Elite Cultures: Anthropological PerspectivesStephen Nugent, Cris Shore Drawing on a diverse, comparative ethnographic literature, this new volume examines the intimate spaces and cultural practices of those elites who occupy positions of power and authority across a variety of different settings. Using ethnographic case studies from a wide range of geographical areas, including Mexico, Peru, Amazonia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Europe, North America and Africa, the contributors explore the inner worlds of meaning and practice that define and sustain elite identities. They also provide insights into the cultural mechanisms that maintain elite status, and into the complex ways that elite groups relate to, and are embedded within, wider social and historical processes. |
Contents
1 | |
World society as an old regime | 22 |
Elites politics and peripheries | 37 |
The powers behind the masks Mexicos political class and social elites at the end of the millennium | 39 |
Gente boa elites in and of Amazonia | 61 |
Elites on the margins mestizo traders in the southern Peruvian Andes | 74 |
The vanishing elite the political and cultural work of nationalist revolution in Sri Lanka | 91 |
The changing nature of elites in Indonesia today | 110 |
Cultural heritage and the role of traditional intellectuals in Mali and Cameroon | 145 |
The construction of elite status in the extreme Southern Highlands of Madagascar | 158 |
Revising the past the heritage elite and Native peoples in North America | 173 |
Revolution and royal style problems of postsocialist legitimacy in Laos | 189 |
Elites professionals and networks | 207 |
How far can you go? English Catholic elites and the erosion of ethnic boundaries | 209 |
Presymptomatic networks tracking experts across medical science and the new genetics | 227 |
Anthropologists lions andor foxes An afterword | 249 |
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administration African Amazonia Ambalavao Americo-Liberian andevo anthropology areas Asian Bamileke Betsileo British Buddhist Cambridge Cameroon capital Catholic centre century Chiapas Church claim colonial comumnist comumnity context Cusco dominant Douala economic elite cultures ethnic ethnographic European example genetic global GOLKAR groups heritage elite Highlands historic sites identity ideology indigenous Indonesia institutions intellectuals interests issue John Eade Keith Hart Kenya king labour land leaders Liberia London Luang Prabang Mali Marovato mesuzo Mexico middle-class migrants misus Muslim Native comumnities Native staff neoliberal networks Ocongate official olona organisations Oxford party past Phetsarath polincal political position Rafidy regime regional relations religious elite revolution ritual role royal rural schools Sinhala social society Sri Lanka status structures study of elites Suharto Thai tion Tlie tomb tompon-tany trade traditional umch umst University Press urban Vientiane village