Political Anthropology as a branch of Social Anthropology had come into being only towards the beginning of the second half of 19th century.
- Paul Bohannan (1962) in his Social Anthropology defined as it studies the spatial, structural, organizational and functional aspects of the political systems of the primitive and peasant populations and to some extent the urban populations in relation to culture and society .
- Fried defines political anthropology as a study that deals with political organization comprising these portions of social organization that specifically relate to the individuals or groups that manage the affairs of public policy or seek to control the appointment or activities of those individuals or groups (Mortion H. Freid 1967: Evolution of Political Society).
- Swartz, Turner and Tuden (1966) say that political anthropology is “the study of the processes involved in determining and implementing public goals and in the differential achievements and use of power by the members of a the group concerned with the goals.
The scope of Political Anthropology is comprehensive. Its subject matter spread among several of its branches:
- Anthropology of Political Evolution.
- Anthropology of Political System
- Anthropology of Political Processes
- Anthropology of Ethnicity
- Legal Anthropology
- Anthropology of International Relations
- Anthropology of Warfare
- Anthropology of Politics and Development
Anthropology of Political Evolution deals with the evolution of political systems, Morgan (1877) said the early societies have political systems based on kinship. Real political organization emerged when a government claiming authority over a definite territory came into being. Maine (1861) held how the patriarchal society preceded the modern democratic society. Bachoffen (1883) has shown how male tyranny, hetaerism, gynocracy preceded.
Anthropology of political systems is another branch of political anthropology. It studies the distribution, structure and functioning of band, tribe, chiefdom and State in contemporary societies and shows how they are showing the political, religious, economic, legal and other needs of the food gathering, horticultural, pastoral, agricultural and industrial societies. Evan Pritchard, Meyer fortes, Paul Bohannan, Lucey Main and several others have dealt with the contemporary political systems.
Anthropology of Political Process is another important branch, it describes the ways in which different groups and individuals mobilize support and use power to achieve a variety of public goals. In this regard many anthropologists have looked for power outside the formal political institutions, factious, informal systems of alliance within well-defined political units such as lineages and village leadership basis party on political office and partly on the manipulation of kinship network and wealth in order to build a following, The study of political process has guided information on how power may change hands in society and how new kinds of political organizations may develop.
Legal Anthropology is another branch of Political Anthropology. Malinowski (1926) studied custom and law among the Trobriand Islanders. Radcliffe-Brown (1952) studied sanctions and laws of primitive societies. Hoebel (1954) studied primitive law in cross-cultural perspective. Otter berg (1960) studied law and social control in many African societies and concluded that legal system in many African societies is concerned not only with reconciling the disputants but also with arriving settlement. Roucek studied social control in cross-cultural perspective. Max Rohenstein (1963) analyzed the legal pluralism in African societies and showed how the national leaders wise to favors uniformity over pluralism in the legal system of the new State. Goldschmidt (1967) described how the Sebei tribe of Western Kenya changed their laws and legal system as there was change in their economic life.
Anthropology of ethnicity is another branch of great significance. The focus of attention is on ethnic identification, constructivism, and ethnic boundaries and ethnic relations. Malinowski (1940) examined race relations in Africa. Banton (1967) studied race relations in cross-cultural perspective. Barth (1969) studied ethnic groups and their boundaries in cross cultural perspective. Henry (1976) analyzed ethnicity in the America. Hawed and Rodolfo examined ethnicity and nation-building in the South Pacific. Devalle (1981) studied multi-ethnicity in Chotanagpur. Regis Desire’s (1975) analysed ethnicity and resource competition in plural societies. Cohen (1974) analysed urban ethnicity. Epstein (1978) studied ethnic identities within nation-states, between groups, within groups and within the world system.
Anthropology of political movements shows how renaissance movements, native movements, millenarian movements, Cargo cults, drum festivals, women illnesses and so on are rooted in historical circumstances, how they have formed. how they are led, and how they have resisted the hegemony of dominant Societies and how they are concerned with order or struggle for order. Linton (1943) studied nativistic movements in America, Williams, T.R.(1963)studied the North Borneo Nativistic movements Worseley (1957, 1968) studied the millenarian movements in Melanesia. David Apter and Clifford Geertz studied world movements. A.R. Desai, M.N. Srinivas, Dube, Gough etc. studied the caste and peasant movements in India.
Anthropology of International Relations : Benedict , Mead and Foster are well known figures in this field, in this context Benedict and Mead and several others have examined the National characters of Japan, Russia, America, China, Germany and a few other countries and understood the interests and intentions of the nations and accordingly recommended the home-policies and external policies to be adopted by nations. Foster focused on the role of anthropologists in diplomatic aspects of international politics. Anthropology of international relations is able to explain the appropriateness or inappropriateness of domestic policies, the domestic consequences of foreign policies, the changing political scenario in the world system taken by social history, feminism, power and powerlessness and political organization and the cultural and political domination of European and American countries over the Third World countries which lately have entered their economic domains.
Anthropology of Warfare is also an important -branch of Political Anthropology. First, Anthropology of Warfare has shown how warfare is not a cultural universal because there are some societies like the Kung Bushmen, the Arapesh, the Hopi and the Sawai who never engaged in war against their neighbors. Second, it has shown how war in band and tribal societies is almost always fought by individuals and not by organized fighting groups. Third it has revealed that in chiefdoms and state political organization war tends to be organized and fought by military units according to pre-arranged plan. Finally, it has explained war in terms of innate tendency, adaptive strategy and non-adaptive cultural process. Cadere (1950), Napoleon Chagrin (1977), Otterbein (1968) and vayda (1968) are some of the experts in the field of Anthropology of Warfare.
Anthropology of Politics and Development is relatively a new branch of Political Anthropology, Firstly it has studied the Third World Politics from household and lineage to the colonial and the post-colonial worlds of uneven exchange, dependency and underdevelopment, Secondly, it has also shown how at any given time in one place the political agenda for the development of a nation was being enriched or undermined. Finally, it has analysed the development problems of coming together of old societies and new states, in this context Geertz (1968) shows how the nation building processes in Third World Countries are opposed by two problematic motives:
- the desire to retain one’s identity which is often defined in terms of race, language or tradition; and
- The desire to be part of an efficient modern state, which implies a rising standard of living, political order and greater social justice.