Friday, July 25, 2003
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Thursday, July 17, 2003
KATE: The XVth International Congress of the Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences was held in Florence, Italy, July 5-12, 2003. The SARS epidemic and the war in Iraq made the Organizing Committee pause in their planning, but the Congress ultimately went ahead. Approximately 400 attended, including scholars from China, India, South Africa, Norway, Italy, the US, and Mexico. The theme of the Congress was Humankind/Nature Interaction: Past, Present, and Future. The session in which I participated was titled “Anthropology and Its Applications”. Skillfully chaired by Frik de Beer of the University of South Africa, this session's participants were mostly South African, many of them development anthropologists.
A subtheme which emerged from the session was a concern with the erosion of the rule of law in Zimbabwe (several papers were on land claims and land tenure in southern Africa). One paper laid out the history of land claims, pre-colonial, colonial, and post-independence, in Zimbabwe. It was acknowledged that injustice was done to the native peoples by the British system of land tenure. The courts in Zimbabwe have held for the rights of white farmers and against the taking of farms by non-whites, but the Government has not enforced those decisions, leading a UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers to say that Zimbabwe’s rule of law is “in tatters”.
See also the report by the International Bar Association here.
The conception of the rule of law here appears to treat it equally as a system of restraints on the citizenry or society, and as a system of restraints on government, since there was concern at the session that the failure of Mugabe’s government to enforce the courts’ decisions against the taking of land from the white farmers leads ultimately to disorder and lawlessness. A sub-subtheme of the session was concern that such an erosion of the rule of law would spread across the border into South Africa.
A subtheme which emerged from the session was a concern with the erosion of the rule of law in Zimbabwe (several papers were on land claims and land tenure in southern Africa). One paper laid out the history of land claims, pre-colonial, colonial, and post-independence, in Zimbabwe. It was acknowledged that injustice was done to the native peoples by the British system of land tenure. The courts in Zimbabwe have held for the rights of white farmers and against the taking of farms by non-whites, but the Government has not enforced those decisions, leading a UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers to say that Zimbabwe’s rule of law is “in tatters”.
See also the report by the International Bar Association here.
The conception of the rule of law here appears to treat it equally as a system of restraints on the citizenry or society, and as a system of restraints on government, since there was concern at the session that the failure of Mugabe’s government to enforce the courts’ decisions against the taking of land from the white farmers leads ultimately to disorder and lawlessness. A sub-subtheme of the session was concern that such an erosion of the rule of law would spread across the border into South Africa.
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
TOM: ENCOMIUM AND ELEGY FOR LEWIS COSER: I learn from the judicious Josh Cherniss that the great sociologist Lewis Coser died on July 8th at the age of 89. The Times has a pretty meager obituary, and the Boston Globe's notice, while longer, is more life than ideas.
The ideas, it must be said, were important. Coser's 1956 treatise, The Functions of Social Conflict, proposed a daring synthesis of the functionalist and conflict-theory approaches to the problem of order ("How is social order possible?") and its corollary questions, "How much social order is there?" and "How much social order is possible?" As Coser says in its Conclusion, the book set out to examine "a series of propositions which call attention to various conditions under which social conflict may contribute to the maintenance, adjustment or adaptation of social relationships and social structures." Though social structure may seem antediluvian under the condition of postmodernity, it was the hottest of hot topics in the 1950s, when a general science of society appeared achievable--and especially so if Talcott Parsons or his student Robert K. Merton (Coser's teacher) were to be given theoretical hegemony. Against Parsons, who considered all conflict pestilential, Coser in Functions held that some types of conflict have the function of contributing to order in the longer term.
Coser's 1965 book Men of Ideas: A Sociologist's View is his most well-known volume, and his Masters Of Sociological Thought; Ideas In Historical And Social Context is justly famed as an unprimerlike primer in the history of sociological innovation, but he also wrote important studies of Books: The Culture And Commerce Of Publishing and Refugee scholars in America : their impact and their experiences. Coser served as the 66th President of the American Sociological Association. Here's a link--via the ASA--to Coser's August 1975 Inaugural Address to the Association, in which he inveighs against "[t]raining the new generation of sociologists not to bother with problems about which data are hard to come by, and to concentrate on areas in which data can be easily gathered," because such training "will result, in the worst of cases, in the piling up of useless information and, in the best of cases, in a kind of tunnel vision in which some problems are explored exhaustively while others are not even perceived."
Amen to that in these days when many social scientists think the best work is done by sitting in front of computers and mining data. Farewell, Lewis.
The ideas, it must be said, were important. Coser's 1956 treatise, The Functions of Social Conflict, proposed a daring synthesis of the functionalist and conflict-theory approaches to the problem of order ("How is social order possible?") and its corollary questions, "How much social order is there?" and "How much social order is possible?" As Coser says in its Conclusion, the book set out to examine "a series of propositions which call attention to various conditions under which social conflict may contribute to the maintenance, adjustment or adaptation of social relationships and social structures." Though social structure may seem antediluvian under the condition of postmodernity, it was the hottest of hot topics in the 1950s, when a general science of society appeared achievable--and especially so if Talcott Parsons or his student Robert K. Merton (Coser's teacher) were to be given theoretical hegemony. Against Parsons, who considered all conflict pestilential, Coser in Functions held that some types of conflict have the function of contributing to order in the longer term.
Coser's 1965 book Men of Ideas: A Sociologist's View is his most well-known volume, and his Masters Of Sociological Thought; Ideas In Historical And Social Context is justly famed as an unprimerlike primer in the history of sociological innovation, but he also wrote important studies of Books: The Culture And Commerce Of Publishing and Refugee scholars in America : their impact and their experiences. Coser served as the 66th President of the American Sociological Association. Here's a link--via the ASA--to Coser's August 1975 Inaugural Address to the Association, in which he inveighs against "[t]raining the new generation of sociologists not to bother with problems about which data are hard to come by, and to concentrate on areas in which data can be easily gathered," because such training "will result, in the worst of cases, in the piling up of useless information and, in the best of cases, in a kind of tunnel vision in which some problems are explored exhaustively while others are not even perceived."
Amen to that in these days when many social scientists think the best work is done by sitting in front of computers and mining data. Farewell, Lewis.
TOM: AN AFRICAN VIEW OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH'S GAY MINISTRY QUESTION: There's been quite a lot of comment in the Western newsmedia about African Anglicans' opposition to gays' entering the episcopacy. Most of this comment has amounted to little more than bald assertion. As a corrective to this sort of commentary, Kenya's leading newspaper has an editorial explaining the African view of the matter.
The editorial takes an interesting view of the public/private distinction that I think many of us in the West would reject: "Sex between man and man or between woman and woman is repugnant to most Africans of every class. And, though they tolerate it in private, they will not tolerate it in public - among such leaders as Cabinet ministers and church prelates. " We may infer from this passage, I think, that the editorialist believes that whatever public figures may do is a matter of public concern--that is to say, once a person has entered the public arena on a more or less permanent basis, the corridor to privacy is slammed shut until the person vacates his or her position in the public eye. It's true that the West's paparazzi culture has had the effect of bringing us very near to such a state of affairs, but as a moral matter, I wonder how many Westerners would endorse such a belief.
CLARIFICATION: I say "African view of the matter" because the editorialist purports to speak for "most Africans." Witness: "Sex between man and man or between woman and woman is repugnant to most Africans of every class."
The editorial takes an interesting view of the public/private distinction that I think many of us in the West would reject: "Sex between man and man or between woman and woman is repugnant to most Africans of every class. And, though they tolerate it in private, they will not tolerate it in public - among such leaders as Cabinet ministers and church prelates. " We may infer from this passage, I think, that the editorialist believes that whatever public figures may do is a matter of public concern--that is to say, once a person has entered the public arena on a more or less permanent basis, the corridor to privacy is slammed shut until the person vacates his or her position in the public eye. It's true that the West's paparazzi culture has had the effect of bringing us very near to such a state of affairs, but as a moral matter, I wonder how many Westerners would endorse such a belief.
CLARIFICATION: I say "African view of the matter" because the editorialist purports to speak for "most Africans." Witness: "Sex between man and man or between woman and woman is repugnant to most Africans of every class."
Saturday, July 12, 2003
TOM: VERMONT ENDS FISCAL YEAR IN THE BLACK: I'm very proud of my state--we have one of the best and most comprehensive social services systems in the nation, and we still managed to end the fiscal year with a $10 million surplus when many other states are awash in red ink. Credit has to go to legislators from all parties, to former Governor Howard Dean, and to current governor Jim Douglas. The Rutland Herald reports.
Now if only we could placate those people who complain about Vermont's anti-business climate...
Now if only we could placate those people who complain about Vermont's anti-business climate...
TOM: LULA ON EQUALITY IN BRAZIL: Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil and whilom bete noire of some South American rightists, has published an examination of Brazilian inequality in today's Guardian. Quite informative, although "a laboratory for disastrous economic recipes that damaged its productive capacity, dismantled the fabric of society" is a phrase rather laden with mixed metaphors.
Friday, July 11, 2003
TOM: NEWS FROM THE SUBCONTINENT: Frontline magazine reports that Hindu and Muslim negotiators appear to be making minor progress toward a compromise over the disputed sacred ground at Ayodyha. It also reports that a former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (the state in which Ayodhya is located) has said that he could give a startling statement to the court hearing the case that grew out of a Hindu fundamentalist mob's demolition of the mosque that formerly stood on the sacred ground at Ayodhya: that the mosque was demolished at the behest of India Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, and other hierarchs of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in collusion with leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (an organization disturbingly similar in composition, tactics, and structure to the European fascist youth groups of the 1920s and 1930s) and of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (an umbrella organization for Hindu groups).
Thursday, July 10, 2003
TOM: BALKIN ON THE AUTHORITY OF FOREIGN COURTS AND CUSTOMARY INTERNATIONAL LAW: Jack Balkin had important posts on Monday and Wednesday on the authoritative status for American jurisprudence of (1) the decisions of foreign courts and (2) customary international law.
What did Lincoln say? "I am not a Know-Nothing"?
What did Lincoln say? "I am not a Know-Nothing"?
TOM: LAWRENCE V. TEXAS: FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO PRIVACY OR FAILURE TO CLEAR LEGITIMACY HURDLE? Libertarian law professor Randy Barnett of Boston University has an important guest commentary in today's National Review Online arguing that Justice Kennedy's majority opinion in Lawrence did not strike down the Texas anti-sodomy statute as an impermissible infringement of a fundamental right to privacy, but rather as an illegitimate restriction on the liberty protected by the 14th Amendment Due Process Clause.
Barnett claims that the majority's opinion in Lawrence represents a revolutionary jettisoning of fundamental rights jurisprudence. We shall see.
Barnett claims that the majority's opinion in Lawrence represents a revolutionary jettisoning of fundamental rights jurisprudence. We shall see.
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
TOM: THEOLOGIE DU JOUR: Rowan Williams--Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, formidable controversialist, and himself no mean theologian--has a piece in the 2 July Times Literary Supplement reviewing the eminent theological thinker Stanley Hauerwas's recently pubished Gifford Lectures (and another book as well).
"Joie de guerre" is good.
UPDATE: Sorry, the TLS took Williams's review off their website. In recompense, here's a link to an essay by John Lanchester on why the Left ought to like or at least tolerate Tony Blair, in the leftish alternative to the TLS, the London Review of Books.
Lanchester states that "[p]ower is authority." Well, strictly speaking, no it isn't. Power, the capacity to act or to accomplish something, is not equatable to authority, the ability to cause others to do something without relying on either persuasion or force. Authority may properly be considered a type of power, but the two are not coordinate concepts. Excellent on this distinction are Hannah Arendt's essay "What Is Authority?", Richard E. Flathman's book The Practice of Political Authority, Bruce Lincoln's little book (partly a critique of Flathman) Authority: Construction and Corrosion, and Robert Nisbet's crepuscular keening for the world we have lost, The Twilight of Authority.
"Joie de guerre" is good.
UPDATE: Sorry, the TLS took Williams's review off their website. In recompense, here's a link to an essay by John Lanchester on why the Left ought to like or at least tolerate Tony Blair, in the leftish alternative to the TLS, the London Review of Books.
Lanchester states that "[p]ower is authority." Well, strictly speaking, no it isn't. Power, the capacity to act or to accomplish something, is not equatable to authority, the ability to cause others to do something without relying on either persuasion or force. Authority may properly be considered a type of power, but the two are not coordinate concepts. Excellent on this distinction are Hannah Arendt's essay "What Is Authority?", Richard E. Flathman's book The Practice of Political Authority, Bruce Lincoln's little book (partly a critique of Flathman) Authority: Construction and Corrosion, and Robert Nisbet's crepuscular keening for the world we have lost, The Twilight of Authority.
