Lecture 5 Flashcards
who is most associated with The Ethnography of
Judicial Process
Gluckman v. Bohannan
where Gluckman and Bohannan at odds
these two scholars were at odds
achedemic, intellectual and personal rivalry
what is the overview of the difference between Gluckman and Bohannan
they look at situations that there is a dispute wthat is aired in public, where there is a judge and a decisions and in terms of these diffeent ingredients, they take very different approaches
what is commensurability
means making things translate into each-other
one guy was with the idea that you can do this; you can transfer language across societies and have a comparative thing (especially in relation to law and how it translates over the globe)
what is incommensurability
said you cannot translate things
leave it in its own terms because it is DIFFERENT and needs to be left the way it is
what is significant about the Manchester school
will talk about how it approached ethnography and colonial ethnography
talking about how it was engaged in a deeper analysis of a legal phenomenon/processes of overcoming legal phenomenons
what is situational analysis
???
who was Max Gluckman
founder and head of the manchester school
this was a school of anthropology
what was Gluckman’s problem
Why do “particular people have certain ideas about law, government, enforcement, debt, contract and agreement, injury and wrong”[?] (Politics, Law and Ritual . . . 1965, 213)
he was legally trained and conderned with a distincly legal problem
why do people have certain idea about government and the enforcement of certain obligaions etc?
he thoigh you could go to any society and find certain phenomeno associated with certain disputes that were with the economy of that socieiety
who influenced Bohannon
Marx
what is primitive communism
“[W]here socio-economic conditions are similar, many postulates will be shared.” (213)
In tribal societies, “the struggle for power and prestige might be acute, but it was fought along lines of territorial and genealogical cleavages, and not between differently endowed economic groups” (82)
who is associated with primitive communism
gluckman
give an overview of primitive communism
Simple technology and limited economies.
This means that leadership is tied to status differentiation, but not significant differences in wealth or consumption.
Significant differences might follow from subsistence technologies, such as hunting, pastoralism or settled agriculture, but in all tribal societies, wealth is not concentrated in the hands of a few.
Under these circumstances it is impossible to use production in order to raise one’s standard of living. Accumulation is neither possible nor desirable.
Despite egalitarian standards of consumption in tribal societies, there were often important differences in social rank, associated with control over resources and claims on the labour and loyalty of others
why is it i
it is impossible to raise status in society of hunting and gathering, as you need to immediately distribute the goods you have , oyou cannot hold all the gains for yourself you MUST share it
in agricultural societies it is differnt
what are the Distinct features of Manchester School
1) Central interest in conflict : Influence of Durkheim: Society is a moral order that maintains its continuity despite conflict.
Law and ritual uphold social order through mediating processes that reestablish harmony.
2) Methodological emphasis on “case studies,” actual situations. “Manchester seminars” emphasis on field data.
Accounts of “case law.”
who really looked at the manchester school
gluckman
what does gluckman think the key to understanding legal systems is
to look at situations and how they are resolved
what was the main way of the manchester school
using case law
what are key terms associated with the manchester school
Multiplex relationships
Situational analysis
Situational selection
Greater attention to colonial situations
what is Multiplex relationships
social relationships extend over multiple contexts (v. “single interest” relationships)
aka interest in not just people in the mountains vs people in the low lands (single interest)
they lok at the complexity of people in a wide range and how they connect
wha is Situational analysis
aka “events-centred analysis”: “in similar situations similar processes operate, but each has its variants.” Attention to actual events with attention to social actors
basically, who spoke on behalf of the defendants? who judged? looked at each player int he resolution
had to understand how the actors were mitigating and involved and what they did in the resolution
there was a situational selection involved in how people navigated dispute settlement
what is situational selection
actor chooses from a range of beliefs and/or practices—adjusting for context, self-interest. Can lead to contradictions, inconsistencies.
what is Greater attention to colonial situations
influence of foreign rule (including anti-colonial activism).
depended on colonial context to gain access to the feild before,
this school paid atttention to the colonial presence and how it directly related to the problems, they didnt try to excus their actions or anything, they were objective and reported on how coonialism impacted what the jjudges could and could not do
he is concerned in including the colonial influence on the legal process and how it impacts/hinders/benefits them
what are the Key concepts in the Gluckman/Bohannan debate
commensurability/incommensurability
epic/emic
comparison/”folk systems”
In both: case study approach
what did Gluckman believe
glukman— there is a findamental sense inwhoch the key concepts and categories of dispute settlement processes in the chief ship he was looking at in SA correspond in how we understand legal processes— he describes them as legal processes (basically put things in our terms so we could undertand exactly)
(commensurability)
what did Bohannon believe
bohannah— he learned the language and this means that the concepts that he was using was incommensurable for us to understand with legal process (kept things in their words)
what is emic
emic— involves understanding the process, the ethnographic details, according to the concepts that are used by the people living through it/being talked to (Bohannan did his work in this approach)
what is etic
(bohannon) relating to or denoting an approach to the study or description of a particular language or culture that is general, nonstructural, and objective in its perspective
who took a comparison approah
gluckman
who too a “folk system” approach
bohanneon
what did Gluckman say on commensurability
“If we specialize our terms, we clarify our problems” (202).
aka if we look at local concepts we could directly translate them into out terms
Eg:
“forensic institutions” rather than police. “champions-at-law” rather than lawyers.
“adjudication” rather than “law.”
what is adjudication
is, “the process by which, in African tribes with courts, judges take and assess the evidence, examine what they regard as the facts, and come to a decision in favour of one party rather than another” (183
what is an example of the situational analysis that gluckman did
Situational Analysis: Eg. opening ceremonies of a bridge in Zululand
Actions historically derived from European and Zulu cultures must be related to a system at least part of which consists of Zulu-European relations. Those relations can be studied as social norms, as is shown by the way in which Blacks and Whites, without constraint, adapt their behaviour to one another (11).
I have referred to the relations between Government officials, missionaries, traders, employers, technical experts, on the one hand, and Zulu on the other, and here indicate some of the problems that arise in considering the relationship between these Europeans (26).
is bohannan interested in a comparison
absolutely not, just wants to look at things an evaluate the as they are
what example did Bohannon give where there was a fundamental difference between western legal concepts and institutions and fold systems
Fundamental difference between Western legal concepts and
institutions and folk systems:
“There was an instance some time in the 1940’s when a man, who thought himself wrongly judged by the appeal court (Grade C) of Jecira lineage in Vande Ikya, rushed into the court circle and drank off a large calabash of sasswood, which he had prepared himself. He immediately vomited it, thereby proving his innocence to himself and his kinsmen and neighbours. The Assistant District Officer present sentenced him to six months for attempted suicide” (47)
