ABSTRACT
Reprinted from African Political Systems (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1940). Max Gluckman was, for many years, head of the Department of Social Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Manchester in England. He is well known for his many books and articles on the peoples of South and Central Africa in which he established the highest standards for the anthropological study of law and other aspects of social organization. Among his many books are The Judicial Process among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia, Custom and Conflict in Africa, Order and Rebellion in Tribal Africa, The Ideas of Barotse Jurisprudence, and Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society. He is co-author of Essays on the Ritual of Social Relations and Closed Systems and Open Minds: The Limits of Naivety in Social Anthropology.
