Law, Anthropology, and the Constitution of the Social: Making Persons and Things

322 Pages·2004·1.37 MB·English

by  Alain Pottage

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LAW, ANTHROPOLOGY, AND THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE SOCIAL
This collection of interdisciplinary essays explores how persons and
things–thecentralelementsofthesocial–arefabricatedbylegalrituals
and institutions. The contributors, legal and anthropological theorists
alike,focusonasetofspecificinstitutionalandethnographiccontexts,
andsomeunexpectedandthought-provokinganalogiesemergefromthis
intellectualencounterbetweenlawandanthropology.Forexample,con-
temporaryanxietiesaboutthelegalstatusofthebiotechnologicalbody
seem to resonate with the questions addressed by ancient Roman law
initstreatmentofdeadbodies.Theanalogybetweencopyrightandthe
transmissionofintangibledesignsinMelanesiasuddenlymakesWestern
imagesofauthorshipseemquiteunfamiliar.Acomparisonbetweenlaw
andlaboratorysciencepresentstheproductionoflegalartefactsinanew
light.Thesestudiesareofparticularrelevanceatatimewhenlaw,faced
withtheinventivenessofbiotechnology,findsitincreasinglydifficultto
drawthelinebetweenpersonsandthings.
ALAIN POTTAGE isReaderinLawattheLondonSchoolofEconomics
and Political Science. Previously he has taught in the law schools of
King’sCollege,London,andSydneyUniversity.Hehaspublishedexten-
sivelyonquestionsofpropertylawandlegaltheory.
MARTHA MUNDY is Reader in Anthropology at the London School
of Economics and Political Science. She has published an ethnog-
raphy, Domestic Government: Kinship, Community and Polity in North
Yemen(1995),andeditedseveralbooks,mostrecently,TheTransforma-
tion of Nomadic Society in the Arab East (co-edited with B. Musallam,
Cambridge,2000)andLawandAnthropology(2002).

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN LAW AND SOCIETY
CambridgeStudiesinLawandSocietyaimstopublishthebestscholarlyworkon
legaldiscourseandpracticeinitssocialandinstitutionalcontexts,combining
theoreticalinsightsandempiricalresearch.
Thefieldsthatitcoversarestudiesoflawinaction;thesociologyoflaw;the
anthropologyoflaw;culturalstudiesoflaw,includingtheroleoflegaldiscourses
in social formations; law and economics; law and politics; and studies of gov-
ernance.Thebooksconsiderallformsoflegaldiscourseacrosssocieties,rather
thanbeinglimitedtolawyers’discoursesalone.
Theserieseditorscomefromarangeofdisciplines:academiclaw;socio-legal
studies;sociologyandanthropology.Allhavebeenactivelyinvolvedinteaching
andwritingaboutlawincontext.
SeriesEditors
ChrisArup
VictoriaUniversity,Melbourne
MartinChanock
LaTrobeUniversity,Melbourne
PatO’Malley
CarletonUniversity,Ottawa
SallyEngleMerry
WellesleyCollege,Massachusetts
SusanSilbey
MassachusettsInstituteofTechnology
BooksintheSeries
SocialCitizenshipandWorkfareintheUnitedStatesandWesternEurope
TheParadoxofInclusion
JoelF.Handler
0521833701hardback
0521541530paperback
LawandNature
DavidDelaney
0521831261hardback
ThePoliticsofTruthandReconciliationinSouthAfrica
LegitimizingthePost-ApartheidState
RichardA.Wilson
0521802199hardback
0521001943paperback
ModernismandtheGroundsofLaw
PeterFitzpatrick
0521802229hardback
0521002532paperback
UnemploymentandGovernment
GenealogiesoftheSocial
WilliamWalters
0521643333hardback
AutonomyandEthnicity
NegotiatingCompetingClaimsinMulti–EthnicStates
YashGhai
0521781124hardback
0521786428paperback
ConstitutingDemocracy
Law,GlobalismandSouthAfrica’sPoliticalReconstruction
HeinzKlug
0521781132hardback
0521786436paperback
TheNewWorldTradeOrganizationAgreements
GlobalizingLawthroughServicesandIntellectualProperty
ChristopherArup
0521773555hardback
TheRitualofRightsinJapan
Law,Society,andHealthPolicy
EricA.Feldman
0521770408hardback
0521779642paperback
TheInventionofthePassport
Surveillance,CitizenshipandtheState
JohnTorpey
0521632498hardback
0521634938paperback
GoverningMorals
ASocialHistoryofMoralRegulation
AlanHunt
0521640717hardback
0521646898paperback
TheColoniesofLaw
Colonialism,ZionismandLawinEarlyMandatePalestine
RonenShamir
0521631831hardback
LAW, ANTHROPOLOGY,
AND THE CONSTITUTION
OF THE SOCIAL
Making Persons and Things
Edited by
Alain Pottage and Martha Mundy
LondonSchoolofEconomicsandPoliticalScience
cambridge university press
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521831789
© Cambridge University Press 2004
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2004
isbn-13 978-0-511-21072-3 eBook (EBL)
isbn-10 0-511-21249-6
eBook (EBL)
isbn-13 978-0-521-83178-9 hardback
isbn-10 0-521-83178-4 hardback
isbn-13 978-0-521-53945-6 paperback
isbn-10 0-521-53945-5 paperback
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CONTENTS
Notesoncontributors page viii
1 Introduction:thefabricationofpersonsandthings 1
AlainPottage
2 ResReligiosae:onthecategoriesofreligionandcommerce
inRomanlaw 40
YanThomas
3 Scientificobjectsandlegalobjectivity 73
BrunoLatour
4 Legalfabricationsandthecaseof‘culturalproperty’ 115
TimMurphy
5 Ownershiporoffice?AdebateinIslamicHanafite
jurisprudenceoverthenatureofthemilitary‘fief’,from
theMamlukstotheOttomans 142
MarthaMundy
6 Gedik:abundleofrightsandobligationsforIstanbul
artisansandtraders,1750–1840 166
EnginDenizAkarlı
7 Losing(outon)intellectualresources 201
MarilynStrathern
8 Re-visualisingattachment:ananthropological
perspectiveonpersonsandpropertyforms 234
SusanneKu¨chler
9 Ouroriginalinheritance 249
AlainPottage
Bibliography 286
Index 302

vii
CONTRIBUTORS
EnginAkarlıistheJoukowskyFamilyDistinguishedProfessorofMod-
ernMiddleEastHistoryatBrownUniversity.Hehastaughtatseveral
universities, serves on the editorial board of Islamic Law and Society,
and is the author of several publications including Political Participa-
tion in Turkey (1974), Belgelerle Tanzimat (1977), and The Long Peace:
OttomanLebanon,1861–1920(1993).
SusanneKu¨chlerisReaderinMaterialCultureStudiesintheDepart-
mentofAnthropology,UniversityCollegeLondon.Shehaswrittenon
images of memory and the art of forgetting with special reference to
thePacific.CurrentlysheisdirectinganESRCfundedprojectentitled
‘Clothing the Pacific’, linking University College London, the British
Museum,andGoldsmithsCollege.
Bruno Latour is Professor in the Centre of Innovation at the E´cole
NormaleSupe´rieuredesMinesinParis.Healsoholdsappointmentsat
theLondonSchoolofEconomicsandintheDepartmentoftheHistory
of Science at Harvard University. He is the author of many books,
most of which have been translated into English, notably We Have
Never Been Modern (1993), Aramis or the Love of Technology (1996),
andPandora’sHope(1999).
MarthaMundyisReaderinAnthropologyattheLondonSchoolof
Economics. Earlier she taught at Yarmouk University in Jordan, Uni-
versite´Lyon2Lumie`re,UCLA,andtheAmericanUniversityofBeirut.
TogetherwithRichardSaumarezSmith,sheiscompletingamonograph
on The State of Property: Law, Administration and Production in Late
OttomanSouthernSyria.
TimMurphyisProfessorofLawattheLondonSchoolofEconomics.
Hispublicationsinclude(withSimonRoberts)UnderstandingProperty
Law (3rd edn, 1998) and The Oldest Social Science? Configurations of
Law and Modernity (1997). His current research is in the field of law
andsocialtheoryandthehistoryandtheoryofheritage.
Alain Pottage is Reader in Law at the London School of Eco-
nomics.Hehaswrittenonvariousaspectsoflawandsocialtheory,with

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