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Race & Class | 1972
Lucy Mair
that Turner has called ’communitas’. In the field of semantics Pitt-Rivers discusses the numerous different uses of the word ’caste’ and concludes that we should not try to use it for comparative purposes, and Elizabeth Colson gives us a little gem about the significance of courage for the Tonga. Evans-Pritchard’s writings have proved, like Malinowski’s, to be so rich that they can answer questions that he himself has not asked, and can sometimes support explanations other than those he has given them. Thus Kathleen Gough finds the Nuer to be not quite as egalitarian as he suggests, and argues that his model of lineage structure applies to dominant clans, to whom members of other lines attach themselves with less regard to lineage rules; and Beidelman re-examines Nuer ritual leaders from the points of view of Durkheim on symbolism and Weber on charisma.
Race & Class | 1972
Lucy Mair
Lancelot Giles wrote his siege diary specially for his father to whom it was despatched as soon as the relief column arrived. Professor Giles had also spent twenty-five years in the consular service in China, but instead of the crude jingoism expressed by the youthful son, the father had cultivated a profound respect for Chinese classical literature and philosophy, and he rejected the account of riot and rebellion in which the Chinese behaved like savages. A cooling in their relationship followed, which ended in complete estrangement. Altogether, this is an illuminating study of Westerners in the East; a study of disastrous misunderstanding. The book is handsome, with numerous contemporary photographic illustrations, maps and other features.
Race & Class | 1970
Lucy Mair
for manipulating mystical forces-was widely accepted as being effective under pre-colonial conditions and why it has survived today, despite radical changes in the structure of Yoruba society. Much depends upon the attitudes and motivations of clients, who can attach a number of interpretations to the verses associated with particular combinations of figures. It is these verses which convey Ifa’s message to the client and they are the key to the whole procedure. Professor Bascom has done admirably in providing us with a collection of 186 verses with literal and free translations from the Yoruba. The procedure of divination takes place in three stages: selection of the
Race & Class | 1969
Lucy Mair
no more sinister than their castigation of Christianity. But Dr Hertzberg’s major point is that, in addition, many of the philosophes were not only happy to incorporate something of what mediaeval Christianity had to contribute to antisemitism but were also prepared to develop a more secular form harking back to pagan models. To the fruitful social relativism of Montesquieu were opposed, for instance, Aubert-Dubayet’s view that the Jews were ’debased by nature’ and D’Holbach’s argument that they were hopelessly and totally foreign to Europe. It is upon Voltaire however that Dr Hertzberg centres his argument. Perhaps the most famous of the Enlightenment philosophers, he declared that, on account of the innate fanaticism of the Jews, he would not be surprised ’if these people would some day become deadly to the human race’. While noting Voltaire’s own acute discomfort at breaking the rules of tolerance, Dr Hertzberg still constructs a convincing case for concluding thus: ’An analysis of everything that Voltaire wrote about the Jews ... establishes the proposition that he is the major link in Western intellectual history between the antisemitism of classic paganism and the modern age. In his favourite pose of Cicero reborn he ruled the Jew to be outside society and to be hopelessly alien to the future age of enlightened men.’ Much of the ambivalence of the Enlightenment stems from the fact that the achievements of that future era depended upon successfully making man anew. As Professor Talmon has shown in detail, such transformation threatens certain potentially totalitarian implications. The particular tragedy, from the point of view of Dr Hertzberg’s specific subjectmatter, was that some of the philosophes, not unlike the Nazi creators of new men, went on to suggest that the Jews, even if stripped of their religious character, could never throw off the innately fanatical character of their race. Dr Hertzberg’s fundamental assertion is that, ’Modern secular antisemitism
Race & Class | 1969
Lucy Mair
life’. It will not be enough for the elite to transform their intellectual and moral outlook; they will have to bridge the gap which exists between them and the masses; a gap which is growing ever wider. The bridging must be achieved by ’sound and speedy development of mass communications’. This solution is made more pallatable by a concluding chapter dwelling on the importance of beautifying the physical environment. But to me it appears that Mr. Moddie is recommending a massive exercise in manipulation; a massive promotion campaign for modernity. The managerial society of his imagination will not co-exist with the democratised society of the present based upon the popular tradition of the past. In a society based on free choice, Mr. Moddie will have
Race & Class | 1968
Lucy Mair
past and present. His chief works have been devoted to kinship systems, to the phenomenon of ’totemism’, and most recently to myth; to our understanding of this phenomena he has certainly added a new dimension, if not actually revolutionising it. As often happens when major reorientations of intellectual disciplines are attempted, the new theories tend to provoke extreme reactions. On the one hand there are the slavish admirers who have elevated Levi-Strauss’s thinking into the status of a new doctrine of ’structuralism’. On the other, there are those who remain sceptical-and in some quarters, those who are downright opposed. British social anthropology parted from the French tradition quite early on-after Durkheim, in fact-and it has only been in recent years that much attention has been paid to Levi-Strauss’s writings, and that translations of some of his works havc become available. An initial hostility is now tending to give way to a vogue of rather uncritical admiration and to a growing espousal of this rude challenge to the British anthropological establishment. It is all the more valuable, therefore, to have this set of essays, based on papers read to the 1964 Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists, which reveal the spectacle of the British mind getting to grips with a revitalised Gallic intellect. The collection is edited, with an introduction, by Edmund Leach, himself one of the more sympathetic and pioneering interpreters of Levi-Strauss on the British scene.
Race & Class | 1968
Lucy Mair
Mr. Schwarz’s Nigeria comes at a time when the country, because of the civil war, is much in the news. In this respect, it is a timely book. It is extremely readable, informative and in some places, perceptive; for example, his account of the ’new North’, the North after the exodus of the Ibos and the creation of states, a North which many have taken to be static and feudal but which nevertheless has shown itself more than capable of meeting exacting challenges. He also avoids that oversimplifcation which ignores the emergent class structure and attributes all the difficulties to the evils of tribalism. But it does not seem that consistency is one of the strong points of Mr. Schwarz. For instance, while on p. 15 he says there were almost two million Ibos in the North, later (p. 215) this is cut down without any explanation to one million; he asserts that Nigeria is ’in a profound sense’ one society (p. xii) and more or less denies this later on (p. 296). The ground for this denial is itself extremely naive, that Nigeria’s market for manufactures is regionalised. The evidence turns out to be that the production of cement, beer and textiles is regionalised. Mr. Schwarz may be a competent journalist; he is certainly not an economist and as a political commentator, he is sometimes crude. The crudity reveals itself in ways which almost amount to bias. Thus, after admitting that the numbers of those killed in the North is unknown-Colonel
Race & Class | 1967
Lucy Mair
them, what notions did they attribute to the word ’socialism’? How did they interpret the Revolution’s message of liberation, and how did Lenin reconcile this with unity of the Russian state? On what common ground did Russian Communism achieve an alliance with Muslim nationalism, and how did this alliance break down ? What led to the bitter conclusion, expressed by a Muslim nationalist and socialist group in 1926, that ’vis-£-vis the colonies and oppressed peoples, the proletariat of an advanced nation does not succeed in discarding overnight the notions inculcated by its own bourgeoisie’ ?
Race & Class | 1967
Lucy Mair
ideological, in the sense that no direct state interest is involved, is surely to adopt too narrow and arbitrary a view of national interest. Andrew M. Kamarck’s paper on Economic Determinants is marred by the very high level of generality which such a choice of topic imposes. This leads him to such masterly understatements as (p. 67) ’The presence of large elements of foreign origin-e.g. Europeans, Indians, Pakistanis, Lebanese or Syrians-in key positions of the economy may at times affect the relationships between the host country and the country of origin of the non-indigenous people.’ Similarly in discussing (p. 67) the effects of modernisation he says ’irksome and unprogressive tribal discipline is seen as the futile worship of impotent Gods’-a generalisation which requires almost endless qualification. Robert A. Lystad, in his chapter on Cultural and Psychological Factors considers the possible connections between foreign policy and ’national character’, racial characteristics, aggression resulting from acculturation in the colonial period, and so on. His discussion of aggression and hostility is illuminatingbut (as is suggested in the final chapter) it illuminates a far wider field than
Race & Class | 1966
Lucy Mair
In this collection of essays six scholars discuss the related notions of honour and shame as they are found among peoples of the Mediterranean area. It has often been argued that some-not all-peoples of Latin culture have pursued the ideal of honour at the expense of material advantage to a point that has seriously hindered their economic development. But if it is agreed that in all societies men value the esteem of their fellows, and in one way or another compete for the public recognition of this, it must follow that no society can be without some such notions and that any language must have some such concepts. It is interesting to see in this book how closely the Arab concepts parallel the Greek and Spanish. The significant question really is what actions and qualities are conceived as honourable in different societies and at different times. Professor Caro Baroja
