Papua New Guinea

• Why is there so much linguistic diversity in Papua New Guinea?

• Why is there so little linguistic diversity in most other cultures?

• What are your predictions about the linguistic future of Papua New Guinea?

Assimilation Theory

• Competitive phase determines who is the dominant culture militarily and economically.

• Accommodation stage forces power minorities to assimilate into the dominant structures or risk being killed, jailed or starved into submission.

• Assimilation varies by case, but can be broken down into cultural, structural, marital, identification, attitude-receptional assimilation, behavioral-receptional, and civic.

Pluralism Theory

• Pluralism ranges from the “melting pot” model to the “ethnic salad” model, depending on how much the dominant class seeks to integrate or segregate the society.

• Ethnogenesis is the result of several groups being recategorized as one or the formation of a new racial or ethnic group as a mixture of two previously existing groups.

Biological Theory• Genes select themselves by combining with

others they see as “fit”. Kin selection or inclusive fitness are the byproduct of males and females subconsciously choosing to protect and promote their own genes.

• In this paradigm, genes are assumed to guide our psychology and act on their behalf, making us favor our biological children and kin over “strangers”.

• Reciprocal altruism explains why some of us adopt.

Human Ecology Theory• Scarcity of resources drive individuals to form

collectives and compete with each other, leading to slavery, migration, caste systems, and various forms of disproportionate power distributions worldwide.

• The dominant group wants its society to grow only when it can effectively (1) kill, (2) house, (3) feed, and (4) jail people. The more it controls these 4 activities, the more control it has over its people, and the more it can exploit them.

Population

HierarchyFormation

Circumscription

ResourceScarcity

Intensification

EnvironmentalDegradation

Conflict

TechnologicalDevelopment

Emigration

Famine

Plague

Droughts

Bands/Tribes

Chiefdoms

Empires

World-economy

Primal

Archaic

Classical

Modern

Com

plex

ity

Time

Early States

Com

plex

ity

Time

Population

Intensification(rate of production,

distribution, andconsumption)

Hunting & gatheringHorticultural or

other advanced foraging

Agriculture

Irrigation, plow

Mathematics

Architecture

Bureaucracy

Domestication ofPlans and Animals

InstitutionalDifferentiation

TheisticReligions

Prev

alen

ce o

f G

loba

l Gov

erna

nce

in I

nter

nati

onal

Aff

airs

Tributary Empires

Scope of transportation and communication technology

Core Institutional Differentiation

Early Capitalism

Treaty of Westphalia1648

SecularizationTransnational

CapitalismDecolonization

Concert of Europe1815

Maritime Colonialism

Abolition

United Nations1945 –

League of Nations1919 – 1946

World War I1914 – 1918

World War II1939 – 1945

Proliferation of Transnational

Social Movements and Global Governance Institutions

A historical trajectory of the developing institutional structure of global governance, not scaled

CIA1947 –

American & French Revolutions

1776 & 1789Continent-wide

Colonialism

Mesopotamian climate

Babylonian calendrical traditions

socially constructed typologies

self-fulfilling prophecies

scripted roles & norms

The Origin of Astrological Stereotypes

Conquest by Aryan (Central Asian) peoples

Formation of Indic world-system socially

constructed typologies

self-fulfilling prophecies

Aryan-centered roles & norms

The Origin of the Indian Caste System

Gunpowder & Colonialism

Globalization of world-system under European hegemons

socially constructed typologies

self-fulfilling prophecies

Eurocentric roles & norms

The Origin of the Western Race Hierarchy

Last group to achieve military supremacy

Previous group with superior military technology

Group specializing in trade and literacy

Group specializing in tedious but light labor

Group segregated to unspecialized, heavy labor

Out-group; everyone else

The Composition of a Caste System

Underclass(unemployed, homeless, welfare recipients)

Working Class(construction, agriculture, mining, domestic labor, food workers)

Lower Middle Class

(clerical, retail, manufacturing, middleman occupations)

Middle Class(nurses, teachers, low-level managers)

Upper Middle Class

(doctors, lawyers, professors)

PowerElite

Social Mobility for Immigrant

Groups

The American HierarchyThe Power EliteThe Immigrant MiddlemanThe Underclass

Mili

tary

Power/Stratification Theory• Based heavily on the human ecology paradigm,

some societies tend to create caste systems in order to galvanize individuals’ expectations of their life destinies. This prevents (or at least prolongs) internal revolutions, which keeps the system stable.

• As stated in the human ecology slide, the dominant group wants its society to grow only when it can effectively (1) kill, (2) house, (3) feed, and (4) jail people. The more it controls these 4 activities, the more control it has over its people, and the more it can exploit them.

Colonialism Theory• External colonialism is the control of one society by

another. It takes shape along four evolutionary stages:• forced entry into colonized territory.• alteration/destruction of indigenous culture.• domination of indigenous population by invaders.• justification of colonization via highly biased indoctrination of

colonizers and colonized.

• Internal colonialism involves the “establishment of successive internal colonies [ghettoes] of people who are dominated” by the invading/enslaving group.

• Motives for colonization come in the form of securing cheap labor and access to the land of previously free peoples.

Split-labor Market Theory

• Labor markets are purposely partitioned by those in power, creating a segregation of ethnic groups in the workplace.

• The jobs with the highest risk to life and health are consequently paid the least and have the least job security, while jobs focusing on controlling others are given great amounts of flexibility, pay, prestige, security, and advancement opportunity.

Split-class Theory

• Based on a Marxist typology of the bourgeoisie (capitalist business owners) and the proletariat (laborers), but adds the middle castes of managers and the petit bourgeoisie (small business owners).

• In societies based on racial segregation such as the United States, South Africa, and classical India, the split-class structure is somewhat synonymous with racial categories. That is, the darker people work more and control less while the lighter people work less and control more.

Middleman Minority Theory• Much like split-class and split-labor market theories, the

dominant group benefits from creating a middle class in order to distance itself from the most oppressed classes, which allows them to oppress them even more, since they are buffered from the consequences of their oppressive tactics by the new middleman minority.

• Many societies today spend significant amounts of resources convincing the middle class that it is more like the upper class, making middleman minorities identify more with the oppressors than with the oppressed, and consequently enabling the dominant classes further.