Hierarchy and Value

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.

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.

Introduction: Hierarchy and Value
Naomi Haynes and Jason Hickel

Chapter 1. Battle of Cosmologies: The Catholic Church, Adat, and ‘Inculturation’ among Northern Lio, Indonesia
Signe Howell

Chapter 2. Vertical Love: Forms of Submission and Top-Down Power in Orthodox Ethiopia
Diego Maria Malara and Tom Boylston

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

Chapter 4. Civilization, Hierarchy, and Political-Economic Inequality
Stephan Feuchtwang

Chapter 5. Islam and Pious Sociality: The Ethics of Hierarchy in the Tablighi Jamaat in Pakistan
Arsalan Khan

Chapter 6. Demotion as Value: Rank Infraction among the Ngadha in Flores, Indonesia
Olaf H. Smedal

Afterword: The Rise of Hierarchy
David Graeber