Family power : kinship, war and political orders in Eurasia, 500-2018 /
This book demonstrates that elite families and political order evolved in symbiosis throughout European and Middle Eastern history. Kinship groups like noble clans and royal dynasties were preconditions of stability and legitimacy of political orders. There is a tradition in political theory, anthro...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge ; New York :
Cambridge University Press,
2020.
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| Summary: | This book demonstrates that elite families and political order evolved in symbiosis throughout European and Middle Eastern history. Kinship groups like noble clans and royal dynasties were preconditions of stability and legitimacy of political orders. There is a tradition in political theory, anthropology and sociology spanning four centuries that claims that kinship is incompatible with political order. This tradition argues that kinship-based elements either disappeared before the emergence of political orders or were the foes of political order until the emergence of modernity. In contrast to this tradition, I show that neither political order in general nor the state in particular evolved in opposition to kinship groups or to kinship-based principles of legitimacy. Some scholars, like Anderson (2003:19-23) and Oakley (2006) emphasize that dynasties and therefore kinship was central to older political orders. However, the place of kinship in the history of political order remains largely untheorized. |
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| Physical Description: | xiii, 374 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781108495929 1108495923 9781108811095 1108811094 |