Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System And Its Implications
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In one of the most consequential works of 20th-century social anthropology, Louis Dumont presents a sweeping and rigorous analysis of the Indian caste system, arguing that hierarchy — not equality — is the foundational organizing principle of traditional Hindu society. Homo Hierarchicus chronicles the intricate web of purity and impurity that structures social relations in India, dismantling Western assumptions about individualism and challenging readers to confront the ideological underpinnings of their own civilizations. Dumont details how the caste system, far from being a mere sociological curiosity, represents a coherent and internally consistent worldview that has shaped the lives of hundreds of millions of people across millennia. Translated into English in its complete revised edition by Mark Sainsbury, Louis Dumont, and Basia Gulati, this landmark text illustrates the power of structuralist and comparative methodology in understanding human societies on their own terms. Dumont's style is both rigorously academic and provocatively philosophical, drawing on fieldwork, textual analysis, and cross-cultural comparison to construct an argument that resonates far beyond the Indian subcontinent. A work that fundamentally reorients the way scholars think about hierarchy, ideology, and social order, Homo Hierarchicus leaves the reader questioning whether the Western ideal of equality is itself just another form of ideology waiting to be unmasked.
Author: Louis Dumont
Format: Paperback
Genre: Anthropology
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In one of the most consequential works of 20th-century social anthropology, Louis Dumont presents a sweeping and rigorous analysis of the Indian caste system, arguing that hierarchy — not equality — is the foundational organizing principle of traditional Hindu society. Homo Hierarchicus chronicles the intricate web of purity and impurity that structures social relations in India, dismantling Western assumptions about individualism and challenging readers to confront the ideological underpinnings of their own civilizations. Dumont details how the caste system, far from being a mere sociological curiosity, represents a coherent and internally consistent worldview that has shaped the lives of hundreds of millions of people across millennia. Translated into English in its complete revised edition by Mark Sainsbury, Louis Dumont, and Basia Gulati, this landmark text illustrates the power of structuralist and comparative methodology in understanding human societies on their own terms. Dumont's style is both rigorously academic and provocatively philosophical, drawing on fieldwork, textual analysis, and cross-cultural comparison to construct an argument that resonates far beyond the Indian subcontinent. A work that fundamentally reorients the way scholars think about hierarchy, ideology, and social order, Homo Hierarchicus leaves the reader questioning whether the Western ideal of equality is itself just another form of ideology waiting to be unmasked.