Compare and Contrast the General Features of Band, Tribe, Chiefdom, and State Political Systems, Giving Examples of Each.

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Within any society, whether past or present, the need to maintain control is one of the most important elements. Maintaining control is normally enforced by those having the most power, those that are able to force their will on others even when it is against the others own will. There are four types of controlling systems: bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states, and whether they control by persuasion or violence, this controlling organized group within a society is either very centralized and formal as is the case with Chiefdoms and States, or uncentralized and informal as in bands and tribes. Centralized systems govern through a more institutionalized manor of enforcing power, authority and even coercion to maintain control. In contrast, in uncentralized systems individuals give willing cooperation to leaders that are personally known and trusted. Power and decisions are more by consensus than individually determined. Found among food foragers and other small mobile groups that share a tract of land, are what is called bands which are small semi-organized groups of kin-ordered individuals that oftentimes split from the larger family group forming extended families that have political independence from the main group. This uncentralized governance is found among the Ju/'hoansi bushman along the Kalahari Desert and the oldest form of an organized political system. Because everyone is related, the main rule is that everyone get along and when conflicts do arise they are informally resolved through "gossip, ridicule, direct negotiation, or mediation and when the later two are needed, the focus is on reaching a solution considered fair by all concerned parties rather than on conforming to some abstract law or rule" (Haviland 285). Gossip is a very important tool that discredits the individual, yet at the same time, it sets standards of proper behavior for the

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