The Law Knows No Shame: Robert Redfield's “Primitive Law” and the Persistence of Honor in Contemporary Societies

• Published in: American anthropologist 2019-09, Vol.121 (3), p.729-733
• Main Author: Osanloo, Arzoo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anthropologists; Anthropology; Communism; Creativity; Deconstruction; Ethics; Genealogy; Genre; History; Law; Legal ethics; Membership; Memory; Mental depression; Modern society; Novels; Redfield, Robert; Shame; Teachers; Victimization; Victims of crime; Voicing
• ISSN: 0002-7294; 1548-1433
• DOI: 10.1111/aman.13300

“Voicing the Ancestors” was conceived in 2014 as a new genre for sharing interest in the history of anthropology. Richard Handler and I were then planning a conference session in memory of the influential historian of anthropology George Stocking, who had been our teacher. One side of Stocking’s persona was the rigorous scholar whose books and essays exemplify high standards of polish, layered construction, reflexivity, and erudition. But he also had a searching and playful side, wrote haikus, knitted symbol-rich Christmas stockings, and was interested in creative experiments (Bashkow 2016; Manganaro 1999, 312; Stocking 2001; 2010, 208). Indeed, Stocking’s last book was a genre-bending “self-deconstruction” that reflected upon his own scholarship in the context of his family history, youthful Communist Party membership, FBI file, episodes of depression and writer’s block, careerism, and experience of mental and physical degeneration with advanced age (Stocking 2010). To honor this experimental side, we asked session participants to choose a text from the past that they find intellectually, ethically, or politically important, explain its significance, and read a selection from it aloud—thereby giving voice to a chosen ancestor. The session proved fun and interesting: a forum in which anthropologists shared inspiration by conjuring predecessors whose voices were heard afresh and found to resonate in new ways. The session had the welcome effect of enlarging the intellectual genealogies of all of us who were present. The novel format caught on. Additional sessions devoted to “voicing the ancestors” were held during the 2015, 2016, and 2017 annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association (Bashkow et al. 2019; Handler et al. 2016,2017). This forum brings together presentations given in 2017.