Description
Book SynopsisHistorical Transformations represents the work of two distinguished anthropologists over three decades on the history and importance of global thinking in the social sciences. The authors consider numerous examples for which local phenomena can only be understood within the contexts of global systems. Their multidisciplinary work touches on many aspects of social and individual life as well as long-term historical processes.
Trade ReviewIn these essays, the authors critique materialist, evolutionary, elitist, and development theoretical approaches in archaeology and anthropology. It is most relevant for professional readers interested in the history of systems theory and Marxist discussions of capital and social reproduction. * CHOICE, August 2009 *
Historical Transformations includes appraisals of Marxist, cultural materialist, and neo-evolutionary approaches to understanding modern and postmodern realms. It offers especially trenchant criticisms of most globalization theories, suggesting that they are largely biased ruminations of global elites. Yet out of the ruins of such questionable theory, Ekholm Friedman and Friedman formulate their own global systems theory. Drawing on only a few concepts—of which logic, social reproduction, and transformational analysis are most prominent—they craft an understanding of the world in which Bronze Age empires, Oceanic Big Man politics, Congolese kinship and witchcraft culture, and the postmodern West are explained by transformational analysis. In the end, the authors suggest that the postmodern world in which we live is one at the 'end of empire' when history has taken on a 'Kafkaesque quality.' -- Stephen Reyna, University of Manchester
Table of ContentsPart 1 PART I: Social Reproduction, Social Transformation, and Global Process Chapter 2 Marxist Theory and Systems of Total Reproduction Chapter 3 Crises in Theory and Transformations of the World Economy Part 4 Global Process and Long Term Change Chapter 5 The Study of Risks in Social Systems: An Anthropological Perspective Chapter 6 Notes towards an Epigenetic Model of the Evolution of "Civilization" Chapter 7 Structural Perspectives on the Bronze Age: Economic, Political and Social Integration Chapter 8 "Capital" Imperialism and Exploitation in Ancient World Systems Chapter 9 Transnationalization, Socio-political Disorder, and Ethnification as Expressions of Declining Global Hegemony Part 10 Structure and History: Transformational Models Chapter 11 External Exchange and the Transformation of Central African Social Systems Chapter 12 "Sad Stories of the Death of Kings:" The Involution of Divine Kingship Chapter 13 Notes on Structure and History in Oceania Chapter 14 Morphogenesis and Global Process in Polynesia
