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SAN1 power - Coggle Diagram
SAN1 power
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General; Conclusion
important power structures exist and perdure thanks to being embedded in the everyday and the practical, the power is located in the everyday and practical patterns of life and consciousness.
Works from Sahlins, Glucksberg, Sahlins, and Abu-Lughod have shown that figures of authority maintain their power by capitalising on standing social-relation norms and maximising daily interactions with other members of their respective societies.
the main takeaway from these anthropological works is that power does not necessarily have to be exercised at a large scale — like when we traditionally associate power to the state — rather it is a combination of small, local practices that have the ability to shift a society’s life one way or another
More importantly, due to the localised and peculiarity of each system, anthropologists have helped us understand how some people can be powerful in one world but not another.
General intro
Towards the latter part of the 20th century, anthropological works from Bourdieu and Foucault have shifted the focus from power in the organisation of governments to the structure of power in society.
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Abu-Lughod
demonstrating that resistance can — and should — be used as a “diagnostic of power,”
Centring her work around Bedouin women in Egypt, managed to identify four forms of resistance to show how people can be politically active in their own ways — ways that may seem contradictory when contextualised with western standards.
A common example of coercive power that requires resistance from Bedouin women is forced marriages due to the nature of the sexually segregated society.
One of the most powerful examples that was recognised by Abu-Lughod is the coming together of Bedouin women to aid a fellow woman in her protest against an arranged marriage made by her male kin
This case study revealed that a man was forced to go back on his decision after running into objections from both his wife and his niece’s mother
whether it is through direct confrontation with the male kin in question or through a congregated singing of a collective oral lyric poem aimed at making fun of men, Bedouin women have created their own form of power that is recognised within their community.
This is because practices like poetry recital are highly valued and admired, therefore, the author notes that there is an “ambivalence” in the way that these forms of protest are perceived. In other words, women “take advantage” of the existing and traditional forms of “power relations” to assert their will, making their resistance dependent to Bedouin social relations itself.
The key takeaway from Abu-Lughod’s observation is that there is a paradox within Bedouin society, wherein women support the very patriarchal system that they are living under, but it is precisely the foundation of this system that enables their close-circle form of resistance.
Balandier and Foucault would both agree that power and contestation are indissociable — the latter having said that “where there is power, there is resistance.”
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