The Khmer Settlement Pattern: A Possible Analogy with that of the Maya

1957 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Coe
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
Classic Maya ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Organization ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Maya Area

There has recently been increased attention paid to the nature of the settlement pattern of Classic Maya civilization. It now seems likely that Classic Maya “cities“ were not secular, urban communities in which large numbers of people were grouped together in close proximity. On the other hand, if these were merely ceremonial centers in which the populace gathered for certain rituals, then the political and religious organization of these centers, and the actual socio-political structure of the entire Maya area, are as yet undetermined.

Segmentary State Formation and the Ritual Control of Water Under the Incas

1993 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 480-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Gose
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Plant Life ◽  
Kinship Relations ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
The One ◽  
Divine Kingship

There is a strange and unacknowledged paradox in the historiography of the Incas. On the one hand, few would deny that theirs was a typically theocratic archaic state, a divine kingship in which the Inca was thought to.be the son of the Sun. On the other hand, the standard descriptions of Inca political structure barely mention religion and seem to assume a formal separation between state and cult.1I believe that these secularizing accounts are misguided and will show in this essay that the political structure of the pre-Columbian Andes took form primarily around a system of sacred ancestral relics and origin points known generically ashuacas. Each huaca defined a level of political organization that might nest into units of a higher order or subdivide into smaller groupings. Collectively they formed a segmentary hierarchy that transcended the boundaries of local ethnic polities and provided the basis for empires like that of the Incas. However, these huacas were also the focus of local kinship relations and agrarian fertility rituals. The political structure that they articulated therefore had a built-in concern for the metaphysical reproduction of human, animal, and plant life. Political power in the pre-Columbian Andes was particularly bound up with attempts to control the flow of water across the frontier of life and death, resulting in no clear distinction between ritual and administration.

Congregations and Associations: the Political Structure of the Chinese Community in Phnom-Penh, Cambodia

1969 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 282-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. Willmott
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Overseas Chinese ◽  
Chinese Community ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Phnom Penh

The study of overseas Chinese has continued for some time as a series of somewhat unrelated monographs with little comparative analysis. One of the few important attempts at sociological generalization about Chinese communities in Southeast Asia was made by Maurice Freedman in an article entitled ‘Immigrants and Associations’, which appeared in this journal in 1960. In this article, Freedman suggested that ‘the associations which in a small-scale and relatively underdeveloped settlement express social, economic and political links in an undifferentiated form, tend, as the scale and complexity of the society increase, to separate into a network of associations which are comparatively specialized in their functions and the kinds of solidarity they express’ (Freedman, 1960: 47 f.). He proposed a continuum of types of overseas Chinese urban communities. At one end stands Kuching, Sarawak, ‘as the model of a simple and relatively small-scale overseas settlement’, while ‘Later Singapore is … the model of the most developed form of immigrant Chinese settlement in Southeast Asia’ (ibid.: 45). Singapore exhibits a great number of associations, based on criteria of recruitment that allow memberships to overlap to a great extent; the urban Chinese community in Sarawak includes fewer associations and consequently less overlap among memberships. Other studies in Southeast Asia suggest that this continuum might be a useful way of looking at the development of Chinese communities.

scholarly journals Political structure and the administration of political system in Iraq (post-ISIS)

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (65) ◽  
pp. 345-361
Author(s):  
Muntasser Majeed Hameed
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Entry Point ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Democratic Systems ◽  
The One

The objective of the investigation was to analyze the structure and administration of the political system in Iraq (post-ISIS). After 2003, the Iraqi political system suffered the fundamental problem of its failure to achieve the political and social inclusion that characterizes democratic systems, to guarantee the establishment of a "state for all", while respecting differences. Political representation has moved from the system of sectarian ethnic components, under the title of consensual democracy, to the representation of leaders and the realization of their interests and the interests of their parties at the expense of the groups that claim to represent them, which complicates the problem. In this sense, the new political system could not represent social pluralism, on the one hand, and could not satisfy the demands of the same components on the other. Methodologically, it is a political investigation in the framework of the analysis of the political system. It was concluded that the search for new balances is a pending issue. While these emerging balances and arrangements are still fragile and immature to the extent required, they represent a clear entry point to reshape the regime's political structure in one form or another.

Prehistoric Political Change on the Southeast Mesoamerican Periphery

1992 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boyd Dixon
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Settlement Pattern ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Indigenous Cultures

AbstractRecent archaeological settlement pattern research in the 550 sq km Comayagua Valley in central Honduras has documented considerable variation in the political structure of one ranked society over a 2,500-year period of prehistory. Data presented suggest that this Lenca and proto-Lenca culture group underwent at least five major political restructurings during this time as a response to the local, regional, and interregional political climate on the southeast Mesoamerican periphery. Such variability calls into question traditional models postulating a lack of complexity or adaptive flexibility for indigenous cultures of lower Central America.

Do Campaigns Make a Difference?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Whiteley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Campaigns ◽  
Early Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Working Together ◽  
The One

The study of political campaigns is very varied in the political science literature. On the one hand, campaigns can involve groups of citizens working together on a local issue of concern to them, such as preventing an airport expansion from threatening their community. Only a relatively few people are likely to be actively involved and the goals of such a campaign are fairly clearly defined and limited. At the other end of the scale a campaign can consist of a broad social movement that is trying to influence public opinion and bring about changes in public policies on really big issues like climate change and global warming. Large numbers of people are likely to be involved and the goals are broad and ambitious. In between these two extremes, a whole range of campaigns with different objectives and strategies are to be found in contemporary democracies. This article focuses on election campaigns which are in an intermediate position between these two. Early research suggested that such campaigns were not very important but subsequent research shows that they are influential both in increasing turnout and changing the party choices that individual electors make.

A Regional Study of Classic Maya Ballcourts From the Upper Grijalva Basin, Chiapas, Mexico

1997 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier de Montmollin
Keyword(s):  
Classic Maya ◽  
Regional Study ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Political Roles ◽  
Maya Area ◽  
Wealth Building ◽  
Regional Settlement ◽  
High Degree

AbstractLate/Terminal Classic Maya ballcourts from the upper Grijalva Basin (Chiapas, Mexico) are described and analyzed in a regional settlement and political context. The upper Grijalva Basin is found to have large numbers of ballcourts compared with other parts of the Maya area. The spatial distribution of ballcourts in the basin matches the distribution of civic-ceremonial centers, reflecting the key ritual and political roles of the ballcourt. Absence of a clear hierarchy in size or elaboration among the ballcourts reflects political decentralization. Ballcourt sizes, forms, alignments, and placements indicate their use for either Maya or Mexican hip ball games or more likely some combination of the two game types. Finally, three models that focus on elite factions, elite wealth building, and ritualized conflict are used to explore why the upper Grijalva Basin has so many more ballcourts compared with neighboring parts of the Maya area. An elite-factions model, incorporating a high degree of decentralization across the political landscape, is selected as most plausible for understanding the basin's proliferation of ballcourts.

The Political Structure of the State of Kedah 1879–1905

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharom Ahmat
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Structure

The structure and organization of the Kedah political system, like those of the other patriachal Malay states in the Peninsula, was based essentially on that of the Malacca Sultanate. Under this system, the apex and centre of the organisation was the Sultan, whose political authority was strengthened by the belief that he was endowed with the magical attributes of a “divine king”. This is evident in his title, Yang di-Pertuan (He who is made Lord); and is also manifested in the elaborate court ceremonials and rituals; the clothing, weapons, domestic adornments and a special vocabulary reserved exclusively for royalty. The political functions of the Sultan were very comprehensive covering the fields of internal administration, the defence of the country, and matters relating to external affairs.

Hobbes and the Culture of Despotism

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheldon S. Wolin
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Physical Nature ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
The One

This chapter argues that Hobbes's was the first modern philosopher in whom a despotic mentality was at work. He perpetuated Bacon's political reading of science, and he fully appreciated the political structure implicit in Bacon's conception of scientific knowledge. Bacon's credo “knowledge is power” was transcribed to read “knowledge is for the sake of power” (scientia propter potentiam). Hobbes's despotic mentality is revealed in the several departments of his theory, not just in his political writings: in his thinking about human nature, physical nature, knowledge, scientific inquiry, and thinking itself. He fashioned images of man and mind as subjects fit for despotic rule: the one for the rule or rules of a sovereign lawgiver, the other for the rules of method decreed by a sovereign science.

A New Denominational Historiography?

1995 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-263
Author(s):  
John F. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Recent Analysis ◽  
General Factor ◽  
Religious Organization ◽  
Religious Institution ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Status ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
American Society ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

Over the last decade, a noteworthy number of published studies have, in one fashion or another, been defined with reference to religious denominations. This is an arresting fact, for, coincidentally, the status of religious denominations in the society has been called into question. Some formerly powerful bodies have lost membership (at least relatively speaking) and now experience reduced influence, while newer forms of religious organization(s)—e.g., parachurch groups and loosely structured movements—have flourished. The most compelling recent analysis of religion in modern American society gives relatively little attention to them. Why, then, have publications in large numbers appeared, in scale almost seeming to be correlated inversely to this trend?No single answer to this question is adequate. Surely one general factor is that historians often “work out of phase” with contemporary social change. If denominations have been displaced as a form of religious institution in society in the late twentieth century, then their prominence in earlier eras is all the more intriguing.

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