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Conflict and Factional Disputes - Siegel & Beals
Conflict and Factional Disputes - Siegel & Beals
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ATTRIBUTES OF FACTIONALISM
It has been suggested above that factionalism is a phenomenon which occurs within
groups. We use the word group to refer to an intercommunicating aggregation of
sub-units (individuals or sub-groups) having the conscious intention of perpetuating
their existence and achieving certain goals. A group consists of people assembled to-
gether for the purpose of achieving co-operation towards a common set of goals.
I07
regardless of the nature of the group's perception of it. The effects of this impact are in
varying degree dependent upon the nature of the group and the nature of the group's
perceptions of the stress. Defined in such a way, stress implies the presence of an outside
observer whose perception of the nature of stress represents, theoretically at least, a closer
approximation to reality than can ordinarily be achieved by the group. For those who
consider reality to be definable only in terms of perception, stress can be regarded
as being the perception which would be entertained by the group if it had access to all r
information and could deal with it impartially.
DIMENSIONS OF STRESS
The finite nature of a stress can be described in terms of at least six dimensions:
covertness, randomness, complexity, duration, curtailment, and selectivity. The first fou
refer primarily to the finite perceptibility of the stress and the last two refer primarily
to the impact of the stress. Covertness can be defined as the relative ease with which a
stress may be perceived. A change in genotype would be more covert than a change in
phenotype; hookworm epidemics are more covert than whooping-cough epidemics. As
these examples suggest, 'absolute covertness', while it may exist, is greatly affected by
the nature of the aids to sensory perception available to a particular group. Micro-
scopes, hearing aids, and eyeglasses would greatly increase a group's potential ability to
render stress overt.
Randomness is closely linked to covertness and might be considered to be a part of it.
Randomness refers to the regularity with which a stress appears and could be expected
to have a direct effect upon the predictability of a stress and consequent effects upon
perceptibility. The daily reappearance of the sun, the periodical return of the tax
collector, and seasonal epidemics are far less random in nature than are thunder
showers or epidemics which are not seasonal.
Some kinds of stress present problems which can be solved in a few steps; others
present a large number of separate problems all of which must be solved before the stress
can be dealt with adequately. This dimension of stress is referred to here as complexity.
The problem presented by an unattached stranger, for example, would be far less com-
plex than the problem presented by a stranger who was an ambassador of a powerful
outside group.
Duration appears to have effects differing somewhat from those of covertness,
randomness, and complexity. These last three dimensions seem to be directly related
in more or less linear fashion to the perceptibility of a stress and to the ability of any
group to solve the stress. The relationship of duration to these factors is not easily
predicted. Very short duration would presumably make both resolution and perception
of stress difficult and could bar any kind of solution including a fantasy solution. A stress
of long duration would presumably be an unresolvable stress and would almost certainly
lead to the development of a fantasy solution.
The four dimensions listed above can be applied to situations in general. They are
relevant to a definition of stress only when curtailment occurs. Curtailment refers to the
impact of a stress-specifically, the extent to which the normal activities of the group
are limited or affected. A volcanic eruption or a famine would be highly curtailing while
a complicated crossword puzzle would rank low on curtailment. More than any other
Although the nature of stress may contribute greatly to the development of factionalism,
it is probable that stress alone cannot make the development of factionalism inevitable.
Under even the most extreme pressures of the kind most conducive to factionalism,
certain groups may not develop it. Other groups may develop factionalism under the
application of relatively mild stresses. This kind of differential response to external
stress appears to be traceable to the kind and variety of strains in a particular social
system. The word 'strain' is used here to refer to potential conflicts concerning acceptable tec
for the solution of either traditional problems or stresses.
However stable a social system may be, the norms of (or models for) conduct will
often accord differential satisfactions to sub-units of the group or impose dilemmas in
role-playing for which there are no clear-cut definitions of appropriate behaviour.
Firth, for example, records the case of a Tikopian man who found himself simul-
taneously in the position of kinsman to a bride and in affinal relationship to the groom.
Conflicting role responsibilities necessitated personal choice in this situation (Firth
I95I, pp. 57-6I). Role expectations and interaction between brothers in an East
Indian village may also involve strain when loyalty to the older brother comes into
conflict with other expectations of the younger. In the eastern pueblos of New Mexico,
authority relationships between generations are marked and generally effective, but
many young men give evidences of frustration and disagreement with the decisions with
which they feel they must ultimately comply. In general whenever individuals are
subjected to social sanctions for the wrong choice of response in such ambiguous or
unequally rewarding role-playing situations, the relationship can be considered to
involve strain. It could be said that the universal existence of punitive sanctions is
evidence for the existence of strain, for they would be unnecessary if sub-units within
the group were not placed in situations where appropriate behaviours were ambigu-
ously defined.
Similarly the existence of any kind of overt conflict can be taken as evidence of the
existence of strain. Where there are patterns of feud and warfare, the presence of an
external threat is frequently used as a mechanism to support powerful punitive sanctions
in the existing social system. The removal of the external threat then necessitates a
major reorientation. Where overt conflict exists between moieties or political parties
and is periodically resolved by means of overt social controls, the removal of these
latent schisms in such societies are likely to remain subordinated to shared feelings about
the common welfare.
Strain in general tends to make itself felt along lines of prescribed discrimination
in succession to rights, particularly rights to property or to positions in which decisions
are made. Conflict between brothers in East Indian villages appears to be derived from
this as did the fights for the throne in certain African and European kingdoms. Similarly
where the social distance between sub-units in the group is very great and the oppor-
tunities for upward mobility in the hierarchy of social ranks are minimal, tensions are
likely to be endemic. This is often the case in stratified societies in which several
intervening strata separate individuals at the top and bottom of the hierarchy and where
interaction tends to be formalized and infrequent.
As a final consideration, societies in which overt controls have a critical function in
supporting and regulating individual habit systems (internalized controls) face special
problems in maintaining the configuration of control. The same function appears to
be served by the kind of controls described by Adams in connexion with conflict in an
Egyptian village (Adams I957). There, conflict appears to be controlled by certain
overt cues embedded in a strict code of manners: tone pitch and voice melody, mien
and stereotyped gestures. Here, as where more overt punitive sanctions are mobilized,
sources of friction, of tension, and of cleavage in the social system tend to erupt in
increasing degree as overt controls become weakened. The efficiency of traditional
relationships is impaired and ego controls fail to inhibit expressions of conflict about
normative means for achieving agreed-upon goals.
It is precisely in such groups, especially when they are confronted with stresses
having the attributes of fairly long duration, covertness, complexity, curtailment, and
selectivity that pervasive factionalism occurs with striking regularity. Factionalism
appears to go hand in hand with the existence of an authority system supported by
strong overt punitive sanctions where the centralized authority is susceptible to the
threat of new allegiance (see also Firth I949, pp. I68-88).
On the other hand, as long as the normal range of alternatives appropriate to the
various life situations is not challenged by unusual circumstances, conventional ways of
handling strain will tend to suffice. Even though traditional techniques for solving
problems should prove inadequate for coping with stress, it is still possible that imported
or specially invented techniques can be applied in such a way that strains and cleavages
will not be accentuated. This appears to be true of the situations described by Hohenthal
& McCorkle (I955) of the many cases of formal substitution of cultural elements
without change in meaning such as the spread of Christian religious concepts or of
antagonistic acculturation (Loeb & Devereux I943).
When stress-induced exacerbations of strain are not resolved, other less adaptive
reactions tend to occur. In many cases these, occurring singly or together, may delay
or prevent the development of factionalism. For example, cumulative frustrations or
lack of consensus on decisions may lead certain individuals to leave the group. While
this may bring about change in the direction of involuting or reinforcing traditional
standards and patterns of control, it does not seriously disturb the cohesion or the
cultural orientations of those who remain. A related response may be a tendency to-
ward apathy and withdrawal from group affairs. Inability to act within the group may
CONCLUSION
NOTES
1 The argument for this paper was derived originally from an analysis of field w
Mysore State in southern India by A. Beals between March I952 and August I953, supported by the
Social Science Research Council; from field work by B. Siegel in Taos and Picuris pueblos during the
summers of I947 and I957; and from a project on the Codification of Acculturation Phenomena con-
ducted at Stanford University with an initial grant by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the Stanford
Committee for Research in the Social Sciences.
2 Observations of this sort, when our knowledge is more adequate, may bear upon newer approaches
to the nature of evolution. Simpson, for example, points out that many parts of the world which have
changed little over great time spans are filled with very ancient forms of life, and that newer, more
complex forms do not tend to displace them unless clearly more adaptive to such life-spaces. Similarly
it is probable that certain forms of society and culture are viable within given environmental limits
(both human and physical), but may be displaced by more adaptive forms under environmental change.
See G. G. Simpson, The Meaning of Evolution, chapter 9; Julian Huxley, 'Evolution Cultural and Biolo-
gical', in W. L. ThomasJr. (ed.), rearbook of Anthropology (I955); also B.J. Siegel (I955).
3 Factionalism has been reported and described variously in India. Lewis's study (I954) appears to
deal with schismatic factionalism. Firth (I957) has drawn together a symposium of papers which de-
scribe adequately the operation of pervasive factionalism as it occurs in various Indian and overseas
societies. They do not provide, however, any explanatory analysis. The writers have also examined
relative case materials from the Marshall Islands (Tobin I953); Isleta Pueblo (French I948); the Skagit
of north-western North America (Collins I952); and Jamaica (Kerr I952) which describe variously
schismatic and pervasive factionalism without actually identifying the phenomena.
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