Globalization promised to bring about a golden age of liberal
individualism, breaking down hierarchies of kinship, caste, and gender
around the world and freeing people to express their true, authentic
agency. But in some places globalization has spurred the emergence of
new forms of hierarchy--or the reemergence of old forms--as people try
to reconstitute an imagined past of stable moral order. This is evident
from the Islamic revival in the Middle East to visions of the 1950s
family among conservatives in the United States. Why does this happen
and how do we make sense of this phenomenon? Why do some communities see
hierarchy as desireable? In this book, leading anthropologists draw on
insightful ethnographic case studies from around the world to address
these trends. Together, they develop a theory of hierarchy that treats
it both as a relational form and a framework for organizing ideas about
the social good.