This is the first book to provide an inside account of how a United Nations human rights treaty body actually works. At the same time it is an introduction to the international law of racial discrimination. The book focuses on the practical operation and implementation of the International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, emphasising throughout the relationship between the law and politics. The book takes account of current issues in international race relations - from the process of dismantling apartheid in South Africa to recent horrors and genocides in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Michael Banton's latest work will be crucial reading for anyone interested in eliminating racial discrimination on an international level. About Michael Banton: Michael Banton is Chairman of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 1996-98.

Attempts of nineteenth-century writers to establish "race" as a biological concept failed after Charles Darwin opened the door to a new world of knowledge. Yet this word already had a place in the organization of everyday life and in ordinary English language usage. This book explains how the idea of race became so important in the USA, generating conceptual confusion that can now be clarified. Developing an international approach, it reviews references to "race," "racism," and "ethnicity" in sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and comparative politics and identifies promising lines of research that may make it possible to supersede misleading notions of race in the social sciences.

Attempts of nineteenth-century writers to establish "race" as a biological concept failed after Charles Darwin opened the door to a new world of knowledge. Yet this word already had a place in the organization of everyday life and in ordinary English language usage. This book explains how the idea of race became so important in the USA, generating conceptual confusion that can now be clarified. Developing an international approach, it reviews references to "race," "racism," and "ethnicity" in sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and comparative politics and identifies promising lines of research that may make it possible to supersede misleading notions of race in the social sciences.

This volume illustrates how much the study of social anthropologists has encompassed other, non-primitive societies: rural Italy, urban Africa, village politics in India and the smaller ex-colonial territories of Fiji and Mauritius are just some of the areas covered by the book. The position and contribution of British community studies is also examined, illustrating how micro-sociology can be made relevant to macro-sociology. Originally published 1966.

As the basic questions of social structure were elucidated there came a quickening of interest among social anthropologists in the study of religion. Chapters in this book include: * Religion as a Cultural System (Clifford Geertz) * Colour Classification in Ndembu Religion (Victor W. Turner) * Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation (Melford E. Spiro) * Fathers, Elders and Ghosts in Edo Religion (R.E. Bradbury) * Territorial Groupings and Relgion among the Iraqw (Edward H. Winter). First published in 1966.

As the basic questions of social structure were elucidated there came a quickening of interest among social anthropologists in the study of religion. Chapters in this book include: * Religion as a Cultural System (Clifford Geertz) * Colour Classification in Ndembu Religion (Victor W. Turner) * Religion: Problems of Definition and Explanation (Melford E. Spiro) * Fathers, Elders and Ghosts in Edo Religion (R.E. Bradbury) * Territorial Groupings and Relgion among the Iraqw (Edward H. Winter). First published in 1966.

Originally published in 1957 this volume deals with the issue of large scale immigration into Freetown, Sierra Leone from the rural areas in the 1950s and the problems which arose as a result. It analyzes the way traditional social systems had to adjust to the demands of urban life and charts the growth of Freetown from its foundation in the 18th Century. The ethnic composition of its population and the character of the rural districts from which the migrants come are also discussed, along with the motives for migration, the nature of housing and employment.

This book deals with the study of race relations as a general body of knowledge which tries to bring together in a common framework studies of group relations in different countries. It explores the intellectual context within which the old conception of race relations arose.

Modern political anthropology began in 1940 with the first systematic comparative studies of how primitive societies maintained law and order. The focus was on government and the presence or absence of state institutions. Recently, interest has shifted to the study of power, to examining the manipulation of political relations, and to the task of elaborating a classification of governmental systems that will throw light on the important problems for research. First published in 1965.

This book deals with the study of race relations as a general body of knowledge which tries to bring together in a common framework studies of group relations in different countries. It explores the intellectual context within which the old conception of race relations arose.

There has been much discussion in recent years about the construction of theoretical models useful in the explanation of particular areas of social organization. This volume charts that discussion and its results and covers a wide ethnographic range from the Pacific Island of Truk through African pastoral societies, south-east Asia and Hong Kong, back to Polynesia. First published in 1965.

This volume illustrates how much the study of social anthropologists has encompassed other, non-primitive societies: rural Italy, urban Africa, village politics in India and the smaller ex-colonial territories of Fiji and Mauritius are just some of the areas covered by the book. The position and contribution of British community studies is also examined, illustrating how micro-sociology can be made relevant to macro-sociology.
Originally published 1966.

Modern political anthropology began in 1940 with the first systematic comparative studies of how primitive societies maintained law and order. The focus was on government and the presence or absence of state institutions. Recently, interest has shifted to the study of power, to examining the manipulation of political relations, and to the task of elaborating a classification of governmental systems that will throw light on the important problems for research. First published in 1965.

Tavistock Press was established as a co-operative venture between the Tavistock Institute and Routledge & Kegan Paul (RKP) in the 1950s to produce a series of major contributions across the social sciences. This volume is part of a 2001 reissue of a selection of those important works which have since gone out of print, or are difficult to locate. Published by Routledge, 112 volumes in total are being brought together under the name The International Behavioural and Social Sciences Library: Classics from the Tavistock Press. Reproduced here in facsimile, this volume was originally published in 1961 and is available individually. The collection is also available in a number of themed mini-sets of between 5 and 13 volumes, or as a complete collection.

Ethnic and Racial Consciousness is a completely revised version of the highly acclaimed first edition published in 1988. At that time no one expected the former Yugoslavia would break up with the brutal slaughter of neighbour by neighbour. Few would have predicted the horrific massacres in Rwanda and Burundi which have led to accusations of genocide. The ending of the cold war has been followed by struggles in the former Soviet Union in which one group has struggled for dominance and the other for independence. Ethnic conflict is now one of the main threats to peace in the contemporary world. This new edition offers an up-to-date introduction to the many issues surrounding our definition and understanding of ethnic and racial difference, racism and discrimination in general.

Ethnic and Racial Consciousness is a completely revised version of the highly acclaimed first edition published in 1988. At that time no one expected the former Yugoslavia would break up with the brutal slaughter of neighbour by neighbour. Few would have predicted the horrific massacres in Rwanda and Burundi which have led to accusations of genocide. The ending of the cold war has been followed by struggles in the former Soviet Union in which one group has struggled for dominance and the other for independence. Ethnic conflict is now one of the main threats to peace in the contemporary world. This new edition offers an up-to-date introduction to the many issues surrounding our definition and understanding of ethnic and racial difference, racism and discrimination in general.

Tavistock Press was established as a co-operative venture between the Tavistock Institute and Routledge & Kegan Paul (RKP) in the 1950s to produce a series of major contributions across the social sciences.
This volume is part of a 2001 reissue of a selection of those important works which have since gone out of print, or are difficult to locate. Published by Routledge, 112 volumes in total are being brought together under the name The International Behavioural and Social Sciences Library: Classics from the Tavistock Press.
Reproduced here in facsimile, this volume was originally published in 1961 and is available individually. The collection is also available in a number of themed mini-sets of between 5 and 13 volumes, or as a complete collection.

There has been much discussion in recent years about the construction of theoretical models useful in the explanation of particular areas of social organization. This volume charts that discussion and its results and covers a wide ethnographic range from the Pacific Island of Truk through African pastoral societies, south-east Asia and Hong Kong, back to Polynesia. First published in 1965.

Originally published in 1957 this volume deals with the issue of large scale immigration into Freetown, Sierra Leone from the rural areas in the 1950s and the problems which arose as a result. It analyzes the way traditional social systems had to adjust to the demands of urban life and charts the growth of Freetown from its foundation in the 18th Century. The ethnic composition of its population and the character of the rural districts from which the migrants come are also discussed, along with the motives for migration, the nature of housing and employment.

In the grand design of slavery in the Caribbean, White planters separated African slaves of similar tribal and linguistic groups in an effort to destroy African cultural traditions. The result was an African population that lost most of its African heritage and adopted a creolized variant of European culture. The dominance of Creolization, a colonial legacy, ignores the Caribbean multiethnic mosaic and endangers national unity, good governance, and political stability. Through a series of readings, this book argues that the Creolization is antithetical and challenging to nation building and results in cultural and working-class fragmentation, competition for national space, ranking, ethno-cultural categorization, racialization of consciousness, cultural imperialism, use of the 'political' race card, and ethnic dominance. This book acknowledges the need to create a framework for mutual cultural appreciation and institutionalization of all cultures in the pursuit of national unity in the Caribbean.

The years 1965-8 were the 'liberal hour' for race relations policy in Britain. Laws were then enacted, enforcement agencies created, and community relations councils established. These bodies, and their personnel, have been called 'the race relations industry'. To many people, the output of this 'industry' appears disappointing relative to the input into it. This book examines a variety of optimistic assumptions about the speed with which immigrants adjust to a new environment; inadequate minority bargaining power; insufficiently speedy and decisive action by the central government; unwillingness on the part of the white majority to accept the desirability of such action; and the difficulty of fitting a race relations policy into an administrative system created to serve an ethnically homogeneous population. The policies initiated in 1965 reflected the ascendancy of liberal over conservative assumptions about race relations. Now these are under sharp attack from a radical standpoint. Promoting Racial Harmony shows how the debate has changed, drawing upon recent economic theory to formulate the issues in an original but non-technical manner.

This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Michael Banton's classic book reviews historical theories of racial and ethnic relations and contemporary struggles to supersede them. It shows how eighteenth- and nineteenth-century concepts of race attempted to explain human difference in terms of race as a permanent type and how these were followed by social scientific conceptions of race as a form of status. In a new concluding chapter, "Race as Social Construct," Michael Banton makes the case for a historically sensitive social scientific understanding of racial and ethnic groupings that operates within a more general theory of collective action and is, therefore, able to replace racial explanations as effectively as they have been replaced in biological science. This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand contemporary debates about racial and ethnic conflict. This new edition is thoroughly updated and contains a new chapter on developments in recent years.

Here is a study of the growth of knowledge about racial relations, moving from the eighteenth-century concept of race as lineage to the consideration of the nineteenth-century doctrines that have been called scientific racism. These doctrines were destroyed by the theory of natural selection, but the Darwinian revolution was complex, so it took time before its lessons were learned, and the foundations laid for a sociological approach to racial relations. The book then describes orthodox sociological theories in a chapter on race as status, and looks at the major challenge to these theories. It maintains that these orthodox theories will not be superseded by attempts to interpret racial relations in terms of the relations between classes.