Ch.12: Introduction to Political Systems of Highland Burma by E.R.

Leach

 Leach asserts that social structure as a stated by Radcliffe-Brown presupposes that the society
being dealt with is in a state of equilibrium. (128)
 How does one deal with a system that is not in stable equilibrium? (128)
 Conceptual models of society are equilibrium systems; real societies are never in equilibrium.
(128)
 Social structure consists of a set of ideas about the distribution of power among persons and
groups of persons. (128)
 Individuals can and do hold contradictory views of this system. (128)
 “The form is cultural form; the expression is ritual expression.” (128)
 The form of the structure can be considered independent of the cultural content. (128)
 The structures which the anthropologist describes are models that exist in their own mind. (128)
 Real societies exist in time and space: demographic, ecological, economic, and political
situations are not one fixed environment, but are a constantly changing environment. (129)
 Society is a process in time; can be thought of in two ways:
1) Continuity of the existing formal order. (No change in the formal structure.)
2) Changes which reflect alterations in the social structure. (129)

 “A society”= any self contained political unit. ( Nadel’s arguments.) (129)

 Subsystems should be thought of as a part of the larger system being “in flux”. (129)
 Essential argument: process by which units grow/shrink is not part of structural continuity, but is
instead part of the process of structural change. (129)
 When a society is lifted out of time and space, the presentation is of a stable equilibrium. There
is much confusion between the concepts of “stability” and “equilibrium”. (130)
 Models of a social system are consistent; but social reality is full of inconsistencies. These
inconsistencies can provide us with an understanding of social change. (130)
 An individual can have a status position in several different social systems at the same time.
(130)
 Leach disagrees with absolute Sacred/profane dichotomy of Durkheim.(132)
 Sacred and profane do not describe types of action, but aspects of any kind of action. (132)
 Myth =ritual. Myth regarded as a statement in words ‘says’ the same thing as ritual regarded as
a statement of action. (133)
 Ritual action and belief are to be understood as forms of symbolic statements about the social
order. (133)
 Psychological assumption: humans construct symbols and make mental associations in the same
general way. (133)
 Ritual= pattern of symbols. ( 133)
 “Culture provides the form, the ‘dress’ of the social situation.” (134)
 Underlying structural pattern is more important than the overt cultural pattern, and how
different structures can be represented by the same set of cultural symbols.(134)
CH.13: Social Structure by Claude Levi-Strauss

 Social structure has nothing to do with empirical reality; it has to do with models which are
built based upon it. (137)
1) This leads to the difference between ‘social structure’ and ‘social relations’.
 Social structure is not a field, it is a method applied to any social science. (137)
 Requirements of model of “structure”:
1) The structure exhibits the characteristics of the system. It is made up of interconnected
elements. (137)
2) There should be the possibility of ordering a series of transformations resulting in a
group of models of the same type. (137)
3) The first two requirements make it possible to predict the behavior of the model if its
elements are changed. (137)
 Observational rule: facts should be carefully observed and described, without any
preconceptions about their relative importance. (137)
 The best model is ‘true’, simple, and accounts for all of the facts. (138)
 Structural models can be either conscious or unconscious. (138)
 Conscious models = Norms (138)
 A culture’s “homemade” models are important for two reasons:
1) They might be accurate, or provide insight into the phenomenon
2) Even biased models are part of the facts under observation. (138)
 There is no necessary connection between structure and measure. (139)
 Scale of the model and the phenomenon.(139)
1) Mechanical model: elements of the same scale as the phenomenon.
2) Statistical model: elements on a different scale as the phenomenon.
 Ethnography and History gather data; social anthro & sociology deal with models constructed
from the data. (140)
 He argued against the comparative method of anthropology: data collected acceptable only if it
is all of the same type. (141)
 “A society consists of individuals and groups which communicate with one another.” (142)
 Communication in society operates on three levels:
1) communication of women
2) communication of goods and services
3) Communication of messages. Kinship/ marriage maybe a fourth type of communication.
 A close relationship prevails between economic pattern and social structure. (142)
 Social anthro, economics and linguistics consolidated into the field of ‘communication’ and
study the rules of the game rather than the mature of the players. (143)