later in this section. The four characteristics are: division of labor, social stratification, ways of resolving conflict, and ways of enforcing laws and norms of conduct.
For states, these usually look like this:
In addition, most people gain a sense of identity from belonging to a state. This is often called patriotism. Nationalism is a similar term. It refers to a feeling of pride of belonging to a state or belonging to a particular ethnic group (such as a group that would like its own state, like the Kurds).
When such feelings become extreme and more ethnocentric, they can verge on racism and xenophobia. Extreme negative feelings about groups of other people can lead to discrimination, ethnic cleansing, and even genocide.
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Xenophobia: Hatred or fear of foreign people or ideas moving into one's territory.
Racism: Discrimination against a particular group of people based on their heritage or ethnicity.
Can you see potential racism or xenophobia in the accompanying images?
Types of Political Organization (cont'd)
2. Groups within Societies
Groups that exist within state societies often mirror the national way of government or the governing ideology of the majority of people in the society. The ways they mirror the national system shows an inherent belief in the values of that system.
How would you react if someone told you that your child's new school superintendent will make decisions on her own, without benefit of a school board or the advice of the community?
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For example, how do Americans generally get organized when they start a new group? From book clubs to national sports federations, and from school boards to state political parties, we usually agree to operate under some kind of democratic principle. This might take the form of taking turns choosing a book, by having a board of governors appointed by national leaders that decide on the rules and operating procedures of an organization, or by having a council with members who are voted into office.
You would probably be very surprised! You might even choose to protest the decision, lobby to make a change to the school system, or even take your child to a different community.
In contrast to American ideals of democracy and pluralism, much of Latin America holds populism as its most influential political ideology.
Democracy: The form of government in which all or the majority of citizens participate in governing the society, usually through electing representatives to local and national governments.
Pluralism: The theory that a multitude of groups, not the people as a whole, govern the state. These organizations, which include among others unions, trade and professional associations, environmentalists, civil rights activists, business and financial lobbies, and formal and informal coalitions of like-minded citizens, influence the making and administration of laws and policy. Since the participants in this process constitute only a tiny fraction of the populace, the public acts mainly as bystanders.
Populism: A political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite.
Populism is popular in societies with a great deal of inequality, since it is based on the idea that the power of the government comes from its ability to appease the lower and working classes. Where those classes outnumber the upper classes, the prospect of revolution is always imminent. Populist leaders usually promise redistribution of resources and more equality in society.
In Bolivia, the values inherent in populism have come out in the governing of one particular prison in La Paz. The only role of the guards is to keep the inmates inside. Other than that, every form of social organization is managed by the prisoners themselves. They sell food, enforce rules, enact punishment, and even provide medical care to each other.
To review the reading see below.
This example shows that when it comes to smaller sociopolitical groups that exist in state societies, the type of political organization people usually gravitate towards will reflect the values inherent in the organization of the
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larger society.
Types of Political Organization (cont'd)
3. Chiefdoms and Warlordships
Chiefdoms are similar to states in the following ways:
Both are centralized. Money and goods must flow to the central government and then get redistributed to the population
Both types of organization control territories, not merely influence them
Their strength is often measured by how much territory they control, whether or not they can effectively police their borders, and how well people live under their control
In both types, there is more role specialization and inequality in chiefdoms and states than in any other type of political organization
There are few true chiefdoms in the world today. Where they do exist, chiefs rule alongside leaders that are elected or appointed at the state-level. Most African state governments and international development agencies have come to recognize the benefits of working with indigenous (native to, or occurring naturally in, a particular place) political systems.
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The Alur Chiefdom reading below gives an example of how the local and national forms of political organization work together to solve conflicts in fishing communities in Uganda.
On the other hand, warlordship is a contemporary form of chiefdom. It occurs most often in "failed states," where the state government has collapsed.
You may have heard the term "warlord" or "druglord" used when people speak about local leaders in Somalia, Afghanistan, and Colombia.
These leaders control military and economic activities in a particular area. They have a stake in keeping the state government from working properly, so they are more likely to create chaos and conflict than peaceful relations with other groups.
Once again, the information contained in this lesson is important to Airmen because you should understand what kind of political and governmental system the local people adhere to, especially if deployed to a conflict area. The knowledge will help you know what the local hierarchy is, who the authority figures are, and how to avoid the assumption that other systems operate like ours.
Types of Political Organization (cont'd)
4. Tribes
Tribes were introduced earlier in the lesson. Here's a more in-depth look at them. Tribes are an interesting type of political organization because they:
can be relatively large (including tens of thousands of people in several countries) to relatively small (a few hundred people in one region of one country).
may be more centralized or decentralized, depending on the place, its local culture, current economic conditions, and the political environment.
Previously, regarding Iraq, this lesson mentioned, "in general, the degree of hierarchy and centralization in a tribe correlates with the length of time it had been sedentary." This seems to be common in most places.
Decentralized: Power and authority over resources and people is distributed across multiple entities or people, without one central administrative core.
Here are several decentralized characteristics of tribe(s):
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co-exist with state governments in most contemporary states.
provide a sense of identity for people, which can be stronger or weaker depending on the local culture.
members share cultural history, traditions, and may share a specific language or dialect.
may also consider themselves descended from a common ancestor.
In the ways that a tribe provides a sense of identity to people, it is like an ethnic group in the U.S. However, ethnic group members do not consider themselves related to a common ancestor.
Tribes originated as a form of political organization that helped to govern people as groups grew larger and expanded over larger territories. That governing structure still exists in many places, and it operates alongside the state government. Here is an example:
In Iraq, the most important element of local culture is the tribe and the associated patronage system. Patronage means that support (loyalty, votes, money, time, resources) of the people is offered to a leader in return for the leader's support and protection.
The majority of the population belong to one of the 150 major tribes, the largest containing more than a million members and the smallest a few thousand. Tribes are invariably patronage systems in which powerful sheiks dispense riches and rewards to sub-sheiks, who in turn distribute resources to the tribal community. Sheiks always need money to generate loyalty from sub-sheiks. There is a saying in Iraq: you cannot buy a tribe, but you can certainly hire one. In Amara, the British did just that. They appointed tribal leaders to local councils and gave the councils large sums to distribute, reinforcing the sheiks' political standing. As one officer noted, "We deal with what exists. In the five months we've been here, we're not going to change the culture of Iraq. We have to work with what there is."[1]
In Iraq and in most countries, tribes are relatively integrated with state government systems. Tribal members usually owe some allegiance (loyalty) to the group's leader(s). Decisions related to the group's welfare and
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conflict resolutions are made by councils of leaders, rather than one person. Loyalty to a leader or group of leaders is reinforced by patronage. If leaders cannot provide for the tribe, or if they abuse their power, they can be removed from power.
Tribal leadership is often passed down through families. In that way, tribes are different from the state form of political organization, where leaders are usually elected.
Giving important leadership positions or jobs based on family ties or friendships is a form of nepotism (the practice of giving important leadership positions or jobs based on family ties or friendships.
Pictured are large portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on the eastern wall of Grand People's Study House, facing Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea.
In today's world, in most countries where tribal political organization exists, we cannot say that tribes maintain control over a territory. Rather, they influence people's activities in a territory and support people to the extent that people support them.
Try this activity to learn more about major characteristics of tribes.
Leaders at a State level will surround themselves with people that help to ensure the stability, permanence, and credibility of their government. However there are varying reasons why these leaders make their individual choices, and how is the best way to achieve stability, permanence, and credibility. Match the examples below with the term that describes it.
In the Absence of a State Government…
The following excerpt from McFate's 2005 article about Iraq reiterates the point that people use more traditional governing structures to maintain order in society when the state government becomes inadequate to take care of the people:
They assumed that the civilian apparatus of the government would remain intact after the regime was
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At a strategic level, certain policymakers [at the beginning of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM] … apparently misunderstood the tribal nature of Iraqi culture and society.
decapitated by an aerial strike, a military defeat, or an in-internal coup.
In fact, when the United States cut off the hydra's Ba'thist head, power reverted to its most basic and stable form—the tribe. As a tribal leader observed, "We follow the central government. . . . But of course if communications are cut between us and the center, all authority will revert to our sheik."[2]
When the state government loses power or cannot exert control over a territory, other forms of social and political organization fill in the gap.
Understanding local political and social organization is very useful to military operations. Read here how it helped the 4th Infantry Division to find and capture Saddam Hussein:
The structure of any insurgency will reflect the indigenous social organization of the geographical region. Thus, charting the Iraqi tribal and kinship system allowed 4th Infantry Division to capture Saddam Hussein. … Major General Raymond Odierno, USA, understood that relationships of blood and tribe were the key to finding Saddam Hussein.
Two total novices, Lieutenant Angela Santana and Corporal Harold Engstrom of 104th Military Intelligence Battalion, were assigned to build a chart to help 4th Infantry Division figure out who was hiding Saddam.
According to Santana, a former executive secretary, their first thought was: "Is he joking? This is impossible. We can't even pronounce these names." Despite the challenges, they created a huge chart … depicting key figures with their interrelationships, social status, and last-known locations. Eventually, patterns emerged showing the extensive tribal and family ties to the six main tribes of the Sunni triangle: the Husseins, al-Douris, Hadouthis, Masliyats, Hassans, and Harimyths, which led directly to Saddam Hussein.[3]
Actually, in this example, Lieutenant Santana and Corporal Engstrom provide a model for you to use along with the steps of the OODA Loop to understand local political and social relations in any situation:
Consider the questions they asked:
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WHO are the major players?
HOW are they RELATED?
WHAT is the SOCIAL STATUS of each?
(What is the structure of the group? How do they interact with one another?)
WHERE are they located?
These questions led to a tool that you can find at the end of this lesson.
This tool is helpful because many Airmen are deployed to locations where the state government has collapsed, is failing, or even non-existent.
Social Inequality
Recall, with more complex political organization (tribes, chiefdoms, states) comes more differentiation of people into specific roles. More often than not, such specialization leads to social classes, or groups of people who perform roles that exist on a hierarchical scale from most valued to least valued. Differentiation into classes leads to social inequality.
Social inequality refers to the unequal distribution of wealth, prestige, or power. All societies are characterized by some degree of social inequality. Inequality is relevant to this lesson because of its pervasive influence on human interactions and institutions. We all want a "fair share" of society's awards, but there is often conflict over how these awards should be divided. Regional groups argue over where and how money will be spent; some take more than their share based on beliefs about their own superiority; and states go to war over scarce resources such as water and oil.
Conflict based on inequality often falls along the lines of political and social organization. In other words, a certain group or culture (political or social) who has more money, power, or certain resources may fight to keep it that way, while another group who has less will, in many cases, agitate to get their share to turn the tables.
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For a very quick example of this concept, go to your internet search engine and type the words "inequality in college sports." You will have a multitude of articles to choose from that show conflict on many levels to include funding for womens versus mens sports or for football programs versus all other sports; treatment of female athletes and coaches versus males; preferential treatment of certain athletes e.g. star football players over other students; debate over sharing income from college sports with star athletes; and more. For another example, think about the American debate over transgender peoples' use of bathrooms. Did you ever think of a bathroom as a particularly special 'resource'? Transgendered people as a group (political or social organization), have raised the national consciousness and debate (conflict) on this issue.
To sum this up in a nutshell, understand that if you are in an unfamiliar culture or society that is in a state of conflict, it may well stem from some inequality between groups. If you can understand the local political and social systems, you can better understand the source of inequality, and thus the source of conflict.
Cultural Log Exercise 7.2: Inequality in Your Life
Political & Social Relations and the OODA Loop
The beginning of this lesson mentioned an auxiliary objective, which was to:
"Demonstrate how to use the OODA loop to encompass the local culture's social or political organizational framework in your decision-making."
This may be challenging for an introductory level class, however an invaluable skill to cultivate as you navigate new locales - especially those in conflict. The following exercise provides an opportunity to once
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again practice the skills related to the OODA loop, and to do so with the Political & Social Relations domain in mind. Try the two scenarios below and answer the questions.
Dinnertime Dilemma
SSgt Coldfish is making his "rounds" of the local area in a tribal society. He is approached by a member of a tribe who extends a dinner invitation from the tribal leader. SSgt Coldfish wants nothing more than to return to the compound for dinner and to relax, with American food and beer. To top it off, he believes this particular tribal leader is not all that influential or important. Unfortunately, his knowledge of local culture combined with his mission of "winning relationships" leaves him almost no room to say no. To decline an offer of hospitality is rude and would probably infer shame (losing face) on the tribal leader.
As his mind races to examine everything he knows and all potential responses, he realizes he needs to get some clarification. "Is this tribal leader more important than I think? What is one thing I KNOW would get me out of this dinner and not offend the host?"
Who's Driving
You are working with a local African village mayor in a highly collectivist, tribal region. You need to make transportation arrangements for a shipment of materiel from an airfield that is about 90 miles (normally a 6- hour drive) away. The last driver he recommended, a nephew, took two days to deliver a load of construction material from the airfield - AFTER spending two days getting the truck ready to go. Your time is limited, and you need this material asap because you
must unload, assemble, and ensure good working order of the components before you leave the region in just a few days.
You don't want to use this same driver, but the mayor is insistent.
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Summary In this lesson, you looked at how people use political and social relations to perpetuate culture, enforce social rules to maintain resources, and to solve conflicts. It started by stating the following learning objectives:
1. Define the domain and identify cultural universals of political and social organization.
2. Differentiate characteristics of various types of political organization (centralized vs decentralized, tribes, states).
3. Recognize how political systems and social relations form, evolve, and influence daily life in different societies.
4. Compare and contrast values that are associated with political and social life in the U.S. with other societies.
This lesson provided a basic understanding of the domain of political and social relations. It showed how groups organize for various reasons, to include being able to coexist peacefully, reinforce acceptable behavior and social rules, settle disputes, and to protect resources such as food, land, and people.
The lesson discussed various terms along the way including: social relations, political relations, centralized and decentralized organizing systems, patronage, pluralism, nepotism, and populism.
There are many different kinds of social and political relations, depending on the size of the group and its needs. In addition, many forms of organization exist side-by-side within a state, such as tribes and small community organization. When a state government breaks down, often the more traditional (non-state) forms of social and political relations step in to fill the gap and meet the needs of a people.
For a quick review of categories for how people organize themselves, solve the jigsaw puzzle.
Finally, the lesson showed the connection between political and social relations and inequality--the larger and more centralized the system, the more specialized people's roles within society will be. With role specialization comes inequality because people associate values with certain kinds of jobs or roles. Inequality is a primary fuel for conflict.
Airmen should understand what kind of political and governmental system the local people adhere to, especially if deployed to a conflict area. The knowledge will help understand the local hierarchy, pinpoint who are the authority
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figures, and above all, avoid assumptions about how the local systems work. Observe, Orient, and don't assume local cultures can operate like your own!
References
Lesson 7 Endnotes
[1] McFate, Montgomery. 2005. The Military Utility of Understanding Adversary Culture. Joint Forces Quarterly 38, pp. 45-46.
[2] ibid., p. 44
[3] ibid., p. 45
