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Multiple hierarchies and the duplex nature of groups
Author(s) -
Schryer Frans J.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of the royal anthropological institute
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1467-9655
pISSN - 1359-0987
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9655.00085
Subject(s) - control reconfiguration , embodied cognition , social group , range (aeronautics) , politics , group (periodic table) , sociology , epistemology , computer science , theoretical computer science , political science , artificial intelligence , social science , engineering , philosophy , chemistry , organic chemistry , law , embedded system , aerospace engineering
This article examines the links between multiple hierarchies and a wide range of broad‐based groups, in order to develop a theoretical framework capable of integrating group phenomena, social identities, and political mobilization. Various case‐studies are used to illustrate how hierarchies between and within groups are obfuscated by discrepancies between the material and symbolic aspects of social reality. Yet such discrepancies, which are partly transparent, can generate contestation and the reconfiguration of groups. A duplexity model, which treats groups as a complex mix of embodied categories and observable attributes whose interconnections are contingent, can help unravel crosscutting social cleavages.