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Review: 164

Reviewed Work(s):
Custom and Conflict. by Max Gluckman
A. I. Richards

Man, Vol. 58. (Jul., 1958), pp. 117-118.

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Thu Oct 4 11:58:55 2007
REVIEWS
GENERAL
Social Theory and Social Structure. By Robert K. Merton. W e s ~ e r nsocieties. T w o are on the place o f the anthropologist i n
the development o f 'colonial' territories, one is on economic
162 Revised ed. Glencoe, Ill. (Free Press), 1957. P p xviii,
645. Price $7.50
T h e core o f this volume was published under the
individualism i n African society, one on African chieftainship, one
on education, t w o on African land tenure, and one o n government
same title i n 1949 and the work has been influential and widely read. i n self-governing territories. Six o f these are reprints o f earlier-
As the first edition was not reviewed i n this journal, a brief summary published papers.
o f its contents may not be out o f place. O f the 15 chapters all but T h e t w o essays on the role o f the anthropologist provide the main
one had been previously published and represented much o f the theme o f the book. Dr. Mair considers the difficulties facing the
work from which the author had gained his deservedly high anthropologist, h o w he can best analyse social problems with which
reputation. he is himself personally concerned-both because o f what he learns
Part I consisted o f a very useful statement o f the structural- from his research and also, perhaps, because o f the sort o f person he
functional approach and also t w o papers o n theory and method; is w h o is likely t o want t o study human society i n the first place.
the essay on 'Manifest and latent function' must still be considered She discusses w h y the 'practical' man tends t o ignore the advice and
essential reading for all interested i n this theoretical position. Part I1 experience o f anthropologists, especially when they do not suit his
discussed the concept o f anomie, which for Merton centres round already chosen policies; and she points out that the anthropologist
the problem o f h o w cultural structure generates pressures for socially often forgets that the administrator is as much bound b y his o w n
deviant behaviour because o f discrepancies between culturally pres- customary values as are those w h o m he administers. T h e anthropo-
cribed aspirations and social avenues for realizing these. In addition it logist cannot decide upon policy, but call only supply information
contained a discussion o f the formal organization o f bureaucracy. on specific courses o f action b y the administrator, w h o is the person
Part 111, entitled ' T h e Sociology o f Knowledge and Mass Communi- responsible for selecting them. T h e anthropologist should be
cation,' included essays on the Radio and Film Propaganda studies consulted i n these matters because it is only he w h o sees society as
carried outjointly with Lazarsfeld. Part IV, 'Studies i n the Sociology being something other than a mere aggregate o f individuals whose
o f Science,' comprised five chapters which amongst other things attitudes and behaviour the admillistrator wants t o change, and it is
treated contemporary relations between science and society. only he w h o really knows anything about social integration. Until
T h e new edition greatly enlarges the book: new chapters nearly people realize that there is such a thing as integration-although they
equal the size o f the original volume. It cannot claim t o be easy can recognize disintegration when they see it-they will not regard
reading. T h e style is an interesting combination o f lucidity andverbal the advice o f anthropologists as being necessary, whether it adds
extravagance, but the reading is not dull; on the contrary, it is support t o their policies or not.
absorbing. T h e new chapters reflect themes clearly stated i n the T h e papers on economic individualism and o n land tenure state
first edition. Merton has emphasized the need for middle-range the opinions o f the anthropologist with pleasingly unanthropological
theories which lie between sninor research hypotheses and ' t h e clarity. T h e author draws much on her experience o f the Baganda
all-inclusive speculations comprising master conceptual schemes.' and avoids too much generalization about ' t h e African.' T h e essays
He has also emphasized the need for the progressive codificatioll o f on chieftainship (1936) and education (1935) are succinct but rather
theory and procedures o f analysis. Both views are reflected i n the dated and obvious t o the anthropologist today. This is perhaps a
additions. Perhaps o f most interest are the t w o chapters on reference measure o f advances i n thinking o f these matters that have been
groups, one o f which was previously published i n collaboration with made over the last 20 years.
Alice S. Rossi. T h e currently favoured concept o f reference group Dr. Mair shows that in all these problems, almost all surrounded
is based on the observation that individuals frequently orienr: b y prejudice and ignorance, there are usually t w o sides, and she
themselves t o 'groups' other than their o w n i n shaping their stresses their moral and 'practical' complexities. T h e arrogant and
behaviour and values. T h e first paper originally came from a irresponsible attitudes o f some recent ' social engineers' and possessors
symposium discussing the 'American Soldier' volumes and drew o f 'know-how' o f developing the undeveloped are shown up very
evidence from the various attitude questionnaires sent t o Second clearly i n contrast with Dr. Mair's more educated and more
W o r l d W a r conscripts. O f particular importance was the post hoc knowledgable analysis o f these essentially moral issues. It will do
use o f the concept o f 'relative deprivation' t o clarify many puzzling many people good t o read her essays. JOHN MIDDLETON
features i n the results. T h e professed object o f the second and longer
paper is t o summarize research and theoretical advance i n the last Custom and Conflict. By Max Gluckman. Oxford(Blackwell),1957.
six years. Essential clarifications are made, such as the distinction o f Pp. x , 173. mice 12s. 6d.
t w o major types o f reference groups: the 'normative' and ' c o m - Under the title Custom and ConJict, Gluckman gives
parison' types. T h e chapter has the hallmark o f a working notebook
but it provides a very competent and interesting review o f papers
164 us the text o f six very successful talks given on the
Third Programme i n the spring o f 1 9 5 ~T. h e central theme o f these
produced i n recent years and offers numerous stimulating research broadcasts is an apparent paradox, viz. that social conflicts, whether
leads. they take the form o f feuds, rebellions, family estrangements, or
There is a chapter with similar aims entitled 'Continuities in the ritual expressions o f hostility, promote the cohesion o f the society i n
Theory o f Social Structure and Anomie' and also a study o f personal which they occur. T h e y do not destroy it, as w e might expect. Each
influence i n a small American community. chapter has a paradox for a title. ' T h e Peace o f the Feud' contains
Much o f the 1949 edition has been o f direct interest t o anthro- an analysis o f Nuer material, and Gluckman presents the n o w
pologists. This new edition deals with concepts not unmet i n their familiar thesis that agnatic descent groups which are hostile t o each
contemporary discussions. T o these it is an admirable introduction other yet follow rules when they feud, and unite against a common
and stimulus. T h e book as a whole must unquestionably still hold foe. This 'ordered anarchy,' according t o Evans-Pritchard, forms
its place as important reading for all interested i n sociology and the basis o f tribal cohesion i n an acephalous society o f the Nuer type.
social research. GEORGE W . B R O W N Gluckman here carries the argument a stage further, and points out,
i n an interesting passage, that loyalty t o the agnatic feud group may
Studies in Applied Anthropology. By L . P. Mair. London Sch. of conflict with the obligations a man has t o his in-laws, w h o necessarily
Econ. Monog. on Soc. Anthrop., No. 16. London (Athlone belong t o other lineages, and also with his duties t o the members o f
163 Pre~s),1957. Pp. 81. Price 13s. 6d.
This is a volume o f eight essays b y the Reader i n
his local group or t o his material kin. 'Feud is waged, vengeance
taken when the parties live sufficiently far apart. . . . But where they
Colonial Administration i n the University o f London on various are close together, many institutions and ties spread t o exert pressure
aspects o f social change and administrative development i n non- on the quarrellers t o reach a settlement' (p. 19).
MAN

The agnate-affineconflict is again stressed in a chapter headed arch seems to me to be nothing like as secure as that o f a Bantu king
'Estrangement in the Family' in which the taboos governing who has overcome a series o f rebellions against him and who has
marriage and parental relations are described as due to the need to killed the most powerful o f the potential rebels! Many rituals o f
make artificial barriers between husband and wife, or father and son, kingship recognize this fact. There are some ceremonies which
in the interests o f the wider agnatic lineage or clan group. Such Bemba kings only carry out when they have been on the throne
conflicts,and the mechanisms by which they are dealt with, also act, some time and consider that they are strong enough. I believe that
according to Gluckman, to strengthen the whole society by the the concept o f kingship as a precarious art in which the ruler gathers
many links they forge between individual and individual, group and strength through personality and the skilful winning o f support is
group. common in Bantu society. The authorities who have succeeded in
The paradox o f 'Frailty in Authority' is the subject o f the third, this process cease to be frail, or presumably to feel frail.
and perhaps the most interesting talk. Here Gluckman contrasts the Gluckman's plea for the long-term benefits o f conflict represents
high virtues expected o f a king, and especially o f a divine king, with perhaps another turn o f the anthropological whirligig. In the thirties,
his inevitable human weaknesses. The ruler walks the tight rope British anthropologists trained by Malinowski concentrated on the
between the interests o f one group and another, between the positive functions o f the family and its extensions to form larger
exercise o f one kingly virtue and that o f another mutually exclusive groups which would permit wider co-operation. Hence our
one. Hence authority is inevitably a source o f disappointment to absorption in the study o f primary relationships within the family,
those who accept it, and popular princes become hated kings. which o f course often involved conflicts; Malinowski's analysis o f
Political structures themselves also consist o f groups with conflicting the father-mother's brother and the cross-cousin conflicts in a
interests, and princes with rival claims. W h e n a rebellion takes place, matrilineal society initiated a new type o f work in this field. W e
the warring elements unite to put another prince on the throne, and were not then so much concerned with the 'total social structure,'
the belief in kingship is renewed. Conflict has brought cohesion in to use Radcliffe-Brown's term.
the long run, i f not in the short. The same hypothesis underlies In the forties the return to Durkheim led to a concentration on the
Gluckman's treatment o f witchcraft and ritual and, in particular, his formal aspects o f kinship and political organization, as a means o f
interpretation o f rites o f rebellion or o f reversal. In a last and am- conceptualizing this total social structure. Hence the emphasis on the
bitious chapter, he considers the phenomenon o f the colour bar in social groups described as permanent, on paradigms o f lineage
South Africa as a series o f conflicts which bind together the distinct structure and other models o f kinship. The family was in eclipse as an
ethnic groups o f which the nation is composed. impermanent and untidy group which only existed because men o f
Gluckman's suggestions are, as always, stimulating, and he handles the agnatic lineage had to find mates outside their own ranks, and
his material most skilfully within the limits o f a series o f short hence regrettably acquired in-laws, who might also be members o f
talks. The book is very readable and persuasive and gives sufficient corporate lineages. The study o f family attitudes dropped out o f
illustrative matter to drive home the theoretical points. There are, fashion and the interest in kinship terminologies declined. The
however, major difficultiesi f his thesis is to be taken au pied de la emphasis on problems o f cohesion and particularly on the question
lettre. T o begin with, his conception o f conflict is in essence a o f the cohesion in segmentary societies was paramount.
psychological one, or even a psycho-analytic one. Part o f his Gluckman returns to the study o f family attitudes, but he views
explanation o f rebellion is in terms o f universal attitudes o f ambival- them from the angle o f agnatic descent groups to which he believes
ence towards authority, and part in the form o f a structural analysis them to be a danger. Family affectionsmust be pruned and kept in
o f the institution o f chieftainship, and Gluckman slides from one check in the interests o f wider co-operation. The concept o f conflict
plane to the other. His treatment o f authority surely does not provides a way out. The paradigm o f balanced segments is a con-
become sociological, as distinct from psychological, by the mere ceptual model; in life there are clashing interests and quarrels. The
avoidance o f such terms as CEdipus complex. Hi's account o f the hypothesis o f the necessity and value o f conflicts leads us back again
anxious king, the frail authority, is expressed in almost Shakespearean to the model o f the balanced society-that chimzra which continues
language as an inner conflict and the illustrative quotation, perhaps to haunt British anthropology. A. I. RICHARDS
significantly,comes from 'Macbeth' and not from Gluckman's Lozi
notebooks. I do not myself observe the psychology taboo which Insight: A Study of Human Understanding. B y Bernard J. F.
many anthropologists now maintain, but I believe it to be essential Lonergan, S . J. London (Longmans Green), 1957.
to distinguish clearly between individual conflicts, conscious or
unconscious, and social groups with opposing interests.
165 4. XXX, 7 8 5 . R i c e 3s.
The wide variety o f topics dealt with in this large
But there is a more fundamental question to ask. W h y must these work is not easy to describe briefly and its title is not very informa-
facts be explained in terms o f conflict?Gluckman acknowledges the tive. Less than half the work i s concerned with insight as an activity
strength o f the bonds which unite men to all their different categories o f the understanding.The remainder deals with the general character
o f kinsmen, whether agnates, a f f i e s ,or matrikin. He emphasizes the o f the realities which this activity reveals, the assumption being that
network o f ties which link the differentfeud groups in a segmentary i f we could understand the nature o f insight we would know the
society. He analyses the balance o f interests which result in the main lines o f all that there is to be understood.
acceptance o f one man as king. Would it not be simpler to add that From some passages it would seem that the author's purpose is to
men value these ties and make them for positive reasons, even i f some restate the more fundamental contentions o f scholastic philosophy in
o f them conflict,and that, in any case, societies usually have mechan- terms o f modern knowledge, freed from compromising associations
isms for dealing with tensions o f this sort, and that these are usually with Aristotle's Physics and from dependence on an appeal to
more or less successful? authority or self-evident principles (pp. 521-3). But the form which
It is true, o f course, that kingship in most primitive societies has to the work actually takes is an attempt to show the kind o f world
be constantly maintained against the interests o f the differentgroups view or metaphysical system which a grasp o f the nature o f insight
into which the tribe could easily split, since rulers o f this type are implies. In the early chapters Professor Lonergan examines and
usually without sufficient executive staff, standing armies or illustrates the nature o f insight as it operates in mathematics and
adequate economic pre-eminence. Hence, as Gluckman explains in physics where we have its most precise and accurate expression and in
some stimulating pages, the king tends to bolster up his precarious common-sense judgements where we have its most concrete and
position by a conscious policy o f making alliances, delegating practical form, but where the disinterested desire to know is apt to be
authority, putting the blame on subordinates and also retiring behind distorted or restricted by various influences.He then proceeds to
the veil o f ritual. It is surely unnecessary to conclude from this that explain the'method, the elements and part o f the outline o f the kind
rebellion is inevitable and that it actually strengthens the kingship. o f metaphysical system which seems to him to follow from the
In fact the history o f Bantu Africa is a story o f broken empires, split nature o f insight as he found it in science and common sense. 'The
kingdoms and monarchs who failed to 'make the grade.' Some results o f applying this method,' he finds, 'bear an astounding
rebellions may result in putting a new king on the throne with similarity to the doctrines o f the Aristotelian and Thomist tradition'
temporarily strengthened powers, yet the position o f such a mon- (p. 521). This is not so surprising because one suspects that the

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