Description
This collection of nine papers, which were mostly developed from a conference held at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in November 2004, include case studies as well as reviews of traditional anthropological approaches to various levels of order and disorder. Case studies include the evocation of heritage in the French biscuit trade, the rule of individual and collective violence in a post-Soviet Arctic village, cultural dynamics in rural Tibet, vigilante groups in West Africa, rural Moroccans upon whom order is imposed, and state disorders in Ottoman and Turkish Trabzon. Other articles compare law and ritual in the quest for order and the relationship between anthropological order and political disorder. Published in cloth in 2007, this edition is a paperback reprint. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Read More
Disorder and instability are matters of continuing public concern. Terrorism, as a threat to global order, has been added to preoccupations with political unrest, deviance and crime. Such considerations have prompted the return to the classic anthropological issues of order and disorder. Examining order within the political and legal spheres and in contrasting local settings, the papers in this volume highlight its complex and contested nature. Elaborate displays of order seem necessary to legitimate the institutionalization of violence by military and legal establishments, yet violent behaviour can be incorporated into the social order by the development of boundaries, rituals and established processes of conflict resolution. Order is said to depend upon justice, yet injustice legitimates disruptive protest. Case studies from Siberia, India, Indonesia, Tibet, West Africa, Morocco and the Ottoman Empire show that local responses are often inconsistent in their valorization, acceptance and condemnation of disorder.
Read Less