Spontaneous Order Analysis and Anthropology

Abstract

Spontaneous order analysis is applicable to patterned social phenomena that are the results of human action but not of human design. For example, the spontaneous, unplanned social orders of the market and common law codes contrast with their planned counterparts, i.e. central economic plans and statutory legal codes. The tradition of spontaneous order analysis can be traced through Mandeville, Hume, Ferguson, Smith, Menger, Hayek, and others. Invisible-hand explanation is the method of spontaneous order analysis. Convincing invisible-hand explanations must be methodologically individualistic and must not rely upon the supposition of any unusual abilities of the participants or unusual events in the process. All steps in an invisible-hand explanation must be plausible accounts of the normal course of events in the society in question. Menger's (1892, 1981, 1985) explanation of the origins of money is the paradigmatic example of an invisible-hand explanation of a spontaneously ordered social phenomenon. Anthropologists may be able to apply spontaneous order analysis to many areas of interest, including economic anthropology, the study of kinship systems, and legal anthropology.