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Totalization and detotalization

Alternatives to hierarchy and individualism

University of Bergen, Norway, knut.rio{at}uib.no

Olaf H. Smedal

University of Bergen, Norway

This article marks an effort to extend Louis Dumont's concept pair of hierarchy and individualism towards a more realistic understanding of social formations. Dumont's work is reviewed along with his critics, and through a survey of contemporary ethnography a move towards a concept of totalization is suggested. It is argued that a view of totalization and detotalization provides a vocabulary for a re-establishment of the social for the discipline of anthropology.

Key Words: hierarchy • individualism • the social • totalization

Anthropological Theory, Vol. 8, No. 3, 233-254 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1463499608093813


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