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Big Men and Great Men

Personifications of Power in Melanesia

Maurice Godelier editor Marilyn Strathern editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:11th Dec '08

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Big Men and Great Men cover

The societies of Melanesia have been a constant stimulus to anthropological theory. In this collection of essays, anthropologists who have worked in all parts of the Melanesian region of the Pacific bring their expertise to bear on a single theoretical issue. This is a hypothesis formulated by Maurice Godelier concerning the relationship between power, kinship and wealth. Although tightly focused on Godelier's work, the book opens up a major enquiry into the constitution of society in a part of the world where men of prominence come to personify the nature of power. 'Big men', entrepreneurs of exchanges, and 'great men', who flourish in societies characterised by restricted exchanges and ritual complexity, appear to belong to quite different systems. This book considers how substantial the difference between them really is.

ISBN: 9780521102292

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 20mm

Weight: 510g

348 pages