History and Power in the Study of Law: New Directions in Legal Anthropology

Building On Earlier Work In The Anthropology Of Law And Taking A Critical Stance Toward It, June Starr And Jane F. Collier Ask, Should Social Anthropologists Continue To Isolate The 'legal' As A Separate Field Of Study? To Answer This Question, They Confront Critics Of Legal Anthropology Who Suggest That The Subfield Is Dying And Advocate A Reintegration Of Legal Anthropology Into A Renewed General Anthropology. Chapters By Anthropologists, Sociologists, And Law Professors, Using Anthropological Rather Than Legal Methodologies, Provide Original Analyses Of Particular Legal Developments. Some Contributors Adopt An Interpretative Approach, Focusing On Law As A System Of Meaning; Others Adopt A Materialistic Approach, Analyzing The Economic And Political Forces That Historically Shaped Relations Between Social Groups. Contributors Include Said Armir Arjomand, Anton Blok, Bernard Cohn, George Collier, Carol Greenhouse, Sally Falk Moore, Laura Nader, June Nash, Lawrence Rosen, June Starr, And Joan Vincent. Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Contributors -- Introduction: Dialogues In Legal Anthropology / Starr, June / Collier, Jane F. -- Part I. Resisting And Consolidating State-level Legal Systems -- 1. The Symbolic Vocabulary Of Public Executions / Blok, Anton -- 2. Law And Social Change In Nineteenth-century Norway / Aubert, Vilhelm -- 3. A Redistributive Model For Analyzing Government Mediation And Law In Family, Community, And Industry In A New England Industrial City / Nash, June -- 4. Constitution-making In Islamic Iran: The Impact Of Theocracy On The Legal Order Of A Nation-state / Arjomand, Said Amir -- Part Ii. Exporting And Extending Legal Orders -- 5. Law And The Colonial State In India / Cohn, Bernard S. -- 6. Contours Of Change: Agrarian Law In Colonial Uganda, 1895-1962 / Vincent, Joan -- 7. Thinking About Interests: Legislative Process In The European Community / Snyder, Francis G. -- Part Iii. Receiving And Rejecting National Legal Processes -- 8. The Impact Of Second Republic Labor Reforms In Spain / Collier, George A. -- 9. Entrepreneurs And The Law: Self-employed Surinamese In Amsterdam / Boissevain, Jeremy / Grotenbreg, Hanneke -- 10. Interpreting American Litigiousness / Greenhouse, Carol J. -- Part Iv. Constructing And Shaping Law -- 11. History And The Redefinition Of Custom On Kilimanjaro / Moore, Sally Falk -- 12. Islamic Case Law And The Logic Of Consequence / Rosen, Lawrence -- 13. The Crown, The Colonists, And The Course Of Zapotec / Nader, Laura -- 14. The Invention Of Early Legal Ideas: Sir Henry Maine And The Perpetual Tutelage Of Women / Starr, June -- Index Jane F. Collier, June Starr. In English.