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Social Complexity in the Making: A Case Study among the Arapesh of New Guinea
A highly accessible ethnography which explains the history and evolution of Ilahita, an Arapesh-speaking village in New Guinea.
- GenresNonfictionAnthropology
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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January 27, 2022
A classic study on how war potentially affects institutional development in a New Guinean society.
By creating a new kind of institution based on a dual organization the Ilahita Arapesh were able to scale up a human community from the normal maximum of 300 people to even over 2000. This made the community able to efficiently fight the aggression from the East. Integration of refugees was also efficient.
The book discusses the institution quite in detail. Sometimes not easy to grasp except by rereading parts of the book.
Book describes also how the need for such a big integrated community was no more rational after the wars were forbidden by the colonial government and how the motivation for the existence of the institution was pretty much lost. Of course, there were strong forces who wanted to conserve the institution also after the end of wars but in the end, the institution was dramatically killed.
The study is quite important today. Historian Peter Turzin and anthropologist Joe Henrich both base a big part of their argument on Tuzin's thinking - Peter Turchin in his book "War and Peace and War" and Joe Henrich in his newest book "The WEIRDest People in the World".
By creating a new kind of institution based on a dual organization the Ilahita Arapesh were able to scale up a human community from the normal maximum of 300 people to even over 2000. This made the community able to efficiently fight the aggression from the East. Integration of refugees was also efficient.
The book discusses the institution quite in detail. Sometimes not easy to grasp except by rereading parts of the book.
Book describes also how the need for such a big integrated community was no more rational after the wars were forbidden by the colonial government and how the motivation for the existence of the institution was pretty much lost. Of course, there were strong forces who wanted to conserve the institution also after the end of wars but in the end, the institution was dramatically killed.
The study is quite important today. Historian Peter Turzin and anthropologist Joe Henrich both base a big part of their argument on Tuzin's thinking - Peter Turchin in his book "War and Peace and War" and Joe Henrich in his newest book "The WEIRDest People in the World".
Displaying 1 of 1 review