Social Systems
I. Social Systems
A. A system is social if it applies to more than one person.
1. implies agreed upon meanings for actions and props.
a. BMW vs. VW
i. value and quality systems
b. left turn signal, mating practices - Desmond Morris
2. they meet an agreed upon social need.
a. civic projects.
b. settle disputes.
3. they create identity which implies power relationships.
a. insiders and outsiders.
i. castes (feces removal), classes (middle).
B. Social systems deal with every aspect of culture, open or covert.
1. More complex structures are required as populations swell.
a. develop systems for each level of interaction.
i. privacy depends on group setting (royalty vs. family).
C. Systems regulate power structures within culture.
1. Specialized rules.
a. backed by oral tradition, stories, songs, other formalization.
i. bogey-man or US Constitution.
II. Types of Social Structures - all systems are interrelated but we separate them so we can grapple with them.
A. Political Systems - organization at the macro level
1. Group Identity defines outsiders
a. Deal with groups of outsiders.
b. Make policy for the insider group.
2. Types of systems
a. Government
i. regulates behavior on a basis of law
ii. based on land - local, regional, national, international.
b. Religion
i. regulates behavior on a basis of morality.
ii. may supersede land based orientation - promised land
B. Economic Systems
1. Systems vary by culture
a. Reciprocity
b. cultural ecology develops.
c. craft specialization develops.
i. requires supportive environment.
- food surplus required.
- supply of production materials.
C. Kinship Systems
1. Relatedness
a. regulate ancestry and inheritance systems
i. matrilineal or patrilineal surnames
ii. kinship names i.e.., auntie, son, etc.
b. marriage systems- moiety
D. Linguistic Systems
1. Communications
2. Reinforces results of other systems.
III. Results of Social Systems.
A. Possible cultural responses to social contact with outsiders.
1. Cultural cohesion - permits dense occupation. More Live.
a. Requires surplus of food and other resources.
i. Areas richest in resources, particularly food, are the places where culture rises to high levels.
b. Produces advances in technology through "craft specialization."
i. Implies time to develop talent and skills that are not needed specifically for survival.
aa. Grand engineering projects built - pyramids of Mx, Cliff dwellings.
ii. Implies time to reflect.
aa. Written language develops.
iii. Implies civic projects and population density that cause landscape changes.
aa. The deforestation of central Mexico to burn shells to make stucco to cover buildings.
bb. The city at Poverty Point, LA that covers more than six (6) square miles.
iv. Implies an exchange economy and systems of redistribution and clear cultural values around reciprocity.
aa. Currency develops.
2. Separation - contact minimized, even dense populations. More Live.
a. Homogeneity of culture increases.
i. may involve class separation.
ii. implies parallel but separate development.
3. Genocide - the powerful kill the weak. The powerful live.
a. almost always over land occupation or resource distribution.
i. Land disputes called ethnic cleansing.
ii. Disputes staged around social systems
b. requires dehumanization of one group by another group.
c. every race and continent (Aust aboriginal genocide?).
B. History
1. remains because history is shared memory.
a. culture decides what to remember and how to remember it.
i. Little Big Horn, Sand Creek, Relocation of tribes.
a. can’t get everything in the frame - results in a focus on the powerful.
b. can’t get every second on film.
2. History is like a series of snapshots of events in the same place at different times, or of different places at the same time.
a. We NEVER EVER get the whole picture!!