Order and authirity essays

Order and authirity essays For a society to run efficiently a sense of order needs to be maintained. To maintain this order all societies have a political system in place that ranges in complexity. There are four forms of political systems - bands, tribes, chiefdoms and states. Within each political system there are formal or informal mechanisms used to exercise control (and in some cases both). Whether mechanisms are formal or informal depends on what works in each society. With these mechanisms comes a level of enforcement that is used to implement the type of behaviour seen as socially acceptable. This power of enforcement is dependent on the laws available in a society. Gender and religion help play apart in enforcement. There has been a decline in cultural specificity that is largely due to globalisation. But there have always been mechanisms of social control common to the majority of all societies. Even though New Zealand is isolated from other countries geographically, we use many of the same social me chanisms as those overseas. Bands were egalitarian societies and this is one reason why they were the simplest forms of political organisation. People that are almost equal do not need a complex control system. They were generally foraging societies that were constantly moving with the seasons. There were two types of bands - simple and composite. Simple bands were smaller than composite bands. They had an informal political system, with an older male being the leader. Males and females were both involved in the decision making process. Composite bands had a more defined leadership than simple bands. However, political organisation was still informal. The Comanche, who foraged on the southern Great Plains of the United States, are a clear example of a composite band. The Comanche were divided into a number of separate bands. Individuals and families could move amongst the bands and even form new bands, although bands rarely came together for collective...