Aufsatz(elektronisch)#1Januar 1975
Daladali in Calcutta in the Nineteenth Century
In: Modern Asian studies, Band 9, Heft 1, S. 59-80
ISSN: 1469-8099
In this paper I wish to illustrate the hypothesis that a necessary co-relate of stable social order is a system of controlled conflict. In other words, a social system depends for its cohesion on the existence of conflicts in smaller sub-systems, provided that the conflicts are conducted within an accepted convention. Hence faction-feuds in a social system are not necessarily evidence of fission in that system but may also be evidence of fusion. I wish to illustrate this theme, what Gluckman called 'The peace in the feud', from evidence from Calcutta in the nineteenth century.