Bands and “The Political”

Bands and “the Political” lesson is extremely important to understand how cultures have evolved and diversified over long periods of time.  It is necessary for you to see how the many puzzle pieces that make up the Global Villageson this site Global Villages are representatives of the 11 dominant culture regions, as designated by cultural geography maps of our world came to be.  Human beings have always been on the move, and they continue to be on the move, ever faster and faster, with the help of technologythe system by which a society provides its members with things needed or desired, along with knowledge for the use and maintenance of the system More on the one hand and wars, disasters, diseases, climate changes, and a variety of constant disruptions on the other hand.

You may be surprised to learn that the political is not necessarily the same political, as in the news or how you have understood it in the past.  Bands were small groups of people, living in egalitarianegalitarian does not mean "equal," rather it means equal access to resources for survival societies, with very little regulation except for seasons, and/or animal migrations.  These small bands of peoples weren’t ruled by a clock or a set of deadlines.  Naturethe phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans and or human creations set their times.  Making a living depended upon reaching the next ripe fruit and/or watching for animal behaviors and weather patterns.

This mini-course, with four short lessons, is an educational journey taking you from small band societies to large, over-populated state societies.

Learning Objectives

After completing Bands and “The Political,” Lesson 1, you should be able to:

• 1) Define “The Political”
• 2) Understand how political organizations were necessary when populations increased
• 3) Define egalitarian, which is about resources for survival – not about “equality, or equity.”
• 4) Understand the characteristics of a bandthe smallest and least complex political organization, usually found among hunter-gatherer populations; a band is egalitarian, kin-related, has little bureaucracy, and numbers from a dozen to a few dozen people (not a rock band)
• 5) Define and discuss the relationships of bands to their subsistencea method whereby humans are able to continue their existence; condition of being able to stay alive; practices that maintain survival practices (making a living).
• 6)  Understand how important sustainabilitythe basic definition of sustainability is maintaining ecological balance; but for our purposes in studying human culture, we add two more dimensions of sustainability: social and economical, so sustainability is about maintaining social, economic, and ecological balance (as much as possible) is to an ecosystema community of living organisms in a specific area, interconnected through nutrient cycles and energy flows, functioning as a single unit More, even to small groups of people

Study the definitions and terms above:  “The Political,” band, egalitarian, and subsistence practices.  Understanding these terms establishes a foundation for understanding bands and the political organization of this type of societya group of people who are all interdependent and interconnected by their cultural connections; they live in patterned ways and their behaviors in various circumstances are well established; for instance in the Western world most people adhere to lines (cue) at bus stops, or movie theaters, or when checking out at a grocery store; patterned and regular ways of doing things are expected and accepted.

Cultural Evolution – Bands and “The Political – Lesson Plan

Step 1.

View the following video to see the oldest and most studied group (band) of hunter-gatherers on the planet.  Their way of life is slowly disappearing, but they have continued their cultural practices, in spite of encroaching modernity.  These people are commonly known as the San Bushmen, but they are, in reality, the Ju/’hoansi – a people living in the Kalahari Desert of Africa.  They are trying to preserve their cultureculture is not genetically inherited, it is shared, learned, and dynamic- never static and languagea system of symbols that allow people to communicate with each other, also the MOST symbolic way that culture is passed down daily.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hPEvxTsdzo&t=19s

Step 2.

Study the Characteristics of “The Political” Organizations –  these characteristics are very important to understand their relevance to Cultural Evolutionthe gradual development of something from a simple to a more complex form; in nature the process by which different organisms develop and diversify from earlier forms during the history of the earth; Darwin's theory of natural selection seeks to explain the process of evolution of all organisms.

https://itsallaboutculture.com/characteristics-of-the-political-organizations-page/

Step 3.

Summary of Bands as Political Organizations

Make an abbreviated list of the following points to study for the Quiz in this lesson.

• 1.  A band is a small group of people, that are kin-related, and practice foraging/hunting-gathering for subsistence
• 2.  A band usually numbers from around a dozen to up to one hundred individuals
• 3.  Bands are intensely mobile, and may travel long distances to acquire foodany nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink, or that plants absorb, in order to maintain life and growth
• 4.  Bands are egalitarian societies, meaning all adults have equal access to resources for survival
• 5.  Bands lack social status and there are no hierarchies of individuals
• 6.  Bands have no bureaucracy, but may have debates among themselves before decisions are made

Step 4.

Read the Bands as Hunter- Gatherers Lecture – https://itsallaboutculture.com/?page_id=23578

You will need to review the lecture before you take the Quiz below.

Step 5.

Review the definitions above,  take notes if you like.  The definitions are paramount to understanding Cultural Evolution.

Step 6.

Review the Learning Objectives.  Make sure you understand and grasp the concepts before going on to the Quiz, and Lesson 2.

Take the Bands and “the Political” Lesson 1 QUIZ

Note:  You cannot proceed to the next lesson without completing the Quiz.