Oct. 19, 1999

1. Ongka's Case: His moka as the culmination of feasts ending a particularly bitter war
   1. Lessons from the Film
      1. Illustrates the Big Man as hero but also as persuader, not commander
      2. Complexity of competitive feasting, rival Big Men on all sides
      3. The guests are not transformed, they remain enemies or rivals
      4. The huge quantities of goods given away--in a hurry--no feasting together
      5. Both redistribution and balanced leading to negative reciprocity here.
         
         
2. History of this Competitive Feasting (from Andrew Strathern: Ongka: A Self-Account of a New Guinea Big Man, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979, p. 56-61)
   1. Warfare episode between the Minembi (below and to the west) and their allies the Ankakelkam vs. the Kawelka
      1. The Minembi went to the Tipuka (to the east--the Tipuka are an allied group and maybe the target guests in the film) and offered bribes of "women for nothing and payment of wealth."
      2. The Oklembo clansmen of the Tipuka took the bribe and challenged the Kawelka, claiming they had killed one of their own by sorcery. The Kawelka accepted the challenge and met for a ritual battle at a cemetery, where the Kawelka killed an Oklembo warrior on the spot.
      3. The Oklembo rallied all the Tipuka clans vs. Kawelka and literally burned them out, destroyed their homes, killed their pigs, raped their women, and drove the men up into the hills to face starvation.
      4. Yet the Kawelka men kept a war house (presumably palisaded), and their cross-cousins among the enemy brought them their dead for burial. Finally they rallied against the enemy, knowing that the Oklembo had gone off someplace for an ambush. The Kawelka outflanked the Tipuka, went down into unprotected territory, and laid waste to Tipuka homes. Both sides were devastated.
      5. Outcome: mutual exhaustion.
      6. The Kawelka invited their cross-cousins from the enemy, who in some cases had actually shielded them in battle and prevented the enemy from killing them, and feasted them with pig feast. That restored peace and may have started the competition that led to the maximal feast that we saw in the film.
3. Theory of Associations: also a partial way out of the dilemma or tribal people. How to keep peace somewhere?
   1. Definition, p. 306
   2. Primate juvenile play group: emergent dynamics--"tangent" to families with upset interactions, lack of equilibrium
      1. Play as a technique or activity, relation to development of associations
   3. Chapple's theory (from Eliot Chapple and Carleton Coon, Principles of Anthropology (New York: Henry Holt 1942, pp. 416-442)
      1. associations form where institutions are tangent
         1. PTA
         2. a labor union
      2. are not really "voluntary" or defined by secrecy.
      3. some types in our society:
         1. fraternal organizations
         2. women's groups (as of 1942)
         3. charitable organizations
   4. Associations in Tribal Republics
      1. One way to keep internal peace in relatively large and more complex groups.
      2. e.g.: the Cheyenne (see pp. 297-301 of textbook)
         1. tangent institutions: the family and the ten kinship-based bonds
         2. spontaneous activity-oriented cliques: the war party--what about hunting party?
         3. the results:
            1. seven ritual associations to dance, sing, and---in rotation---act as police and conduct the collective hunts
            2. to keep them in line the Council of 44 Peace Chiefs
               
               
4. Conclusions
   1. Associations are linked to play, recreation, pleasurable activities in general, they are institutional "shock absorbers" and "safety valves."
   2. They do help keep internal peace in tribal republics, and are very common there.
      

Oct. 21

1. The Over-Estimation of Politics / The Distribution of "Command Control"
   
   
2. Review of politics ane the "levels" of culture and communtiy
   1. Review Figure 2.3, p. 23
   2. Figure 2.4, p. 31
   3. Figure 2.5, p. 33
   4. Figure 2.6, p. 37
   5. Figure 2.7, p. 39
      
      
3. Politics Defined
   1. glossary, p. 305
   2. see Fig. 5.4 on p. 119
   3. see box on p. 372
      
      
4. Weber's Modes of Domination and Other Institutions
   1. Traditional Dominaion
      1. patriarchy
      2. hunt leaders
      3. war leaders
      4. leaders of ritual association
   2. Charismatic Domination
      1. Big Men (feast givers)
      2. shamans
      3. prophets
      4. divine kings & priests ("civilized" societies)
   3. Legal Rational Domination
      1. rule by written law
      2. judged by efficiency
      3. leaders lead bureaucrats
         
         
5. Republics vs. Monarchies
   1. Tribal republic defined, p. 305
      
      
6. Conclusion
   1. Leaders seldom have as much power as they appear to have.