Law As Process

Beschreibung

This study of the role of law in society has become a
standard work in the ethnology of law. The central theme
of the book is that the same social processes which prevent
the total regulation of society also reshape and transform
efforts at partial regulation. In particular, the making of
rules and social and symbolic order is as often matched by
situational pressures to manipulate, circumvent, remake or
replace the same, as it is to uphold them.

Using both pre-industrial and modern settings, Professor
Moore examines the basic tension between the idea that law
constitutes a conscious and rational attempt to direct
society and most thought in the social sciences, that there
are underlying causes of social behaviour which are not
fully in the conscious control of the actors. Over a
period of time reglementary control can be only temporary,
incomplete and its consequences not fully predictable. The
study of reglementation is, therefore, one of partial
orders and partial controls in the specific social contexts.
“All should welcome it as a stimulating contribution that
will help keep the ethnology of law a lively subject.” MAN

Sally Falk Moore is Research Professor of Anthropology
at Harvard University.