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Dorothy H. Bracey

Evocative and stimulating, engaging and timely, this small volume makes sense of the complicated and reciprocal relationship between law and culture. It starts with various definitions of law and the factors that anthropologists consider when they compare legal systems. Next, the experiences of exemplary researchers throughout history and some of the methods they used in their discoveries are discussed. Readers learn how to employ the comparative method and build a typology based on the source of a particular law by putting the world’s legal system into one of three categories: Western law, religious law, and traditional law. The book also tackles important issues such as formal law versus informal law, using law to legitimize power, and clashing values within a single legal system. Examples from fieldwork experiences and historical events offer readers a chance to see how a method has been applied or a concept developed—as well as how law and culture are intertwined in the real world.
 

$13.50 list, 121 pages

10-digit ISBN: 1-57766-411-6

13-digit ISBN: 978-1-57766-411-6

© 2006

“I found this book extremely comprehensive in scope yet attuned to important minor cultural differences in the understanding and practice of law at the same time. Dorothy Bracey is to be congratulated.”  — David Howes, Concordia University

“Very clearly written, well-organized, and easy to follow.”  — Shahla Haeri, Boston University

Table of Contents

1. Law’s Cultural Context

Culture / Theories of Law / Law and Other Norms / This Book / Doing Comparative Studies

2. History and Method

Early Anthropology and Law / The Introduction of Fieldwork / Law as Process / Pigeons and Parakeets / Law and Power / The Question of Method / The Case Method and Its Discontents / Anthropology and Advocacy / Beyond the Bounds of Village and Court / The Words of Justice / Not Only Anthropologists / Combining Methods

3. Typology

A Simple Typology / Multiple Systems of Law / Legal Pluralism / Legal Pluralism as the Norm

4. Western Law

History / Sources of Civil Law / Sources of Common Law / Differences within Western Law / Similarities within Western Law / Dissatisfaction with Western Law

5. Religious Law

Jewish Law / Islamic Law / Functions of Religious Law / Religious Law and Change

6. Traditional or Customary Law

Societies Where Customary Law Is Found / Characteristics of Customary Law / Underlying Assumptions and Values / Customary Law Today

7. The U.S. Legal System

8. Law as a Tool of Acculturation and Domination

The Encomienda / The Law against the Potlatch / Suttee

9. Cultural Pluralism and the Cultural Defense

Cultural Pluralism / The Cultural Defense

Epilogue