Mertz, Elizabeth; Goodale, Mark --- "Comparative Anthropology of Law" [2012] ELECD 761; in Clark, S. David (ed), "Comparative Law and Society" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Comparative Law and Society

Editor(s): Clark, S. David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849803618

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Comparative Anthropology of Law

Author(s): Mertz, Elizabeth; Goodale, Mark

Number of pages: 15

Extract:

4 Comparative anthropology of law
Elizabeth Mertz and Mark Goodale*


1 INTRODUCTION AND DEFINITIONS

1.1 Legal Anthropology as a Subfield of Anthropology

Like other subfields of sociocultural anthropology, the anthropology of law is an inher-
ently comparative area of study. As the American Anthropological Association has
explained, sociocultural anthropology examines `social patterns and practices across
cultures, with a special interest in how people live in particular places and how they
organize, govern, and create meaning'.1 The anthropology of law--also known as legal
anthropology--focuses in particular on legal systems, law, and law-like social phenom-
ena across cultures. In recent years, anthropology's emphasis on `particular places' has
expanded to new kinds of locations (for example, virtual or global) in which human inter-
action now takes place. For legal anthropologists, this also entails attention to the many
forms in which legal regulation occurs--from momentary encounters to interactions
structured around institutions and texts.
Like most social science fields, the anthropology of law embraces a variety of schools of
thought regarding goals, theories, epistemologies and, sometimes, even methods. Scholars
in this area nevertheless share a commitment to intensive and rigorous field methodolo-
gies requiring extensive involvement in the communities and social fields under study. The
results of these studies frequently take the form of `ethnographies', written reports of
fieldwork that include substantial detail as to everyday practices and beliefs. In addition,
legal anthropologists share another general foundational precept of their discipline, which
requires that fieldworkers attempt to bracket ...