The Anthropology of Law

Pirie, Fernanda

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199696840.001.0001

Cited by 50 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Our two models demonstrate that it is the various factors-technological, social, cultural, etc.-defining agents' relative success when seeking normative change that determine social evolution and who it benefits. Although our initial model characterized normative change as the outcome of something like political conflict-strikes, boycotts, or any factional implementation of costs-our stochastic model encourages a broader conception of normative change that also includes stabilized legal and political processes that may be biased, implicitly or explicitly, in favor of the interests of some societal actors over others (Pirie, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Normative Conflict and Normative Change

Noblit¹,

Hadfield²

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Human life is riddled with norms, many though not all of which are costly for individuals to adopt. Similarly, human ecological adaptation relies on costly-behaviors that often generate non-rivalrous and non-exclusionary benefits for group-members. Yet, in a dynamic world, innovations, environmental change, and information-revelation mean that what norms are beneficial for a group to adopt will inevitably change over time. However, multiple game-theoretic models studying the various mechanisms stabilizing normative behaviors have demonstrated that the stability of a norm does not depend on the benefits it confers. In turn, explanations of normative change have either relied on group-selective mechanisms to explain the presence of adaptive norms or have failed to identify conditions under which normative change occurs. We study normative change by means of costly-punishment and conflict resolution. We identify social differentiation in goals and punishment capacity as a key condition permitting normative change. While normative change that results from such social differentiation need not be group beneficial it will be beneficial to some subset of agents in the population. We additionally discuss how the intra-societal forces of normative conflict that we study might interact with group-selective forces and in turn determine the dynamics and outcomes of group-selection.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Normative Conflict and Normative Change

Noblit¹,

Hadfield²

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In anthropology, mediation is primarily known as an area of research within legal anthropology (Pirie, 2013). Extensive study of mediation grew out of disciplinary questions about how people resolve disputes apart from formal legal systems (Greenhouse, 1985; Nader and Todd, 1978).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Troubling solutions through anthropological fieldwork: Mediation research in Ghana, Australia, and the United States

Crampton

2021

Qualitative Social Work

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social workers and anthropologists encounter different representations of mediation as a professional practice: On the one hand, Social Work is grounded in mediation as expert knowledge that helps others to resolve interpersonal disputes. For example, mediation as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) can enable court cases to resolve without formal trials. On the other hand, Anthropology is grounded in mediation as a research field site and by past intervention experience of anthropologists. As mediation professionalized and became mandated across public institutions, anthropologists became strong ADR critics. Academic debate between mediation proponents and critics ended as critics abandoned research in the 1990s and 2000s. My initial research goal was to pick up from past empirical study. Research was conducted in Australia, Ghana, and the United States in two areas of mediation practice; resolving parenting disputes between adults who are separating or not married, and “elder mediation” cases involving older adults. Initial findings reified past debate through data that supported proponents and critics. Further insight was gained through return to fieldwork using an expanded, ethnographic case study design. This article provides a journey through a seemingly intractable divide that was ultimately resolved through prolonged time in fieldwork focused on understanding client perspectives. I show how social work and anthropology scholars of professional mediation have been positioned on opposite sides of an expert knowledge/fieldwork research boundary. This boundary can be made productive through open exchange about mediation as a practice that evolves through an interplay of expert knowledge, intervention practice, and client engagement.

show abstract

“…It is this that I have elsewhere called their 'idealistic' aspects. 47 It is a feature of law that it is too easy to overlook if we focus primarily on the regulation of behaviour and resolution of disputes.…”

Section: Eastern Tibet: Formulating Rules For Tribal Feudsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a style of thought and argument, it makes relations and distinctions explicit, specifying the categories into which things and people may fall, bringing social forms into focus and rendering them precise. 59 As legal theorist Honoré puts it, law is concerned with the relations between human beings, but it transforms the data of ordinary life into those of a special drama, with its own persons, costumes and conventions. 60 It categorizes actions, events, personalities, and conditions in a special way and draws conclusions as to the legal position of the dramatis personae and their mutual relations.…”

Section: Law and Legalism: Themes And Comparisonsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legalism: a turn to history in the anthropology of law

Pirie¹

2019

cliothemis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Notorious definitional debates have characterized the anthropology of law, and scholars have not reached consensus over how “law” is to be distinguished from other social phenomena. This article suggests that light can be shed upon this issue by combining the insights of anthropologists and historians. Careful comparison among empirical examples highlights the importance of texts and the legal form. Case studies from Tibet are used to illustrate these points and draw attention to the phenomenon of legalism, that is, the use of generalizing rules and abstract categories to describe and organise the world. This provides a basis for exploring the nature and significance of law, both in the modern world and societies of the past.

show abstract

The Anthropology of Law

Cited by 50 publications

References 0 publications

Normative Conflict and Normative Change

Normative Conflict and Normative Change

Troubling solutions through anthropological fieldwork: Mediation research in Ghana, Australia, and the United States

Legalism: a turn to history in the anthropology of law

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About