Hierarchy and Value: Comparative Perspectives on Moral Order

Published by Berghahn Books 2018

Hierarchy and Value

Comparative Perspectives on Moral Order

Edited by: Jason Hickel and Naomi Haynes

Volume 7 in the series Studies in Social Analysis

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781785339981

Overview
Contents

About this book

Globalization promised to bring about a golden age of liberal individualism, breaking down hierarchies of kinship, caste, and gender around the world and freeing people to express their true, authentic agency. But in some places globalization has spurred the emergence of new forms of hierarchy—or the reemergence of old forms—as people try to reconstitute an imagined past of stable moral order. This is evident from the Islamic revival in the Middle East to visions of the 1950s family among conservatives in the United States. Why does this happen and how do we make sense of this phenomenon? Why do some communities see hierarchy as desireable? In this book, leading anthropologists draw on insightful ethnographic case studies from around the world to address these trends. Together, they develop a theory of hierarchy that treats it both as a relational form and a framework for organizing ideas about the social good.

Author / Editor information

Jason Hickel is an anthropologist at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research spans several related themes, including political conflict, inequality, postdevelopment, and ecological economics. He is the author of Democracy as Death: The Moral Order of Anti-Liberal Politics in South Africa (University of California Press, 2015) and The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions (Penguin, 2017). He writes a column on political economy for The Guardian and Al Jazeera, sits on the executive board of Academics Stand Against Poverty, and serves as Policy Director for The Rules collective. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Naomi Haynes is a lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests include the anthropology of Christianity, political economy, exchange, gender, hierarchy, and value. Her publications include Moving by the Spirit (University of California Press, 2017) and a special issue of Current Anthropology, “The Anthropology of Christianity: Unity, Diversity, and New Directions” (co-edited with Joel Robbins, 2014). She is a cocurator for the Anthropology of Christianity Bibliographic Blog and has recently begun an ESRC-funded research project that explores Zambia’s constitutional declaration that it is a “Christian nation.”

Jason Hickel is an anthropologist at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research spans several related themes, including political conflict, inequality, postdevelopment, and ecological economics. He is the author of Democracy as Death: The Moral Order of Anti-Liberal Politics in South Africa (University of California Press, 2015) and The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions (Penguin, 2017). He writes a column on political economy for The Guardian and Al Jazeera, sits on the executive board of Academics Stand Against Poverty, and serves as Policy Director for The Rules collective. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Reviews

“It is to the credit of the writers in this volume that they illuminate and question [some of the] things that Dumont linked to hierarchy. In doing so, they help make hierarchies problematic and linked to social processes and practices in ways that Dumont probably did not intend but that make the notion of hierarchy more useful as an analytical concept.” • Anthropos

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface: Toward a Political Anthropology of Hierarchy Publicly Available Download PDF	viii
Introduction: Hierarchy and Value Naomi Haynes and Jason Hickel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 Battle of Cosmologies: The Catholic Church, Adat, and ‘Inculturation’ among Northern Lio, Indonesia Signe Howell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
Chapter 2 Vertical Love: Forms of Submission and Top-Down Power in Orthodox Ethiopia Diego Maria Malara and Tom Boylston Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Chapter 3 The Good, the Bad, and the Dead: The Place of Destruction in the Organization of Social Life, Which Means Hierarchy Frederick H. Damon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
Chapter 4 Civilization, Hierarchy, and Political-Economic Inequality Stephan Feuchtwang Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Chapter 5 Islam and Pious Sociality: The Ethics of Hierarchy in the Tablighi Jamaat in Pakistan Arsalan Khan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Chapter 6 Demotion as Value: Rank Infraction among the Ngadha in Flores, Indonesia Olaf H. Smedal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Afterword: The Rise of Hierarchy David Graeber Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 170
Keywords: Globalization; Social Order; Moral Order; Hierarchy; Inequality; Global Inequality; Social Anthropology; Hierarchical System; Caste

eBook

Published: August 1, 2018
ISBN: 9781785339981