On the Order of Chaos : Social Anthropology and the Science of Chaos

Over the past two decades, "chaos theory" – the perception of order previously hidden in phenomena of apparent randomness and disorder – has fundamentally transformed the natural sciences. In recent years, numerous scholars in the social sciences and humanities have attempted to adapt the insights of chaos theory to their studies of human cultural and social systems. Several of the world's leading anthropologists, such as Roy Wagner, Marshall Sahlins, Marilyn Strathern, and Arjun Appadurai – have similarly drawn upon particular elements of chaos theory for their inspiration, but as yet there is no focused, comprehensive treatment of the applicability of chaos theory to anthropology's distinctive ethnographic and cross-cultural materials. This edited volume fills the gap, with both accessible theoretical discussions of chaos theory applications in anthropology and detailed ethnographic and historical illustrations from Africa and Melanesia. "Several of the world's leading anthropologists have drawn upon particular elements of chaos theory for their inspiration, but as yet, there is no focused and comprehensive treatment of the applicability of chaos theory to anthropology's distinctive ethnographic and cross-cultural materials. This volume fills that gap. Bridging the divide between the sciences and the humanities that has fragmented much recent anthropological discussion, the contributors track between chaos theory models and those derived from anthropology's intensive consideration of the problem of order (and its absence) across time and space in human social organization The Essays In This Volume Collectively Transform Perspectives Previously Experienced As Divergent, Conflicting, And Inconsistent Into A Common And Complex Orientation To Problems Central To The Natural And Social Sciences Involving Transitions Between Order And Disorder.--jacket.