Man as an Entrepreneur

Samenvatting

Anthropologists have shifted from describing social forms to studying the processes which generate these forms. Certain people are the agents of social change; as entrepreneurs they can modify their environment in achieving certain goals. Explanation of social forms is found in describing the processes which determine them. Taking this perspective avoids the pitfalls of functionalists; social forms are described without assuming their purpose and useful tools for describing change are offered. E.R. Leach set out this generative approach (political systems of highland Burma, a study of Kachin social structure, London, England: 1954). F.G. Bailey elaborated upon the idea of political man (Strategems and spoils. A social anthropology of politics, Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell, Pavilion series, 1969) attempting to show how similar patterns of competition can be found among Indian villagers, Swat pathans in Western Pakistan, American gangsters, u committee-men, and present European politicians. Bailey isolates 2 political structures and discusses their interaction: the 'big arena' (the state) and the 'smaller arena' (the peasant village structure). Bailey's concern with such notions as rules, structure, and maintenance, and his contention that most political conflicts are orderly, draw him back into structural-functional quarters; rigid versions from which he wishes to be free. Bailey's strategems provides new insights and tools for understanding change in tribal and peasant communities. R. Lent