What tribal societies can tell us about justice and liberty

[slapout9]

Interesting stuff hear.......anybody ever looked at Thorstein Veblen? and his Anthropology based Economic Theory?

[marct]

Hey Slap,

Interesting stuff hear.......anybody ever looked at Thorstein Veblen? and his Anthropology based Economic Theory?

Theory of the Leisure class stuff? Yup. Actually, economics and Anthropology have a lot of crosses over the past 100 or so years (and I had to read too much of it! ).

[M-A Lagrange]

Hello the Mikes, Slap, Marc and all others

I do believe that leisure and the search for the easiest and less costly (Time, energy, money, danger…) solution is THE KEY for any human activities.
This is the base of development of “stuff” as internet: the best and easiest and smoothest way to discuss with people on the other side of the world.

Joke apart, the leisure theory as such is too “raw” and not enough explicative to look at people’s choices. This being said; this is, from my personal point of view, the best way to look at “traditional societies”.

To come back to traditional societies and justice, I would recommend giving a look on the British Army stabilization handbook (post by Wilf few months ago in SWJ). Their analyses of traditional societies judicial system participation to Sierra Leone civil war is extremely interesting. It is one of the rare document from DFID or USAID or Eu I read pointing out the bad points of the “traditional societies myth” in stabilization operations.

[slapout9]

Hi MA, to this day I don't think anybody has figured out what to call Veblen, he is neither a pure economists or anthropologist, he was one of the first people to look at an economy as a society as opposed to a simple economic production unit, much to his credit IMO.

[jmm99]

As to this:

from MA Lagrange
To come back to traditional societies and justice, I would recommend giving a look on the British Army stabilization handbook (post by Wilf few months ago in SWJ). Their analyses of traditional societies judicial system participation to Sierra Leone civil war is extremely interesting. It is one of the rare document from DFID or USAID or Eu I read pointing out the bad points of the “traditional societies myth” in stabilization operations.

a couple of questions: (1) a link or at least a title for what Wilf posted (he posts a lot ); and (2) what do you mean by the “traditional societies myth” ?

Finally, how do you as a field practitioner (as opposed to being a member of the Parisian academy ) separate the true from the false, the accurate from the inaccurate, etc., generated by indigenous narrators and informants; thereby avoiding the "Diamond Trap".

Regards (colonialment)

Mike

[MikeF]

As to this:

Finally, how do you as a field practitioner (as opposed to being a member of the Parisian academy ) separate the true from the false, the accurate from the inaccurate, etc., generated by indigenous narrators and informants; thereby avoiding the "Diamond Trap".

Regards (colonialment)

Mike

Hi Mike. First a dumb question. Is a barsroom a bar? Lol. I've started the conversation on one component of breaking down the facts and truth in this thread on aerial reconnaissance. Additionally, I remembered something that my dad taught me.

Military doctrine defines an aerial reconnaissance as denoting a preliminary survey conducted to gain or collect information. This technique is not solely owned by the military, and I learned of its advantage early on in my youth. My father is a commercial developer. We moved towards new areas of prospective growth. In 1985, during first grade, we moved from Charlotte to Cary in his pursuit of the American Dream. He would rent helicopters to survey potential properties prior to purchase. In his office, I would stare at the overhead images taken during the flight and ask him why he took them.

“Michael, you have to be able to see the land and visualize its use. If I’m going to build a medical park there, then I need to gain a snapshot of its proximity to the city, to the schools, and to the neighborhoods. Additionally, I must try to imagine where the future growth will go. If I don’t look at it from every possible angle, then I could build in the wrong place.”

One key difference to remember with the practisioners is the motive- military, entrepeneur, and anthropologist. One is trying to execute and enforce policy, one strives towards profit, and the final is supposed to observed and analyze.

[jmm99]

As to Barsoom (ain't no second "r" in it), I can be half-assed intelligent about it, having spent the weekend reading a book on myths in American pulp fiction and films - where Barsoom gets a few pages.

Since you attended and excelled at That Place on the Hudson, you probably were more acquainted with Edgar Rice Burroughs' other creation, Tarzan - and when you escaped from the jungle, with whatever bar was nearest the gate.

Given Lagrange's attraction to exotic places, Barsoom may have an entirely different meaning than the one I am positing.

My last question was how does the field practitioner (whatever is being practiced) keep from being conned, flamboozled, etc., when a transient in Barsoom.

Regards

Mike

[marct]

Hi Mike (et alii),

a couple of questions: (1) a link or at least a title for what Wilf posted (he posts a lot ); and (2) what do you mean by the “traditional societies myth” ?

On 1, I smurfed a bit and couldn't find it either.

I'm not sure what, exactly, MA means by the "traditional societies myth" but, if I had to guess, I would assume that it refer to the "invention" of primitive society that Adam Kuper talks about. There are certainly variants of it that myth that have been popularized extensively in the West, especially of the Shamanic and Eco"friendly" varieties.

Cheers,

Marc