Instruction
Malinowski and Paul Bohannan, the author of this week’s reading, both subscribe to the idea that law is a form of culture. However, unlike Malinowski’s claim of law as a form of cultural universalism, Paul Bohannan tries to solve the problem of cultural comparison by distinguishing between the so-called “folk-categories” and “analytical” categories of law. Paul Bohannan is an influential social anthropologist best known for his research on the Tiv people of Nigeria in the 1960s. Paul Bohannan argues that there exist many laws, but there is only one law. In other words, in a society, different sets of moral conduct and cultural values exist that shape social behavior. But when do these morals and values become actual law? What’s the process underlying such transformation from laws to law?
For this week’s assignment; please interpret Bohannan’s model of “double institutionalization” by thinking through questions such as: What is the difference between law, customs, norms, and values? And, what is the relationship between law and authority?