The Rule of Law Versus the Order of Custom

Diamond, Stanley; Wolf, Eric R.

doi:10.4324/9781315110233-8

Cited by 17 publications

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“…Igbo culture is highly dynamic and capable of changing, rather than static or a-historic as anthropologists of the past have suggested. An Oguta law scholar, Leslye Obiora corroborates this view and describes Igbo custom as dynamic and quite capable of adjusting to changing times and circumstances (Obiora 1993; see also Diamond 1974c).…”

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confidence: 68%

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Commentary: reflections on 40 years of Dialectical Anthropology, a personal journey

Jell‐Bahlsen¹

2016

Dialect Anthropol

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confidence: 68%

“…All Igbo subgroups had their own pre-colonial form of democracy, a rule of the people for the people. Igbo society was integrated by custom, omenala, described by Stanley Diamond as ''The Rule of Law versus the Order of Custom'' (Diamond 1974c).…”

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confidence: 99%

Commentary: reflections on 40 years of Dialectical Anthropology, a personal journey

Jell‐Bahlsen¹

2016

Dialect Anthropol

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“…I began by presenting structural/functional models of law in society (Hart 1961;Mayhew 1968;Hoebel 1964;Parsons 1964) as well as critiques of them (Mayhew 1971;Dahrendorf 1964;Fallers 1969). We then looked at norms from the perspective of multiple levels (Bohannan 1967b;Dicey 1905;Rheinstein 1972;Weber 1954;Dahrendorf 1968a) and conflict theories (Dahrendorf 1968b;Gusfield 1966;Diamond 1971) before examining a wide variety of case studies of norm definition and change (Pospisil 1958(Pospisil , 1960(Pospisil , 1969Leach 1959;Tanner 1970;Kaplan 1965;Schapera 1969). Next we turned to law as a means of social control (Etzioni 1968;Schwartz 1954;Rothman & Shapiro 1972) and of handling disputes (Abel 1974;Nader & Metzger 1963;Starr & Pool 1974;Nicholson 1973;Collier 1976;Galanter 1972;Tiruchelvam 1973).…”

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confidence: 99%

Law and Tradition

Abel

2021

REI

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The four of us came to Yale and the Law and Modernization Program by different routes. I’m going to describe my background because it explains how Dave and I complemented each other. Influenced by Russia’s launch of Sputnik in fall of my senior year in high school and the fact that I was good at math and science, I majored in physics at Harvard. By the end of my second year, however, I realized I didn’t want to be a scientist: I wasn’t good enough, and it would be years before I could do original work. In spring 1960 I took David Riesman’s SocSci 136 course: “American Character and Social Structure.” It was transformative. The course addressed some of my most pressing personal concerns; for instance, we read Riesman’s “The Lonely Crowd” and Paul Goodman’s “Growing Up Absurd” (1960)— critiques of 1950s culture and pressures for conformity. Allowed to write on almost any topic for our term paper (the only requirement), I chose “Attitudes towards science and extra-scientific phenomena: an empirical study among Harvard students.” (Looking back, I think I was seeking justifications for abandoning physics.) Riesman was a fellow of Quincy House, where I lived, and often had lunch with students, encouraging us to voice dissatisfactions with our Harvard education. My section man sent me a long, laudatory letter about the paper. (He was William Gamson, then writing about social movements in opposition to fluoridation, prefiguring today’s anti-vaxers.) Even more important, Riesman wrote every student (perhaps a hundred of us) about our papers. His 3.5-page letter to me concluded: “One of the things which is most desirable about your paper is the topic itself, chosen and pursued with great originality.” I was hooked.[1] I have always tried to emulate his eclectic, qualitative approach. (A lawyer with no formal training in sociology, he was Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences in the Social Relations Department.) The next year I took Paul Freund’s undergraduate course on legal reasoning and felt immediately drawn to law’s pilpul (despite having no background in Talmudic exegesis). I wrote a term paper for him on group libel—only to discover that Riesman had written a long article on the subject (1942)—which, Freund said disparagingly, was the last good thing he ever wrote. In my fourth year I took Talcott Parsons’s first-year graduate course (presumptuously, since I had disdained undergraduate soc rel courses) and was not enamored his formalistic theorizing, which seemed devoid of content. At the same time, I was becoming politically engaged, inspired by the sit-ins and freedom rides (which began in 1960 and 1961, respectively). Although 1950s apathy still pervaded Harvard (the only “demonstration” was a May 1961 protest against changing diplomas from Latin to English), I became active in Tocsin, which opposed above-ground nuclear testing and advocated for nuclear disarmament (doing research and participating in demonstrations in Boston and Washington). What may have clinched my choice of law over sociology graduate school, however, was Columbia’s offer of a full-tuition scholarship (although it was little more than a thousand dollars at the time) and my failure to get a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. Riesman had urged me to go to Yale Law School for its alleged social science orientation; but I chose Columbia to be close to my girlfriend. (Yes, reader, I married her[2]—and we’re still happily together 58 years later.)

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Mediating neighborhood conflict: Conceptual and strategic considerations

Mika

1987

Negot J

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The Rule of Law Versus the Order of Custom

Cited by 17 publications

References 0 publications

Commentary: reflections on 40 years of Dialectical Anthropology, a personal journey

Commentary: reflections on 40 years of Dialectical Anthropology, a personal journey

Law and Tradition

Mediating neighborhood conflict: Conceptual and strategic considerations

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