Read more
"Nader's scholarly volume, though detailed, is very readable. Not only is this book a major contribution to the anthropology of law by one of its leading proponents but also one that should be considered by scholars interested in other aspects of cultural changes and development."--Anthropos
List of contents
Preface; 1. Introduction; Part I. Social Organisation and Control: 2. The experience of place; 3. Order through social organization: stratifying, leveling, and linking; 4. Grievances and remedy agents: comparisons in social organization; Part II. Court Users: 5. Setting the law into motion; 6. Deciding cases; 7. Court style; 8. Dissecting cases to understand court users; 9. Over the mountain to the district court; Part III. The Substance of Legal Encounters: 10. Rank, intimacy, and control in cross-sex complaints; 11. Violence and harmony in same-sex litigation; 12. Individual and community interest in property cases; 13. Contests about governance; Part IV. Connections: 14. Harmony in comparative perspective; 15. Ethnography and the construction of theory; References; Index.
Summary
This is a study of the legal system of the Zapotec village of Talea. It examines the suggestion that compromise and harmony are strategies used by colonized groups and colonizers to protect themselves from encroaching powerholders or organized subordinates.
Additional text
"Nader's scholarly volume, though detailed, is very readable. Not only is this book a major contribution to the anthropology of law by one of its leading proponents but also one that should be considered by scholars interested in other aspects of cultural changes and development."
