Peter Skalník
Biographic Data
| ID | 79562 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter Skalník |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter |
| FAMILY NAME | Skalník |
| SIGNATURE | SKALNÍK P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pardubice [email protected] |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 80 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Religion and Science
This short tribute to Ján Podolák comments on the space between two extremes: pure science and blind belief. If religion is not susceptible to scientific proof because it is a belief in an invisible world inhabited by spirits who influence human existence on earth then science in its strictest sense is the opposite of religion because it is not based on any beliefs but solely on provable facts. However, the anthropology of science should be based…
Early State
Study of the State
Postsocialist Europe
Now that nearly twenty years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet bloc there is a need to understand what has taken place since that historic date and where we are at the moment. Bringing together authors with different historical, cultural, regional and theoretical backgrounds, this volume engages in debates that address new questions arising from recent developments, such as whether there is a need to reject or uphold the notion of post…
Postsocialist Europe
Now that nearly twenty years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet bloc there is a need to understand what has taken place since that historic date and where we are at the moment. Bringing together authors with different historical, cultural, regional and theoretical backgrounds, this volume engages in debates that address new questions arising from recent developments, such as whether there is a need to reject or uphold the notion of post…
Ernest Gellner and Contemporary Social Thought
Ernest Gellner was a unique scholar whose work covered areas as diverse as social anthropology, analytical philosophy, the sociology of the Islamic world, nationalism, psychoanalysis, East European transformations and kinship structures. Despite this diversity, there is an exceptional degree of unity and coherence in Gellner's work with his distinctly modernist, rationalist and liberal world-view evident in everything he wrote. His central proble…
Studying Peoples in the People’s Democracies. Socialist Era Anthropology in East-Central Europe
Under socialism the anthropological sciences developed under conflicting pressures: on the one hand Soviet influences, Marxist ideology and institutional changes, on the other the continued influence of national traditions and of the distinction between Volkskunde and Völkerkunde. The chapters bring out striking differences between the countries considered: the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary; they also draw attenti…
Chiefdom
This article addresses the question of the universality of chiefdom as a political form that displays surprising longevity as a viable alternative to the state. Data from research on Africa show that chiefdom is a suitable generic term for the political centralization, which comprises 'kingdoms'. A New Indirect Rule, based on a balance between the chiefdom-like structures and the post-colonial state, could be a truly democratic solution for the p…
Will Europe Work? Democracy under the Conditions of Globalization
Ideological and Symbolic Authority
Authority Versus Power
Ideology and the Formation of Early States
Eighteen authors from 10 countries offer an assessment of the role of ideology in the emergence and development of early states. In a comparative perspective the significance of ideology in the processes that led to formation of states in Europe, Africa, Meso-America and Polynesia is discussed by specialists in the fields of anthropology, history and archaeology. Special attention is given to subjects such as the concept of ideology, regional com…
The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski
Mexico 1993
Malinowski, la guerre, le nationalisme et l'Etat
Skalnik Peter, Paulme Denise. Malinowski, la guerre, le nationalisme et l'Etat. In: Gradhiva : revue d'histoire et d'archives de l'anthropologie, n°13, 1993. pp. 3-19
The Crisis in Soviet Ethnography [and Comments]
Union soviétique-Afrique du Sud
P. Skalnik - The Soviet Etnos 'Theory' and its South African Parallel. Only in the Soviet Union and in South Africa scholars (and politicians) operate with a reified concept of ethnicity which they call etnos. The article first documents the etiological relationship of Soviet and South African etnos 'theories', which both draw from the work of the Russian emigre ethnologist S. M. Sirokogorov, although in a slanted way. In both Soviet etnografija …
On the Inadequacy of the Concept of the ‘Traditional State’
Uneven development in European mountain communities
Questioning the concept of the state in Indigenous Africa1
The author questions the usefulness of the concept of the ‘state’ as it is applied to indigenous Africa. Using the example of the institution of naam (translatable as ‘authority’ and/or ‘chieftaincy') among the Nanumba or northern Ghana, he argues that African peoples produced original forms of political culture. Their politics were not predominantly based on power, i.e. use or threat of use of physical force like western states. They nevertheles…
Community
The Role of the State in the Dismantling of the Ghanaian Rural Economy
The Mind of Lewis H. Morgan [and Comments and Reply]
A careful restudy of Morgan's writings (including unpublished manuscripts) has led to several rather obvious conclusions that would be not be starling were it not for the fact that scholarly writings since Engels about Morgan's personality and thought have presented such polarized contentions. (1) Morgan was not a "functionalist"-determinist, thus neither materialist nor idealist. (2) He was neither pro- nor anti-Darwinist and never addressed him…
The Early State
Ethnology
Ideology and the Formation of Early States
Eighteen authors from 10 countries offer an assessment of the role of ideology in the emergence and development of early states. In a comparative perspective the significance of ideology in the processes that led to formation of states in Europe, Africa, Meso-America and Polynesia is discussed by specialists in the fields of anthropology, history and archaeology. Special attention is given to subjects such as the concept of ideology, regional com…
The Crisis in Soviet Ethnography [and Comments]
Chiefdom
This article addresses the question of the universality of chiefdom as a political form that displays surprising longevity as a viable alternative to the state. Data from research on Africa show that chiefdom is a suitable generic term for the political centralization, which comprises 'kingdoms'. A New Indirect Rule, based on a balance between the chiefdom-like structures and the post-colonial state, could be a truly democratic solution for the p…
Questioning the concept of the state in Indigenous Africa1
The author questions the usefulness of the concept of the ‘state’ as it is applied to indigenous Africa. Using the example of the institution of naam (translatable as ‘authority’ and/or ‘chieftaincy') among the Nanumba or northern Ghana, he argues that African peoples produced original forms of political culture. Their politics were not predominantly based on power, i.e. use or threat of use of physical force like western states. They nevertheles…
Union soviétique-Afrique du Sud
P. Skalnik - The Soviet Etnos 'Theory' and its South African Parallel. Only in the Soviet Union and in South Africa scholars (and politicians) operate with a reified concept of ethnicity which they call etnos. The article first documents the etiological relationship of Soviet and South African etnos 'theories', which both draw from the work of the Russian emigre ethnologist S. M. Sirokogorov, although in a slanted way. In both Soviet etnografija …
Uneven development in European mountain communities
Our Obsolete Production Mentality
Nonmaterial aspects of social practices such as symbolic exchange, modes of destruction of wealth-in short, the broad field of "antieconomic" activities-have not been fully examined by economic anthropology. This articles is sort of challenge to carry out this examination. In the first part of the study, problems related to the "utilitarian approach," taken in a broad sense, are discussed. The following section explores the concept of the communa…
The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski
The Mind of Lewis H. Morgan [and Comments and Reply]
A careful restudy of Morgan's writings (including unpublished manuscripts) has led to several rather obvious conclusions that would be not be starling were it not for the fact that scholarly writings since Engels about Morgan's personality and thought have presented such polarized contentions. (1) Morgan was not a "functionalist"-determinist, thus neither materialist nor idealist. (2) He was neither pro- nor anti-Darwinist and never addressed him…
The Early State
Authentic Marx and anthropology
The aim of the present review article is to offer an evaluation of Professor Lawrence Krader's three books on the theory of society and history. At the outset I must say that the books under review1 have been written by a man of exceptional learning and erudition. L. Krader undoubtedly has contributed toward a better understanding of the principles of human development. He attempts to set up a landmark with his constructive criticism of both Marx…
Comments and Replies
African Studies in Czechoslovakia
Scientific research of African societies and cultures in Czechoslovakia has developed only in the last two decades. Nevertheless, to precede the research there was a relatively extensive background shaped by the tradition of travelers whose interest was centered especially on geography, biology, and descriptive and collective ethnography. The most important of these travelers were Dr. Emil Holub (1847-1902), who crossed South Africa as far as the…
Goroda-Gosudarstva Yorubov (The Yoruba City-States)
The Early State
Our Obsolete Production Mentality
Nonmaterial aspects of social practices such as symbolic exchange, modes of destruction of wealth-in short, the broad field of "antieconomic" activities-have not been fully examined by economic anthropology. This articles is sort of challenge to carry out this examination. In the first part of the study, problems related to the "utilitarian approach," taken in a broad sense, are discussed. The following section explores the concept of the communa…
Authentic Marx and anthropology
The aim of the present review article is to offer an evaluation of Professor Lawrence Krader's three books on the theory of society and history. At the outset I must say that the books under review1 have been written by a man of exceptional learning and erudition. L. Krader undoubtedly has contributed toward a better understanding of the principles of human development. He attempts to set up a landmark with his constructive criticism of both Marx…
Community
The Role of the State in the Dismantling of the Ghanaian Rural Economy
The Mind of Lewis H. Morgan [and Comments and Reply]
A careful restudy of Morgan's writings (including unpublished manuscripts) has led to several rather obvious conclusions that would be not be starling were it not for the fact that scholarly writings since Engels about Morgan's personality and thought have presented such polarized contentions. (1) Morgan was not a "functionalist"-determinist, thus neither materialist nor idealist. (2) He was neither pro- nor anti-Darwinist and never addressed him…
The Early State
Ethnology
Questioning the concept of the state in Indigenous Africa1
The author questions the usefulness of the concept of the ‘state’ as it is applied to indigenous Africa. Using the example of the institution of naam (translatable as ‘authority’ and/or ‘chieftaincy') among the Nanumba or northern Ghana, he argues that African peoples produced original forms of political culture. Their politics were not predominantly based on power, i.e. use or threat of use of physical force like western states. They nevertheles…
Uneven development in European mountain communities
On the Inadequacy of the Concept of the ‘Traditional State’
Union soviétique-Afrique du Sud
P. Skalnik - The Soviet Etnos 'Theory' and its South African Parallel. Only in the Soviet Union and in South Africa scholars (and politicians) operate with a reified concept of ethnicity which they call etnos. The article first documents the etiological relationship of Soviet and South African etnos 'theories', which both draw from the work of the Russian emigre ethnologist S. M. Sirokogorov, although in a slanted way. In both Soviet etnografija …
The Crisis in Soviet Ethnography [and Comments]
Malinowski, la guerre, le nationalisme et l'Etat
Skalnik Peter, Paulme Denise. Malinowski, la guerre, le nationalisme et l'Etat. In: Gradhiva : revue d'histoire et d'archives de l'anthropologie, n°13, 1993. pp. 3-19
The Early Writings of Bronislaw Malinowski
Mexico 1993
Ideological and Symbolic Authority
Authority Versus Power
Ideology and the Formation of Early States
Eighteen authors from 10 countries offer an assessment of the role of ideology in the emergence and development of early states. In a comparative perspective the significance of ideology in the processes that led to formation of states in Europe, Africa, Meso-America and Polynesia is discussed by specialists in the fields of anthropology, history and archaeology. Special attention is given to subjects such as the concept of ideology, regional com…
Will Europe Work? Democracy under the Conditions of Globalization
Chiefdom
This article addresses the question of the universality of chiefdom as a political form that displays surprising longevity as a viable alternative to the state. Data from research on Africa show that chiefdom is a suitable generic term for the political centralization, which comprises 'kingdoms'. A New Indirect Rule, based on a balance between the chiefdom-like structures and the post-colonial state, could be a truly democratic solution for the p…
Studying Peoples in the People’s Democracies. Socialist Era Anthropology in East-Central Europe
Under socialism the anthropological sciences developed under conflicting pressures: on the one hand Soviet influences, Marxist ideology and institutional changes, on the other the continued influence of national traditions and of the distinction between Volkskunde and Völkerkunde. The chapters bring out striking differences between the countries considered: the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary; they also draw attenti…
Political science (17 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Law (12 works) · Anthropology (11 works) · Philosophy (11 works) · History (10 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Geography (7 works) · Law (6 works)