"This welcome volume collects 12 essays addressing problems in the analysis of sociocultural values and sociocultural hierarchy, in dialogue with ideas of Dumont." . American Ethnologist

Louis Dumont's concept of hierarchy continues to inspire social scientists. Using it as their starting point, the contributors to this volume introduce both fresh empirical material and new theoretical considerations. On the basis of diverse ethnographic contexts in Oceania, Asia, and the Middle East they challenge some current conceptions of hierarchical formations and reassess former debates - of post-colonial and neo-colonial agendas, ideas of "democratization" and "globalization," and expanding market economies - both with regard to new theoretical issues and the new world situation.

"This welcome volume collects 12 essays addressing problems in the analysis of sociocultural values and sociocultural hierarchy, in dialogue with ideas of Dumont." . American Ethnologist

Louis Dumont's concept of hierarchy continues to inspire social scientists. Using it as their starting point, the contributors to this volume introduce both fresh empirical material and new theoretical considerations. On the basis of diverse ethnographic contexts in Oceania, Asia, and the Middle East they challenge some current conceptions of hierarchical formations and reassess former debates - of post-colonial and neo-colonial agendas, ideas of "democratization" and "globalization," and expanding market economies - both with regard to new theoretical issues and the new world situation.

Knut M. Rio is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen. He has conducted long-term fieldwork in Vanuatu in the western Pacific and published The Power of Perspective: Social Ontology and Agency on Ambrym Island, Vanuatu (Berghahn Books, 2007).

Olaf H. Smedal is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen. He has conducted long-term fieldwork in Indonesia since the beginning of the 1980s: first among the Lom on Bangka (an island off Sumatra) and later among the Ngadha in Flores in eastern Indonesia. His research interests include social organization and kinship, symbolization, ritual, comparative epistemology, the history of anthropology and theory of science."

Norway, it is claimed, has the most social anthropologists per capita of any country. Well connected and resourced, the discipline – standing apart from the British and American centres of anthropology – is well placed to offer critical reflection. In this book, an inclusive cast, from PhDs to professors, debate the complexities of anthropology as practised in Norway today and in the past. Norwegian anthropologists have long made public engagement a priority – whether Carl Lumholz collecting for museums from 1880; activists protesting with the Sámi in 1980; or in numerous recent contributions to international development. Contributors explore the challenges of remaining socially relevant, of working in an egalitarian society that de-emphasizes difference, and of changing relations to the state, in the context of a turn against multi-culturalism. It is perhaps above all a commitment to time-consuming, long-term fieldwork that provides a shared sense of identity for this admirably diverse discipline.