DUAL ORGANISERING, HIERARKI OG FIREDELINGSLOGIK I ANDES: En komparativ tilgang

Abstract

Alf Hornborg: Dual Organization,
 Hierarchy and the Logic of Quadripartition
 in Andean Societies. A Comparative
 Approach
 A comparative perspective can help to
 illuminate the quadripartite, ethnic hierarchies
 of Andean communities by placing
 them in a wider, South American context.
 The ethnography of Southern India also
 provides us with valuable clues for
 understanding the structure of traditional,
 Andean hierarchies. The endogamous
 moiety systems of the Andes can be understood
 as transformations of exogamous
 moiety divisions such as those of central
 Brazil. In both areas, hierarchies of ranked,
 endogamous strata have been intersected by
 exogamous dual divisions. The horizontal,
 ceremonially and spatially more conspicuous
 moiety divisions would have had the
 effect of mystifying and neutralizing the
 vertical dimensions of political and economic
 stratification, augmenting moiety
 allegiance to minimize tensions between
 strata. The recurrent, quadripartite organization
 of Andean communities appears to
 harbour a potential for either the symmetric
 or restricted exchange of exogamous
 moieties or the asymmetric exchange of
 more inclusive and hierarchical social
 systems. Apparently, the dualistic social
 categories of Andean communities are
 classificatory grids which can subsume new
 ethnic elements as they enter the scene. In
 maintaining an illusion of reciprocity, dual
 organization may well have facilitated the
 growth of hierarchical social systems. The
 obsession with dual organization in the
 Andes and the central Brazil suggests an
 attempt to reproduce the basic, structural
 principles of two-line terminologies (viz.
 dual opposition, relative age, and gender)
 through other means than the simple,
 transitive logic of kin term usage. At the very
 point where these ordering principles could
 no longer be maintained in the course of
 everyday interaction, they proved to be of
 such profound significance for resisting
 chaos that they provided templates for the
 physical construction of social space.