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The Mother's Brother as Patron

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Jean S. La Fontaine
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Extract

In this paper I am concerned with the lack of consistency in the criteria embodied in the concepts used to identify social relations. There are two main elements: what we can call the indigenous ideology and the observer's characterisation. In the former case we are dealing with role definition, more or less formalised in different cases and with cultural norms which define the scope of a relationship; in the latter, regularities of observed behaviour and their politico-economic significance are the basis for classification. Examples of concepts based on the former are relations of kinship; of the latter, pairs of terms like leader and follower, patron and client. It is to the last of these that this paper is devoted, for it is precisely in those areas where the ideas of the actors are given least weight in our analysis that our ethnocentric perceptions cause analytical confusion.

Type
Observer's Analysis of Caste and Clientele
Information
European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , June 1975 , pp. 76 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Archives Européenes de Sociology 1975

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References

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