POLITICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: An Introduction, Third Edition Ted C. Lewellen PRAEGER Political Anthropology POLITICAL ANTHROPOLOGY An Introduction Third Edition Ted C. Lewellen Foreword by Victor Turner, Written for the First Edition LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Lewellen,TedC.,1940– Politicalanthropology:anintroduction/TedC.Lewellen;forewordtothefirstedition byVictorTurner.—3rded. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0–89789–890–7(alk.paper)—ISBN0–89789–891–5(pbk.:alk.paper) 1.Politicalanthropology. I.Title. GN492.L48 2003 306.2—dc21 2003052889 BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable. Copyright(cid:1)2003byTedC.Lewellen Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:2003052889 ISBN:0–89789–890–7 0–89789–891–5(pbk.) Firstpublishedin2003 PraegerPublishers,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881 AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc. www.praeger.com PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Foreword, Written for the First Edition vii Victor Turner Preface ix 1. The Development of Political Anthropology 1 2. Types of Preindustrial Political Systems 15 3. The Evolution of the State 43 4. Religion in Politics: Sacred Legitimacy, Divine Resistance 65 5. Structure and Process 81 6. The Individual in the Political Arena: Action Theory and Game Theory 95 7. The Power of the People: Resistance and Rebellion 111 8. Gender and Power 131 9. The Politics of Identity: Ethnicity and Nationalism 159 10. Modernism, Postmodernism, and the Emerging Synthesis 181 11. From Modernization to Globalization 201 vi CONTENTS Glossary 227 Bibliography 235 Index 255 FOREWORD TO THE FIRST EDITION Victor Turner (1920–1983) In this succinct and lucid account of the sporadic growth of political anthropology over the past four decades, Ted Lewellen traces the devel- opment of its theoretical structure and the personal contributions of its main formulators. He makes available to the wider public of educated readers the issues, problems, perplexities, and achievements of political anthropologists as they have striven to make sense of the multitudinous waysinwhichsocietiesonvaryinglevelsofscaleandcomplexityhandle order and dispute, both internal and external. He assesses the strengths and probes the weaknesses of successive anthropological approaches to the study of political structures and processes, viewed both cross-cultur- ally and in terms of intensive case studies. The result is a commendable guide to the varied sources of this increasingly important subdiscipline, a guide which, as far as I know, is unique of its kind; his criticisms are sharp, his style genial, and his judgments just. As a student of the first generation of British political anthropologists of the structural-function- alist school, and a teacher of the medial generation of Americanpolitical anthropologists, I can vouch for the accuracy and balance of Professor Lewellen’s conclusions, and applaud the penetration of his criticisms, even when they are directed at positions promoted by those of my own theoretical persuasion. Professor Lewellen states candidly that he has not written a textbook. Indeed, most textbooks are bulkier and overcharged with disparate ma- terials, mainly descriptive. But this concise book is theoretically fine- viii FOREWORD honedandminutelyintegrated.Itseemstobetheintroductiontopolitical anthropology that we have all been waiting for, the prism which accu- rately segregates the significant constituents. Not only students, but also seasoned scholars will find worth in it. It is at once a summation and a new start. PREFACE This book had its origins in 1980 when a sociologist friend who was editing the multivolume Handbook of Political Behavior asked me to supply the entry on Political Anthropology. My protestations that I knew no more about the subject than any other budding anthropologist fell on deaf ears. He wanted nothing fancy or even particularly erudite, just a workmanlike overview of the subject matter and theoretical orientation of thesubdiscipline.Howhardcouldthatbe?Barelyayearoutofgradu- ate school and in need of publications to beef up an emaciated vitae, I finally agreed to do it. I thought I could seek out a few overview books and an encyclopedia article or two on the subject, peruse the most im- portant works in the bibliography, and write it up in short order. This was not to be the case. It quickly became evident that no remotely com- prehensive overview book or article existed. There was no shortage of works with “political anthropology” in their titles, but most were theo- retically narrow, and thosethatdid attempt somesortofsummationwere incomplete or hopelessly out of date. The unfortunate reality was that political anthropology existed mainly in widely scattered ethnographies andtheoreticalwritingsthathadlittletodowitheachother.WhatRonald Cohen (1970: 484) had written a decade earlier was still true: “There are, as yet, no well-established conventions as to what [political anthro- pology] includes or excludes or what should bethe basicmethodological attack on the subject.” There even seemed to be some doubt that there was such a thing as political anthropology: in a 1959 review article,