The Grace in Hierarchy
Seniors, God, and the Sources of Life in Southern Ethiopia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4380176 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Julian Sommerschuh (0000-0002-9194-7130, Postdoctoral Fellow, Cologne University, Germany [email protected], corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 18-33 |
| Publication date | 2022-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-7674 • E-ISSN: 2047-7716 |
| Publisher | Berghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3167/cja.2022.400103 |
| OpenAlex | W4293097561 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 9 |
Why is hierarchy often surrounded by ambivalence? This article contributes to current debates about the goods and the ills of social hierarchy by drawing attention to the double-edged role of grace in hierarchical relations. Taking the Aari of southern Ethiopia as my example, I show how a conception of seniors as founts of grace entails a social life marked both by intense love and frequent conflict. Conversion to Christianity flattens social hierarchies by relocating the source of grace from seniors to God. As humility replaces seniors' demands to be honoured for dispensing grace, social life becomes less conflictual but also less engaging and affectionate. This shows that different conceptions of grace entail different forms of sociality and that grace can help explain the ambivalence of hierarchy
Ambivalence · Hierarchy · Humility · Political science · Social hierarchy · Social life · Social science · Sociality · Sociology · Law · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Social Psychology
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |