Globalization promised to bring about a golden age of liberal individualism, breaking down hierarchies of kinship, caste, and gender around the world and freeing people to express their true, authentic agency. But in some places globalization has spurred the emergence of new forms of hierarchy-or the reemergence of old forms-as people try to reconstitute an imagined past of stable moral order. This is evident from the Islamic revival in the Middle East to visions of the 1950s family among conservatives in the United States. Why does this happen and how do we make sense of this phenomenon? Why do some communities see hierarchy as desireable? In this book, leading anthropologists draw on insightful ethnographic case studies from around the world to address these trends. Together, they develop a theory of hierarchy that treats it both as a relational form and a framework for organizing ideas about the social good.

“It is to the credit of the writers in this volume that they illuminate and question [some of the] things that Dumont linked to hierarchy. In doing so, they help make hierarchies problematic and linked to social processes and practices in ways that Dumont probably did not intend but that make the notion of hierarchy more useful as an analytical concept.” • Anthropos

Naomi Haynes is a lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests include the anthropology of Christianity, political economy, exchange, gender, hierarchy, and value.Jason Hickel is an anthropologist at Goldsmiths, University of London. His research spans several related themes, including political conflict, inequality, postdevelopment, and ecological economics