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law as indigenous social theory: a Siamese Thai case
Author(s) -
O'CONNOR RICHARD A.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1981.8.2.02a00010
Subject(s) - nomothetic and idiographic , nomothetic , indigenous , sociology , meaning (existential) , power (physics) , subject (documents) , epistemology , politics , anthropology , law , political science , philosophy , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics , library science , computer science , biology
Anthropologists often treat law as a discrete subject classified with politics and power and studied by nomothetic constructs. This treatment presupposes the place of law in society and denies history. To see law as a culturally constituted mode of analysis that projects an indigenous theory of society is to view a society in its own idiographic terms, and thereby demonstrate that it need not fit pre‐established classification and constructs. Traditional Siamese Thai law is presented as an indigenous and historical theory of society that links law with religion and meaning. [legal anthropology, culture and meaning, historical anthropology]