What can we learn from deceptively simple tribal societies about the ways in which man resolves his conflicts with other men? How can the social anthropologist aid in our understanding of the problems of power and social control common to all societies, from the simplest to the highly complex? What special tools of the anthropologist enable him to view these phenomena scientifically?
Politics, Law and Ritual In Tribal Society is a systematic introduction to the political systems of tribal societies. It discusses the relation between disputes and struggles for power within the context of mechanisms of social control and stability. Analyses of tribal systems are viewed against studies of modern societies. In addition, Gluckman presents a step-by-step survey of the cumulative development of anthropological analysis of tribal institutions, from the 19th century to the present, and supports the argument that anthropology is a science rather than an art.
This book will interest all anthropologists who wish to know more about the historical and methodological development of their discipline as a science, all social anthropologists who need a comprehensive (if unorthodox) text on tribal institutions, and all who are fascinated by the problems of human conflict and the ways in which they have been resolved. (Verlagstext)
/ AUS DEM INHALT: / / /
Acknowledgments | xi
Glossary | xiii
Dramatis Personae | xv
Introduction | xxi
Maps | xxix
IData and Theory | 1
The beginnings of anthropology | 1
Survivals | 6
Death and the social personality | 7
Social facts | 8
The development of the family | 10
Poor and rich | 15
Status to contract | 17
New modes of analysis | 18
New types of data | 22
Malinowski | 26
The branches of anthropology | 30
IIProperty Rights and Economic Activity | 36
Land tenure: group and individual rights | 36
Rights in chattels | 43
Ideas of property and social sentiments | 45
Property and status | 48
Generosity and sharing in consumption | 50
Consumption patterns | 52
The group of producers and consumers: co-operation and competition | 54
Prestige and independence | 57
Ceremonial feasting and exchange | 59
Levels and media of exchange | 63
The economic tribal system | 68
Subsistence and prestige economies | 70
Cultural patterns | 74
IIIStateless Societies and the Maintenance of Order | 81
Political development and evolution | 81
The hunting band | 86
Cross-cutting ties among the Tonga | 91
Tonga joking-relationships | 97
The jester | 102
Ritual value of the land | 104
The network of social ties | 107
Conflicts of loyalties | 109
Leaders | 116
IVThe State and Civil Strife | 123
Ranges of authority: Anuak | 123
The Shilluk symbolic kingship | 130
Authoritative chieftainship | 135
Kingship | 142
Administrative complications: Lozi | 144
Politics of the capital: Buganda | 147
Horizontal stratification: Ruanda | 154
Cities, bureaucrats and mobs: West Africa | 158
The tribal state and beyond | 163
VDispute and Settlement | 169
Legislation and adaptation | 169
Studying the settlement of disputes | 172
What is law?: the terminological problem | 178
Adjudication and mediation | 183
The problem of enforcement | 196
Law and custom | 198
'Intrinsic penalties' | 202
The notion of right and rightdoing | 207
Tribal ideas about law-the comparative problem | 209
VIMystical Disturbance and Ritual Adjustment | 216
Mystical agents and social control: (1) witches and sorcerers | 216
Women witches | 223
Mystical agents and social control: (2) ancestral spirits | 226
The selective role of divination and oracle | 229
The 'extended-case' method | 235
Why belief in mystical agents? | 242
Conflict in ritual | 250
Social or psychical interpretation | 259
The negative cases | 261
Summary: law and ritual | 264
VIICustom in Stability and Change | 268
Time in tribal histories | 268
Equilibrium and change | 279
The study of radical social change | 285
Social anthropology and custom | 299
Social anthropology: science or art? | 301
Conclusion: the Eskimo song-contest | 303
Bibliography | 315
Index | 325