Includes bibliographical references (p. [343]-381) and index.
Contents
Preface : from big structures to small -- Introduction : social action and structures -- From a small circle of friends to a long line of rivals -- The preservation of equality through exchange structures -- The institutionalization of inequality : pecking orders -- The escape from comparability and the genesis of influence structures -- The short cut to structure with patronage pyramids -- The institution of transitivity and the production of command structures -- From pyramid to party -- From structures to institutions.
Summary
"Social Structures is a book that examines how structural forms spontaneously arise from social relationships. Offering major insights into the building blocks of social life, it identifies which locally emergent structures have the capacity to grow into larger ones and shows how structural tendencies associated with smaller structures shape and constrain patterns of larger structures. The book then investigates the role such structures have played in the emergence of the modern nation-state."--BOOK JACKET.
