Leveling mechanism

Conceptual practice in cultural anthropology

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Political and
legal anthropology

Basic concepts

Status and rank

* Ascribed status
* Achieved status
* Social status
* Caste
* Age grade/Age set
* Leveling mechanism

Leadership

* Big man
* Patriarchy
* Matriarchy
* Elder
* Pantribal sodalities
* Chief
* Paramount chief

Polities

* Band society
* Segmentary lineage
* Tribe
* Chiefdom
* Petty kingdom
* House society
* Ethnic group
* Theatre state

Law and custom

* Customary law
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* Ritual warfare

Case studies

Acephelous

Societies without hierarchical leaders

* African Political Systems
* Papuan Big man system
* The Art of Not Being Governed

State

Non-western state systems

* Negara
* Mandala

* Technology, Tradition,
and the State in Africa

Legal systems

* Kapu

Colonialism and resistance

* Europe and the People
Without History
* Cargo cult

Major theorists

* E. Adamson Hoebel
* Georges Balandier
* F. G. Bailey
* Fredrik Barth
* Jeremy Boissevain
* Robert L. Carneiro
* Henri J. M. Claessen
* Jean Comaroff
* John Comaroff
* Pierre Clastres
* E. E. Evans-Pritchard
* Wolfgang Fikentscher
* Meyer Fortes
* Morton Fried
* Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges
* Ernest Gellner
* David Graeber
* Lesley Gill
* Ulf Hannerz
* Thomas Blom Hansen
* Ted C. Lewellen
* Edmund Leach
* Ralph Linton
* Elizabeth Mertz
* Sidney Mintz
* Sally Falk Moore
* Rodney Needham
* Marshall Sahlins
* James C. Scott
* Elman Service
* Aidan Southall
* Jonathan Spencer
* Bjorn Thomassen
* Douglas R. White
* Eric Wolf

Related articles

* Circumscription theory
* Legal anthropology
* Left–right paradigm
* State formation
* Political economy in anthropology
* Network Analysis and Ethnographic Problems

Journals

* Political and Legal Anthropology Review
* Journal of Legal Anthropology
* Journal of Law and Society

Social and cultural anthropology

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In cultural anthropology, a leveling mechanism is a practice in some cultures which acts to ensure social equality, usually by shaming or humbling members of a group that attempt to put themselves above other members.[1]

## ǃKung practice of shaming the meat

[edit]

One commonly given example of a leveling mechanism is the ǃKung practice of "shaming the meat", particularly as illustrated by the Canadian anthropologist Richard Borshay Lee in his article "Eating Christmas in the Kalahari" (1969).[2] When Lee gave the ǃKung an ox as a Christmas gift, the ǃKung responded by insulting the gift, calling it a "bag of bones" and joking that they would have to eat the horns because there was no meat on it. Lee later asked a man named Tomazo why his gift was insulted in this way. He responded that it was because the gift was arrogant. Lee asked what he meant by this and was told:

> "Yes, when a young man kills much meat he comes to think of himself as a chief or a big man, and he thinks of the rest of us as his servants or inferiors. We can’t accept this. We refuse one who boasts, for someday his pride will make him kill somebody. So we always speak of his meat as worthless. This way we cool his heart and make him gentle."

> — Tomazo, "Eating Christmas in the Kalahari" [2]

## See also

[edit]

* ǃKung people § Hunting rites
* Law of Jante
* Tall poppy syndrome

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Eller, Jack David. "Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Issues - Student Resources Glossary". Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives. Routledge. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
2. ^ a b "Eating Christmas in the Kalahari" (PDF). American Museum of Natural History. 1969. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-07-04. Retrieved 2010-09-28.

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