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Homo Hierarchicus
Louis Dumont's modern classic, here presented in an enlarged, revised, and corrected second edition, simultaneously supplies that reader with the most cogent statement on the Indian caste system and its organizing principles and a provocative advance in the comparison of societies on the basis of their underlying ideologies. Dumont moves gracefully from the ethnographic data to the level of the hierarchical ideology encrusted in ancient religious texts which are revealed as the governing conception of the contemporary caste structure. On yet another plane of analysis, homo hierarchicus is contrasted with his modern Western antithesis, homo aequalis. This edition includes a lengthy new Preface in which Dumont reviews the academic discussion inspired by Homo Hierarchicus and answers his critics. A new Postface, which sketches the theoretical and comparative aspects of the concept of hierarchy, and three significant Appendixes previously omitted from the English translation complete this innovative and influential work.
Essays on Individualism
Louis Dumont's Essays on Individualism is an ambitious attempt to place the modern ideology of individualism in a broad anthropological perspective. The result of twenty years of scholarship and inquiry, the interrelated essays gathered here not only trace the genesis and growth of individualism as the dominant force in Western philosophy, but also analyze the differences between this modern system of thought and those of other, nonmodern cultures. The collection represents an important contribution to Western society's understanding of itself and its place in the world.
Categories of Self
Drawing on anthropological, socio-psychological, religious, and philosophical material, this book engages in a discussion of what it means to be an ‘individual’ in relation to notions of selfhood, personality, and social role. This theme is explored with reference to the investigations of Louis Dumont into Hindu and other Indian ideologies, and with regard to the dominant threads of Western individualism. Clarifying and at times building upon his analyses, the author follows Dumont in a consideration of Indian ideology (Hindu non-individualism, the ‘dividual’, social personhood); French ideology (sociopolitical individualism); German ideology (subjective individualism); and Western i...
Louis Dumont and Hierarchical Opposition
The work of Louis Dumont, who died in 1998, on India and modern individualism represented certain theoretical advances on the earlier structuralism of Claude Lévi-Strauss. One such advance is Dumont's idea of hierarchical opposition, which he proposed as a truer representation of indigenous ideologies than Lévi-Strauss's binary opposition. In this book the author argues that, although structuralism is often thought to have gone out of fashion, Dumont's greater concern with praxis and agency makes his own version of structuralism more contemporary. The work of his followers and fellow travelers, as well as his own, indicates that hierarchical opposition is capable of taking structuralism in new and more realistic directions, reminding us that it has never been the preserve of Lévi-Strauss alone.
An Introduction to Two Theories of Social Anthropology
Louis Dumont, who died in 1998, was one of the most important figures in post-war French anthropology. He is well-known for his early work on India, which culminated in Homo Hierarchicus (1966; in English 1972, 1980), an anthropological account of the caste system. He later extended this work into a comparison of the values of Indian and western society in works like Essays on Individualism (1986) and German ideology: From France to Germany and Back (1994). He is also known for pioneering work on kinship in south India and more generally (for example Affinity as a Value, 1983). The current volume represents the fruits of this side of his activities and originated in as a series of lectures providing an account of the British and French schools for students.
Scholars and Prophets
The book deals with the long and rich scholarship on India in France since the beginning of 19th Century, with particular reference to the work of Louis Dumont. It considers the works of scholars and the essayists, poets, or esotericists who published on India and shows that Dumont has been influenced by both groups. The book draws on archives and empirical material.
Caste, Hierarchy, and Individualism
This volume in the Oxford in India Readings in Sociology and Social Anthropology series is a well-rounded and rigourous analysis of the study of caste and hierarchy in India. The essays herein are a contextualized sociological appraisal of the work of Louis Dumont. They constitute Indian responses to Dumont's path breaking work Homo Hierarchicus, and discuss the logic, application and problems associated with his influential structural and comparative method in sociology. The essays in Section I provide the reader with accessible summaries and overviews of Dumont's work. Section II is a critical appraisal of aspects of his works, while Section III reflects the general shift in Indian sociolo...
Affinity as a Value
Includes analysis of Keriera kinship vocabulary, emphasising its variance from Dravidian kinship systems and analysis of Australian section systems (Kariera, Aranda and Murngin)
Dumont on Religion
Louis Dumont was a prominent anthropologist and sociologist whose work - notably on Indian society - influenced the study of religion. 'Dumont on Religion' introduces Dumont's work on kinship studies, structural theory, and his views on idealism. Subjects of particular interest to students of religion are highlighted, including Dumont's concepts of the sacred and profane, pure and impure, transcendence, values and hierarchy. The book also presents the ethical implications of Dumont's ideas and his comparison between the world views of modern and traditional societies.
