{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262536587?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0262536587","authors":["Hermann Amborn"],"book_id":"9780262536585","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/law-as-refuge-of-anarchy-9780262536585","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780262536585.jpg?v=6f39e4e4367e2e61","description":"A study of communities in the Horn of Africa where reciprocity is a dominant social principle, offering a concrete countermodel to the hierarchical state. Over the course of history, people have developed many varieties of communal life; the state, with its hierarchical structure, is only one of the possibilities for society. In this book, leading anthropologist Hermann Amborn identifies a countermodel to the state, describing communities where reciprocity is a dominant social principle and where egalitarianism is a matter of course. He pays particular attention to such communities in the Horn of Africa, where nonhierarchical, nonstate societies exist within the borders of a hierarchical structured state. This form of community, Amborn shows, is not a historical forerunner to monarchy or the primitive state, nor is it obsolete as a social model. These communities offer a concrete counterexample to societies with strict hierarchical structures. Amborn investigates social forms of expression, ideas, practices, and institutions that oppose the hegemony of one group over another, exploring how conceptions of values and laws counteract tendencies toward the accumulation of power. He examines not only how the nonhegemonic ethos is reflected in law but also how anarchic social formations can exist. In the Horn of Africa, the autonomous jurisdiction of these societies protects against destructive outside influences, offers a counterweight to hegemonic violence, and contributes to the stabilization of communal life. In an era of widespread dissatisfaction with Western political systems, Amborn's study offers an opportunity to shift from traditional theories of anarchism and nonhegemony that project a stateless society to consider instead stateless societies already in operation.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780262536585","publication_date":"20190402","publisher":"MIT Press","slug":"law-as-refuge-of-anarchy","subtitle":"Societies Without Hegemony or State","title":"Law As Refuge of Anarchy"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"POL042010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Anarchism","score":0.7999,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL042040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Radical Politics","score":0.7454,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL035010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Human Rights","score":0.7362,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"POL042010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Anarchism","score":0.7999,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL042040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Radical Politics","score":0.7454,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL035010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Human Rights","score":0.7362,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"PHI019000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Political Philosophy","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL042010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Anarchism","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SOC002010","confidence_band":"high","label":"How Cultures Work","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Anarchism","score":0.7999,"slug":"anarchism"},{"label":"Radical Politics","score":0.7454,"slug":"radical-politics"},{"label":"Human Rights","score":0.7362,"slug":"human-rights"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in nonstate societies and political anthropology"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Ruth Kinna"],"book_id":"9780141984667","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780141984667.jpg?v=a966b967f49d5ded","score":0.7418,"title":"The Government of No One","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780141984667"},{"authors":["Ruth Kinna","Alex Prichard","Thomas Swann","Seeds for Change"],"book_id":"9781629639635","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781629639635.jpg?v=6c31012e560d7314","score":0.7176,"title":"Anarchic Agreements","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781629639635"},{"authors":["Brian Morris","Peter Marshall"],"book_id":"9781604860931","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781604860931.jpg?v=982fa763841edbd2","score":0.7112,"title":"Anthropology, Ecology, and Anarchism","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781604860931"},{"authors":["Jacob Blumenfeld","Chiara Bottici","Simon Critchley","& 0 more"],"book_id":"9780745333427","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780745333427.jpg?v=e45fb018e6d8fc70","score":0.7057,"title":"The Anarchist Turn","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780745333427"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:political science"],"label":"Science","score":0.1776,"slug":"science"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:historical nonfiction"],"label":"Historical","score":0.1137,"slug":"historical"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:political science"],"label":"Political","score":0.0493,"slug":"political"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:philosophy"],"label":"Philosophy","score":0.0334,"slug":"philosophy"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Reciprocity and egalitarianism, Nonstate societies, Law and power.","Themes: Science, Historical, Political.","Reading lane: Anarchism and Radical Politics."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.93,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in nonstate societies and political anthropology"],"themes":["Reciprocity and egalitarianism","Nonstate societies","Law and power"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":2,"goodreads_ratings_count":21,"goodreads_reviews_count":6,"quality_score":0.8493}}