This paper explores the nature of Durkheim’s theoretical language concerning the whole and the individual. I look at the questions of holism and individualism throughout his thought, but I particularly focus on ‘L’individualisme et les intellectuels’, where he enters the debate over the Dreyfus affair, espousing the language of intellectual and moral right. I examine the historical and philosophical background of this and the tensions between individualism and socialism, within neglected aspects of French political history. Here a new language of individuality and right was forged, not simply through the pressure of events, but through a re-thinking of socialist holism from within a philosophical tradition.
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In Durkheimian Studies
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2009
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 64–84 (21 total)
Allen Abramson and Martin Holbraad
How far is the ethnographic study of 'cosmologies' relevant to contemporary anthropology, and how might it illuminate understandings of the contemporary world? In this article we argue for a renewed anthropological interest in matters cosmological by seeking to disentangle the study of cosmology from the concomitants with which it was associated in earlier periods of anthropological research. In particular, we argue that an orientation toward cosmology continues to be of prime importance to the discipline insofar as it can be freed from its associations with holism and exoticism. The shift from 'high modernity' (in which orientations toward cosmos are variously constrained and circumscribed) to the flattening effects of the 'fluid' modernity of neoliberalism, we argue, has tended to thrust concerns with cosmic orders and dynamics back onto the forefront of people's lives. We end the article with a series of programmatic observations of how anthropologists might respond to these shifts, both ethnographically and analytically.
In Religion and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2012
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 35–50 (16 total)
Battle of Cosmologies
The Catholic Church, Adat, and ‘Inculturation’ among Northern Lio, Indonesia
Signe Howell
that, Lio social life may usefully be analyzed in terms of Dumont’s concepts of holism, by which the Lio social whole is predicated upon its pre-Catholic ideology and practices— adat . I contrast this to Catholicism, which has become the main global
Guy van de Walle
Among the many theories of socialization, that of Durkheim stands out. While most analyses of socialization are individualistic, that of Durkheim is holistic. This singularity presents a challenge to the modern mind, which is dominated by individualism. Reading Durkheim's analysis of socialization, like the rest of his work, requires the difficult task of overcoming one's natural tendency to do so through an individualistic lens. This paper is an attempt to restore the original holistic meaning of this analysis. It aims to correct some of Durkheim's commentators' re-interpretations of his views and the everyday language that he uses in individualistic terms. Particular attention is given to Durkheim's distinction between authority and power. This distinction has huge implications for Durkheim's interpretation of socialization, which he sees as a process that primarily involves a particular relationship - one that he describes in terms of 'submission' - with the authority of society.
In Durkheimian Studies
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2008
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 35–58 (24 total)
Measuring the Sacred
Research Notes on the Use of Science by Adherents of New Spiritualities in Poland
Dorota Hall
The essay presents exemplary cases for the use of scientific accessories, such as a specialist vocabulary and sophisticated technical tools, in Polish holistic milieus. It analyses editorials published in the esoteric monthly Nieznany Świat, and refers to materials gathered during ethnographic fieldwork among vendors and customers of alternative medicine fairs and esoteric shops in Warsaw, as well as visitors to the Węsiory village, considered to be one of Earth's 'power places'. The work goes on the claim that references to science, and especially to various measurements, besides their legitimating function, appeal to sensitivity related to traditional folk religiosity. Therefore, the Nieznany Świat magazine might be considered a continuer of the folk tradition.
In Anthropological Journal of European Cultures
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2010
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 102–115 (13 total)
In Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2002
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 239–248 (9 total)
Timescales of Intervention
A Postscript
Marilyn Strathern
for thinking of humankind as a whole. The articles carefully unpick this holism, both in terms of people's varying relations to the circumstances of cultivation or marketing and in terms of populations being divided through offsetting or knowledge
Clay Clemens
Parties and Politics in Modern Germany by Gerard Braunthal
Jonathan R. Zatlin
Das Ende der SED: die letzten Tage des Zentralkomitees edited by Hans-Hermann Hertle and Gerd-Rüdiger Stephan
Mary Nolan
Languages of Labor and Gender: Female Factory Work in Germany, 1850-1914 by Kathleen Canning
Robert C. Holub
Habermas and the Unfinished Project of Modernity: Critical Essays on The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity edited by Maurizio Passerin d’Entrèves and Seyla Benhabib
Jeffrey Verhey
Willy Wählen ‘72. Siege kann man machen by Albrecht Müller and Hermann Müller
Kristie Macrakis
Reenchanted Science: Holism in German Culture from Wilhelm II to Hitler by Anne Harrington
Günter Minnerup
Willy Brandt. A Political Biography by Barbara Marshall
Michael G. Huelshoff
Europe’s Economy Looks East: Implications for Germany and the European Union edited by Stanley W. Black
In German Politics and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 1998
- Article Type:
- Review Article
- Pages:
- 125–159 (34 total)
Introduction
The Concern for Sociality—Practicing Equality and Hierarchy in Denmark
Maja Hojer Bruun, Gry Skrædderdal Jakobsen, and Stine Krøijer
Equality is one of the concepts that people often associate with Scandinavia. Within anthropology, the works of Marianne Gullestad (1946–2008)—particularly, her monograph Kitchen-Table Society (1984) and the anthology The Art of Social Relations (1992a)—are among the few attempts to contribute to the theoretical debate on egalitarianism and sociality. With her concept of ‘egalitarian individualism’, Gullestad inscribes Scandinavia within broader comparative studies of ideological systems revolving around two dichotomies: hierarchyequality and holism-individualism (Béteille 1986; Dumont 1970, 1986; Kapferer 1988; Robbins 1994). Gullestad (1992b: 183) developed a theory of a specific “Norwegian, Scandinavian or Northern European variety” of modernity and of the general modern themes of individualism and equality. Exploring egalitarian individualism from different angles, she argued that equality is cast as ‘sameness’ in Scandinavia (Gullestad 1992d: 174 ff.), meaning that people develop an interactional style that emphasizes similarity and under-communicates difference in order to feel equal and to establish a sense of community. In Gullestad’s (1992b: 197) view, ‘equality as sameness’ is a central cultural idea that balances and resolves the tensions in the Norwegian ideological system between the individual and society, independence and community, equality and hierarchy.
Introduction
Hierarchy, Value, and the Value of Hierarchy
Naomi Haynes and Jason Hickel
merit of Dumont’s holism, not least as an analytic device that brings many of the unquestioned assumptions of Western individualism to the fore, in the discussion that follows we hope to avoid the confusion that the tight coupling of holism and hierarchy