Simple Societies Part 2

Introduction
Systems of Exchange in Simple Societies

Kinship
Marriage
Religion
Polity

Colonial Impact on Simple Societies

Supply of Traditional Products
Introduction of New Crops
The Industrial Wage Labour
Problems of Colonialism

Summary

Introduction

In the Simple Societies Part 1 we learned about Economies in Simple Societies and Systems of Exchange in Simple Societies. In this post we will discuss Systems of Exchange in Simple Societies and Colonial Impact on Simple Societies.

Systems of Exchange in Simple Societies

Simple societies can be briefly examined in four sections, namely kinship, marriage, religion, and polity, in order to give an overview of how they are socially organized. Religious and political activities are incorporated into kinship roles in these societies, so it makes sense to discuss them together in one section. Studies on the social anthropology of simple societies have revealed that they have incredibly complex kinship, religious, economic, and political systems. But in contrast to contemporary complex societies, simple societies exhibit comparatively easier modes of social life organization.

Kinship

We discuss the four facets of social life in simple societies similarly because the majority of simple societies have been studied in relation to tribal social systems. One of the best examples of a simple society is typically thought to be a tribal group. The language, political structure, and religious practices of a tribe are frequently spread out over a small area. Usually, there are two or more sections. Each section is known as a moiety when it is divided into just two parts. However, if a tribe is divided into more than two sections, each section is referred to as a phratry. Moieties and phratries are typically exogamous groups, meaning that their members must find spouses outside of these groups in order to get married. Only in a small number of societies are the moieties endogamous, requiring that members marry only other moieties' members. Examples of such a group include the Toda.

A moiety or phratry, clan, or lineage has a social duty to support one another. When engaging in various social, economic, political, and religious activities, they typically behave as corporate groups. However, the corporate character of many tribal groups today has been weakened by their widespread dispersion throughout many regions of the world.

Descent

In simple societies, lineages and clans are typically used to determine common descent or origin. Lineages are those social groups that trace their common ancestry to a single individual. Clans are social groups that treat one another as related by ancestry, even though this relationship may not be proven. In other words, clans have legendary ancestors. Clans are larger groups with assumed common ancestry, while lineages are relatively more intimate groups with known ancestors. The mother or the father is typically used to determine descent.

Matrilineal or "uterine descent" refers to descent from the mother. A man does not inherit his father's clan or lineage in a matrilineal system of descent. He shares a lineage and clan with his mother and her brother. An illustration would be the Nayars of South India. In patrilineal descent, only males are used to determine a person's relationship to both male and female members of their group. This type of descent system is likely to include the majority of the course's participants.

However, some people have patrilineal and matrilineal groups that are recognized, but for different reasons, in double-descending systems. For instance, immovable property inheritance among the Yako (Forde, 1950) is controlled by patrilineal descent and movable property inheritance is controlled by matrilineal descent.

Marriage

The institution of marriage serves as the framework for social recognition of mating among members in all societies, including simple societies. The most common kind of marriage in simple societies is monogamy. Only a small number of tribal groups also engage in polygyny, in which a man has multiple wives at once. The polyandry type of marriage, in which a woman is the wife of multiple men at once, is more uncommon. Polyandry is practiced by the Toda and Kliasa tribes of Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, respectively. There is, however, a distinction between the two. When the eldest brother among the Khasa marries, all of his brothers simultaneously become the husbands of his elder brother's wife. Adelphic or fraternal polyandry is the name given to this type of polyandry.

The husbands of a woman are not required to be brothers among the Toda. The issue of the child's paternity is brought up by having multiple husbands. The Toda perform the "bow and arrow" ceremony to address this issue. The husband who conducts the "bow and arrow" ceremony upon a woman's conception becomes the father of the fetus. All of the children she has after the ceremony have him as their father. If no other husband has performed the "bow and arrow" ceremony between his death and the birth of the children, he will still be considered the father. The Toda place more importance on social paternity than biological paternity, as evidenced by this institution.

Religion

Simple societies have a limited ability to influence the environment due to their simple technologies. The ferociousness of nature always overwhelms them. They are severely affected by forest fires, floods, thunder, cloud bursts, earthquakes, and wild animals, so they are much more terrified of natural disasters than people in societies with more complex cultures.

The widespread belief in "mana," a supernatural power typically associated with kings or successful men, is an example of how the existence of an impersonal supernatural force is expressed. Numerous Indian tribes also believe in this force, which they refer to as "bonga," including the Munda and the Ho of Singhbhum, Bihar. "Taboo" is yet another manifestation of a faceless supernatural force. Taboo is a harmful force, and anyone who disregards it runs the risk of receiving unnatural punishment. Social interactions are governed by taboo. To prevent theft, many tribal communities place a taboo mark on their property in the field and the forest. Polynesian words like "mana" and "taboo" have been incorporated into the anthropological and sociological lexicon.

They experience extreme anxiety because they don't fully comprehend their surroundings. It follows that simple societies naturally develop their own theories about the nature and operation of their environment. They have developed a theory of causation, according to which supernatural forces are responsible for the causes of natural events. It has been suggested that there are two types of supernatural forces: impersonal forces and personal forces. Religion speaks to personal forces, whereas magic speaks to impersonal forces. Therefore, for the tribal people, magic and religion are not mutually exclusive but rather complementary.

Polity

The main goal of political organization in all societies is the long-term preservation of order. However, this issue of order is resolved in various ways across societies. Today's state societies, which exhibit structural differentiation, rely on a differentiated state apparatus to keep things in order. Simple societies are distinguished by uniform methods of maintaining law and order. Many different institutions and structures share the duty of maintaining order. Institutions that are obviously non-political, like kinship and religion, also serve political purposes.

Colonial Impact on Simple Societies

Since the 18th century, many simple societies have been subject to European colonialism. The worst time for colonial exploitation was the nineteenth century and the years that followed. While many simple societies in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania have been able to free themselves from colonial rule, quite a few are still fighting to do so. Numerous exploitation networks and structures put in place during colonial rule continue to sap the economic, political, and psychological vitality of these ex-colonial communities, even in those societies that have achieved political independence. These effects can be overt or covert.

Since the 18th century, colonialism has left its mark on all facets of tribal life. Colonial rule had an impact on the simple societies' economic, political, social, and cultural aspects, both directly and indirectly. However, it should be noted that not all tribal societies under colonial rule experienced the same degree of social system disarray. The disruptive influence was much more pronounced in some people than in others. We will now look at how colonialism affected simple societies' political, social, economic, and cultural facets.

The economics of the simple societies became integrated with the global capitalist economic system with the establishment of colonial rule. While some were deeply integrated, others were only marginally integrated. In other words, some societies were much faster than others at adjusting to new beliefs, customs, and technological advancements. Economic integration with the capitalist system took place in three ways: first, by supplying the traditional goods to the global trade network through a number of local and provincial agencies; second, by introducing new crops under the threat and influence of the colonial capitalists; and third, by voluntarily or under duress joining the industrial wage labor. The third had the greatest effect, and the first had the least.

Supply of Traditional Products

Communities that engaged in hunting, gathering, farming, and other traditional activities and sold their goods to market intermediaries under the first category. As a result, they began using a new system of exchange, which in turn had some influence on their previous systems and obligations. However, only a few aspects of their social lives were affected. In these simple societies, the introduction of money and the ability to buy new consumer goods did not result in a restructuring of the economic system.

Introduction of New Crops

Compared to the first type of integration, the second one brought about more significant changes. This required following a new agricultural cycle, which significantly altered the way that production was organized at home. The most significant result was how the local communities' cash crops were affected by changes in the global price. Some of the crops grown by tribal communities specifically for the international market included tobacco and sugarcane. They were frequently forced to switch out food crops for cash crops, which resulted in them having to purchase food at the market. This second type of integration attracted tribes from West Africa, like the Yorubas, to the global capitalist market. But there was no geographic dislocation as a result of this integration.

The Industrial Wage Labour

The third type of integration, which involved integrating into the industrial labor market, had the most disastrous results. The colonialists created industries that required inexpensive labor. To entice people into industrial employment, several inducements were first tested in Africa. However, after they were unsuccessful, many oppressive measures were implemented to make the tribal people work in the copper belt mines and other factories that were established throughout urban Africa. When even these measures failed, the physical capture of tribal people was used to staff the factories and horses. Taxes had to be paid in cash, which was only available in urban-industrial labor.

These oppressive practices did not end at the doors of the factory; rather, the whole industrial structure and working conditions were oppressive. Tribal and non-tribal labor, also known as indentured labor, was used on plantations in Latin America, Africa, and India, where they were subjected to cruel industrial discipline. This type of integration required relocation, frequently leaving the wife, kids, and elderly parents at home in the village. Both the factory and the village end of the worker's migration were problematic for them.

The emergence of colonial rule shattered the tribal communities' political structure. The legitimacy and authority of the traditional political systems were lost. Traditional political chiefs discovered that their rights, authority, and power had all of a sudden vanished. They had to interact with their own tribesmen in ways they would never have imagined doing in the past because they were now acting in the capacity of colonial representatives. In the new colonial context, traditional legal doctrine and methods of conflict resolution all lost their relevance.

In the tribal world, new political institutions like the police, courts of justice, and jails emerged. They were forced to adopt new legal doctrines whose justifications they did not understand. Most of these new positions were filled by new men. Even though they adhered to the indirect rule principle, the British in Africa attempted to keep many of the old chiefs in place, but this was not possible everywhere. So, in many communities, new chiefs were chosen.

Problems of Colonialism

There were numerous issues with the new political system. It was no longer connected to its ties to kin and religion. Kinship and religion were significant factors in the traditional political order that we previously discussed in this section. Because it was kept within a single family, the chief was thought to have supernatural abilities. Chiefs from other families significantly weakened the religious nature of kingship. The political system, as well as, to a large extent, the kinship system, fell apart due to the irrelevance of kinship support. This is due to the fact that the kinship system's political contribution greatly contributed to creating a sense of unity and solidarity.

The institutions and procedures of social solidarity were significantly impacted by economic and political changes. In actuality, the cognitive and affective aspects of the new industrial culture were difficult for the tribal people to accept. They became industrialized but were unable to internalize industrial values. The high absenteeism and low turnover rates were caused by a lack of industrialism. The tribal people moved from the village to the urban-industrial complex as well as from factory to factory and industry to industry. Uncertainty and insecurity thus became a factor.

Tribal cultures collapsed as a result of colonial imposition. When new market rationality and the cash economy were introduced, they transitioned from generalized reciprocity to balanced reciprocity, and in many cases, even negative reciprocity.

They were unable to carry out their numerous rites and rituals related to birth, marriage, and death in the new urban-industrial environment. They experienced psychological strain and deprivation as a result of this. They were cut off from the annual ritual cycle, the festivals, and a variety of other ritual obligations they were supposed to fulfill at their village home because they lived in an urban-industrial setting. At the urban industrial center, they were harmed by a cultural vacuum. They were unable to engage in their own cultural practices or those of the urban-industrial centers. They lost contact not only with their village but also with the industrial culture. They actually became distant from themselves.

The imposition of colonial rule was not passively accepted by the triblas. Studies and research attest to the tribal peoples' tenacity. In Kenya, the Giriama people rose up against colonialism in 1913–1914. Gusii and Luo people in Kenya became engulfed in the cult of Mumbo. The Mau Mau rebellion, which took place once more in Kenya, illustrates the tribal peoples' determination to overthrow the colonial rulers. Another manifestation of Oceania's tribal opposition to colonialism is the cargo cults. Throughout the nineteenth century, tribal people in India also erupted in violent uprisings against the British and their allies. The Munda, Ho, and Santhal tribes of Chotanagpur all revolted against the British and the Zamindars in the nineteenth century. The nineteenth century in Chotanagpur was actually marked by so many uprisings that it is aptly known as the century of tribal uprisings. With regard to these tribal uprisings, TM characteristics stand out very clearly. As much as their rudimentary tools allowed them to, the majority of them were violent. Second, they looked to religion for guidance in order to succeed. They were all movements of some sort that were too confident in their ability to succeed. Without a doubt, the colonial powers brutally crushed the majority of them.

Summary

We have seen in Simple societies parts that simple societies have a wide range of characteristics. These economies are tribal, with unique elements like agriculture, gathering, and hunting. The factor of exchange in simple societies and their social organization were covered in parts 1 and 2. Political organization and marriage religion were also topics of conversation. Political system types in simple societies were looked at. Additionally, we have discussed how colonialism resulted in the exploitation of labor and other negative effects on simple societies. Thus, we have presented a thorough analysis of simple societies. You can visualize simple societies by watching a video program that was delivered to your study center and which dealt with an example of one.