The legal life of anthropological theory
Limits to the ideal of being useful
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3567019 |
|---|---|
| Authors | O G Berta (0000-0002-9023-8658, University of Bergen, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-14 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critique of Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-275X • E-ISSN: 1460-3721 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0308275x251380367 |
| OpenAlex | W4414189279 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 34 |
This article critically examines the impact of anthropological theory on land relations and chieftainship in the Marshall Islands. Anthropologists steeped in lineage theory developed models of a feudal system centred on land as private property that informed the colonial establishment of a court system that institutionalised chiefs as landowners. This shift transformed traditional reciprocal land relations into stratified, commodified ones, enhancing the power of chiefs and marginalising commoners. Rereading key anthropological texts, analysing legal documents, and discussing contemporary critique against landowners, this article explores some unintended consequences of these anthropological models. It argues that anthropological theorisation is an ethical exercise that we should meet with good anthropology rather than explicit aims of being useful or meeting community needs
Colonialism · Commodification · Ethnography · Feudalism · Ideal (ethics · Power (physics · Property (philosophy · Reciprocal · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
The Will to Improve
Property Relations
A Critique of the Study of Kinship
Micronesian Chiefs under American Rule
Activist Research v. Cultural Critique
Planting Islands
Some muddles in the models
Political Development in Micronesia
Majuro. A Village in the Marshall Islands
The Bikinians. A Study in Forced Migration
The Typhoon of War
Pacific Islands Under Japanese Mandate
Chiefs Today
American Anthropology in Micronesia
Customs in Common
Expectations of Modernity
Anthropological Research in Micronesia
Applied Anthropology in Micronesia
The 'problem' of undesigned relationality
Anthropology and Advocacy
Lineage Theory
The Quest for Anthropological Relevance
I was wrong about theory
To write or not to write
Theory as ethics
Why I Write
A Divided Community
Engaged Anthropology
Tactful Criticism in Hong Kong
The Search for Relevance
Resistance and the Problem of Ethnographic Refusal
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |