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Glossary of Terms Used in My Lectures
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Radical Opposition A form of conflict in society in which the established conflict resolving mechanisms are not accepted by some of the participants in the process of political change. The radicals do not accept the existing mechanisms as legitimate. The term was introduced by Monica and Godfrey Wilson in contrast to ordinary opposition.
Rank The second level in Morton Fried's stages of evolution of political society. It is characterized by leadership based upon authority, an unequal ratio of leadership positions to people capable of leading, equal access to the means of a livelihood, and incipient reciprocity as a means of goods allocation.
Rebellion Political conflict in which the positions of leadership are sought through the mechanism of armed conflict. According the Max Gluckman such conflict reinforces the existing social organisation because the statuses of leadership and control are worth fighting for.
Reciprocity (1) According to Marcel Mauss the basic principle of human interaction in which 'gift' givers are superiour to 'gift' receivers because the giving of a gift creates indebitedness. The gift may consist of corporeal or incorporeal (emotions, respect, etc) things. An implication of this is that all social interaction involves hierarchy and inequality.
(2) A form of economic exchange which is characterised by the giving of goods and services to others without calculation of value and without an expectation of immediate return although there may be an expectation that one will receive return gifts at a later time.
Redistribution A form of economic exchange which is characterized by producers giving some or all of their products to an administrative centre which, in turn, returns the goods in either a different form or at a later time. This is the predominant mode of allocation for stratified societies and it is present in the state in the form of taxes.
Religious proselytization refers to the fact that a religious organization increases its numbers by attempting to convert those who have been enculturated into other belief systems. Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism have been the most active of the world's religions in furthering their beliefs through missionary activity.
Revitalization Process A psychosocial process of societal transformation identified by Anthony F. C. Wallace. Refer to the overhead "Revitalization Process" for the details of the transformative sequence.
Revolution Political conflict in which the values of the existing social organisation are rejected by those attempting to gain political leadership by means of armed conflict. This form of conflict is transformative, rather than conservative as is rebellion, according to Max Gluckman.
Role The designation for the set of behavioural and attitudinal expectations associated with a named social relationship. The nature of social roles is dyadic involving some ego (self) and some alter (other). Some theoreticians think of roles in legalistic terms of sets of rights and obligations which define the expectations. Others are more structural in that the expectations form templates from which an ego can chose appropriate behaviour for a particular social context.
Rope A bilateral descent group in which one belongs to the group of one's opposite sexed parent. That is, daughters belong to the group of their fathers while sons belong to the group of their mothers. A consequence of this is that each generation of a kin group has members of only one sex, and, authority tends to pass from grandparental generation to the grandchild generation removing adjacent generation jealousy regarding authority.
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