Hierarchy: persistence and transformation in social formations

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, both with regard to new theoretical issues and the new world situationof post-colonial and neo-colonial agendas, ideas of "democratization" and "globalization," and expanding market-economies.

Hierarchy and Its Alternatives: An Introduction to Movements of Totalization and Detotalization / Knut M. Rio and Olaf H. Smedal -- Conversion, Hierarchy, and Cultural Change: Value and Syncretism in the Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity / Joel Robbins -- Gender and Value: Conceptualizing Social Forms on Ambrym, Vanuatu / Annelin Eriksen -- Can a Hierarchical Religion Survive without Its Center? Caodaism, Colonialism, and Exile / Janet Hoskins -- The Headless State in Inner Asia: Reconsidering Kinship Society and the Discourse of Tribalism / David Sneath -- The Perfect Sovereign: The Sacralized Power of the Ottoman Sultan / Kjetil Fosshagen -- Marriage, Rank, and Politics in Hawaii / Valerio Valeri -- Polynesian Conceptions of Sociality: A Dynamic Field of Hierarchical Encompassment / Ingjerd Hoëm -- On the Value of the Beast or the Limit of Money: Notes on the Meaning of Marriage Prestations among the Ngadha, Central Flores (Indonesia) / Olaf H. Smedal -- Hierarchy Is not Inequality-in Polynesia, for Instance / Serge Tcherkézoff -- Hierarchy and Power: A Comparative Attempt under Asymmetrical Lines / André Iteanu -- Afterword: On Dumont's Relentless Compar…