Book•
Political leadership among Swat Pathans
01 Jan 1954-
TL;DR: A classic and highly influential ethnography, which explores political leadership among Swat Pathans, emphasizes the importance of individual decision-making for wider social processes as mentioned in this paper. But it does not consider the role of women in political leadership.
Abstract: A classic and highly influential ethnography, which explores political leadership among Swat Pathans - and which emphasizes the importance of individual decision-making for wider social processes.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze the centralization of political parties and elite networks that underlay the birth of the Renaissance state in Florence and argue that to understand state formation one must penetrate beneath the veneer of formal institutions, groups, and goals down to the relational substrata of peoples' actual lives.
Abstract: We analyze the centralization of political parties and elite networks that underlay the birth of the Renaissance state in Florence. Class revolt and fisical crisis were the ultimate causes of elite consolidation, but Medicean political control was produced by means of network disjunctures within the elite, which the Medici alone spanned. Cosimo de' Medici's multivocal identity as sphinx harnessed the power available in these network holes and resolved the contradiction between judge and boss inherent in all organizations. Methodologically, we argue that to understand state formation one must penetrate beneath the veneer of formal institutions, groups, and goals down to the relational substrata of peoples' actual lives. Ambiguity and heterogeneity, not planning and self- interest, are the raw materials of which powerful states and persons are constructed.
1,483 citations
TL;DR: Anthropological kinship theory is explored for potential contributions to a theory of family business in this article, where the costs and benefits of a role for kinship in business are considered.
Abstract: Anthropological kinship theory is explored for potential contributions to a theory of family business. This article considers the costs and benefits of a role for kinship in business. Both derive f...
338 citations
Cites background from "Political leadership among Swat Pat..."
...Other (e.g., Barth, 1959; Gulliver, 1971; A. Strathern, 1971)....
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...These costs may be high, because a typical behavior of traditional entrepreneurs is a continuous flow of gifts as a means of creating an indebted following (Barth, 1959, pp. 77-80; Lomnitz & Pérez-Lizaur, 1987, p. 13; Stewart, 1990; A. Strathern, 1971)....
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01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: In the last fifteen years, there has emerged in sociology and social psychology a distinct approach called social exchange theory as mentioned in this paper, which can be classified into three broad categories: social behaviour as exchange, social behavior as exchange theory, and social exchange as social behavior.
Abstract: During the last fifteen years there has emerged in sociology and social psychology a distinct approach called social exchange theory. Four figures were largely responsible: George Homans, John Thibaut, Harold Kelley, and Peter Blau. Homans in "Social behavior as exchange" (1958) made a conscious effort to identify and advance this point of view. In 1961, he amplified his argument in Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms, which has now been revised (1974). Also in the late 1950s Thibaut & Kelley were constructing their compact conceptual scheme in The Social Psychology of Groups (1959). While different in important ways, their work converged with Homans's, strengthening the general exchange approach. When Blau's Exchange and Power (1 964a) appeared, the exchange approach was assured a future in the field. The differences between these three major works were as important in launching the exchange approach as were their similarities. While Blau gave more emphasis to technical economic analysis, Homans dwelled more upon the psychology of instrumental behavior. Yet in doing so, he drew upon a different brand of psychology than that represented by Thibaut & Kelley. In addition, they employed different strategies of theory construction. Thibaut & Kelley start with psychological concepts, build upward to the dyad, and build upward from there to the small group. Homans takes a more reductionist approach, moving in the opposite direction. With considerable knowledge of group-level processes already in mind, he points to the psychological principles of reinforcement which, he claims, help to explain them. However, Peter Blau, contrary to both of these approaches, warns us that preoccupation with psychology can blind us to the important emergent aspects of social exchange. When three strong statements such as these diverge on particulars, yet converge on a central viewpoint-social exchange as a frame of reference-that viewpoint will be given greater impetus. Now, seventeen years later, exchange theory is still growing; it still contains diversity and sparks of controversy.
317 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2000TL;DR: The second edition of Barnard's classic textbook on the history and theory of anthropology has been revised and expanded to include up-to-date coverage on all the most important topics in the field as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the past twenty years, there have been exciting new developments in the field of anthropology. This second edition of Barnard's classic textbook on the history and theory of anthropology has been revised and expanded to include up-to-date coverage on all the most important topics in the field. Its coverage ranges from traditional topics like the beginnings of the subject, evolutionism, functionalism, structuralism, and Marxism, to ideas about globalization, post-colonialism, and notions of 'race' and of being 'indigenous'. There are several new chapters, along with an extensive glossary, index, dates of birth and death, and award-winning diagrams. Although anthropology is often dominated by trends in Europe and North America, this edition makes plain the contributions of trendsetters in the rest of the world too. With its comprehensive yet clear coverage of concepts, this is essential reading for a new generation of anthropology students.
283 citations
TL;DR: In a world of states and dominated by states it is unsurprising that the maintenance of state boundaries would appear as a vital problem and that "state contraction,” "secession, or "partition" would be figured, by most scholars and politicians, as evidence of public policy failure or as desperately exercised options of last resort as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In a world of states and dominated by states it is unsurprising that the maintenance of state boundaries would appear as a vital problem and that “state contraction,” “secession,” or “partition” would be figured, by most scholars and politicians, as evidence of public policy failure or as desperately exercised options of last resort. To be sure, in the 1990s some scholars revived interest in territorial self-determination via partition of existing states as a sometimes useful policy option for individual states and for the international community. Against a background of severe political instability in the Balkans, central Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union, it has been suggested that some political conflicts might be managed best by
229 citations
Cites background from "Political leadership among Swat Pat..."
...Indeed 9 For early examples of the constructivist approach to ethnic and national identity see Barth (1959), Brass (1974), andHechter (1975)....
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