Hierarchy: Persistence and Transformation in Social Formations

ISBN 10: 1845454936 ISBN 13: 9781845454937

Publisher: Berghahn Books, 2008

Synopsis

"This welcome volume collects 12 essays addressing problems in the analysis of sociocultural values and sociocultural hierarchy, in dialogue with ideas of Dumont." · American Ethnologist

Louis Dumont's concept of hierarchy continues to inspire social scientists. Using it as their starting point, the contributors to this volume introduce both fresh empirical material and new theoretical considerations. On the basis of diverse ethnographic contexts in Oceania, Asia, and the Middle East they challenge some current conceptions of hierarchical formations and reassess former debates - of post-colonial and neo-colonial agendas, ideas of "democratization" and "globalization," and expanding market economies - both with regard to new theoretical issues and the new world situation.

About this title

About the Authors

Knut M. Rio is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen. He has conducted long-term fieldwork in Vanuatu in the western Pacific and published The Power of Perspective: Social Ontology and Agency on Ambrym Island, Vanuatu (Berghahn Books, 2007).

Olaf H. Smedal is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen. He has conducted long-term fieldwork in Indonesia since the beginning of the 1980s: first among the Lom on Bangka (an island off Sumatra) and later among the Ngadha in Flores in eastern Indonesia. His research interests include social organization and kinship, symbolization, ritual, comparative epistemology, the history of anthropology and theory of science.

Edition details

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1845454936
• ISBN 13: 9781845454937
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 336
• Editor: Rio Knut M., Smedal Olaf H.