Elders, chiefs, and Big Men
Authority legitimation and political evolution in Melanesia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2983213 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Allen (0000-0001-5794-8298) |
| Year | 1984 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 20-41 |
| Publication date | 1984-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Ethnologist (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1525/ae.1984.11.1.02a00020 |
| OpenAlex | W2114606087 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 47 |
| References cited | 49 |
This paper provides, from an evolutionary perspective, a comparative typology of Melanesian political systems. The range covered extends from small-scale polities in which political action is deeply interwoven with the fabric of kinship to those of increased scale, specialization, differentiation, and hierarchy. Perhaps surprisingly, it is found that those communities in which matrilineal principles are accorded importance are also those with the most elaborate and complex forms of political association: in particular, ranked descent groups, hereditary titular systems, voluntary secret societies, and elaborate status hierarchies based on achievement. [political evolution, leadership, matriliny, secret societies, social stratification, Melanesia, Vanuatu
Centralized government · Clan · Genealogy · Hierarchy · Kinship · Legitimation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Social stratification · Sociology · Typology · Voluntary association · Anthropology · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law
Pathways to Power
Violence and Warfare in Precontact Melanesia
Kinship Matters
Matrilineality and the Melanesian Origin of Polynesian Y Chromosomes
The Evolution of Human Co-operation
Kinship Matters
Spouses and Siblings in Sa Stories 1
The Concept of Taboo in Raga, Vanuatu
Male Cults Revisited
Melanesian Warfare
C odrington, K eesing, and Central M elanesian mana
Mekeo Chiefs and Sorcerers
Gerontocracy in a comparative perspective
Uncharted Pacific Waters
New Guinea Leadership as Ethnographic Analogy
Achieving Authority
Interethnic conflict and aggression
Ethnicity, Entrepreneurship, and Exchange
Big Man, Past and Present
Indigenous Urbanism
Hierarchy and ‘Heroic Society
Political Lords and Political Ideology in Southeastern Chiefdoms
The Lihir Destiny
Lihir Destiny
Egalitarian Behavior and Reverse Dominance Hierarchy [and Comments and Reply]
Gender Contradictions, Moral Coalitions, and Inequality in Prehistoric Italy
Pacific view
Cross-Cultural Servant-Leadership for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Papua New Guinea
On Natural Experiments in Social Evolution
Big Man or Boogey Man? The concept of the Big Man in political science
The Chimera of Equality in Melanesia
Encountering Chiefs in (a Search for) the State
Uneapa Island society in the 19th century
Elders, chiefs, and Big Men
Solomon Islanders in World War II
Rethinking Trobriand Chieftainship
Magical and Material Polities in Melanesia
Copyright in context
Cultural efflorescence and political evolution on the Sepik River
Ritual form and permutation in New Guinea
Shifting Gender Relations at Khok Phanom Di, Thailand
Men of War, Men of Peace
Big men and the conversational marketplace of Tanna (Vanuatu)
Stone Men of Malekulaon Malakula
Le devenir colonial d'une chefferie kanake (Houaïlou, Nouvelle-Calédonie)
Chief or Big-Man Politics in Post-War Sierra Leone
The social dynamics of settling down
gods ghosts and men in melanesia
Rituals of manhood
The Rope of Moka
Vanuatu
Women of Value, Men of Renown
Maidens, meal, and money
The social construction of reality
Consumption and Order of birth
The Elementary Structures of Kinship
A Guadalcanal Society
Sexual Antagonism in the New Guinea Highlands
Universal male dominance
The Abelam Tribe, Sepik District, New Guinea a Preliminary Report
Yams and the Symbolic Representation of Time in a Sepik River Village
Descent, Residence and Leadership in the New Guinea Highlands1
Report on Research Work in South‐west New Britain, Territory of New Guinea
Law and Political Organization in the Abelam Tribe, New Guinea
Descent, Residence and Leadership in the New Guinea Highlands
Local Grouping in Melanesia
Local Grouping in Melanesia
Naven
Becoming a Kwoma
Women and Power in Nagovisi Society
The Melanesians of British New Guinea
Ancient Society
An honourable man
General and Ethnology
Nama Cult of the Central Highlands, New Guinea
Leadership in Melanesia
Rank, power, authority
Competitive Leadership in Trobriand Political Organization
Elders, chiefs, and Big Men
Kinship and Marriage in a New Guinea Village
The Leaders and the Led. Social Control in Wogeo, New Guinea
The Ilahita Arapesh
African Systems of Kinship and Marriage
African Political Systems
Trade and Exchange in Oceania and Australia
Why do the Trobriands Have Chiefs
African Models in the New Guinea Highlands
Ritual, Power, and Male Dominance
Leadership and Consensus in a New Guinea Society
Kwaio Kindreds
Poor Man, Rich Man, Big-man, Chief
| Unique citing works | 47 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,82 |
| Citation span | 1969 - 2023 (55) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 47 |