Orlando Patterson, his work, and his legacy: a special issue in celebration of the republication of Slavery and Social Death

Abstract

The reissue of Orlando Patterson's Slavery and Social Death provides an opportunity to reflect on developments in studies of slavery, postcolonial sociology, and comparativehistorical sociology since the book's initial release in 1982. In this special issue of Theory and Society, contributors from ancient history, anthropology, and sociology examine the book's broader intellectual significance by situating it in Patterson's corpus, covering a range of works including his fiction and scholarly publications, early work on Jamaican slave revolts, and private correspondence with key thinkers. The volume's ambit, then, is not a single book but rather a broader field of social thought. As the articles in this issue demonstrate, the concepts and theories introduced by Patterson are still vital. In some ways, we argue, a Pattersonian sociology has only recently come to its full fruition, thanks to ongoing developments in postcolonial studies, critical race studies, anthropological and historical study of slavery, globalization studies, and feminist theory.

Legacies of Racial Violence: Clarifying and Addressing the Presence of the Past

“…As an initial step in this and the related directions that we have described, the contributions here expand conventional disciplinary theoretical vantages and methodological toolkits to highlight and address the need for (1) a more expansive conceptualization and measurement of relevant histories of racial violence, deepening important recent work on long-run impacts of enslavement (Greenland and Steinmetz 2019; Reece and O’Connell 2016; Reece 2020) and engaging forms of racial violence beyond lynching; (2) a deeper engagement with potential mechanisms and pathways that define such legacy effects as well as methodological approaches used for measurement and modeling (Bailey and Tolnay 2015); and (3) more extensive considerations of outcomes—encompassing, for instance, public policy support and population health disparities—that move beyond disciplinary boundaries.…”

Social Death and Rastafari Reason

“…Yet investigations of Patterson's early intellectual development have mostly been undertaken outside of Black Studies, primarily in his "home" discipline of Sociology. For instance, Fiona Greenland and George Steinmetz (2019) have connected Patterson's first novels to his sociological analysis of slavery and philosophy of freedom. And Steinmetz (2013; has provocatively labelled Patterson the first "postcolonial sociologist," calling attention to the fact that his intellectual evolution takes place within the British imperial field of Sociology and especially Social Anthropology.…”