Bondarenko Dmitri M. Homoarchy

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Contents
PREFACE. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
I. WHAT IS HOMOARCHY? . . . . . . . 8
1. The notion of homoarchy: introduction and explanation 8
2. Principles of organization and systems of values 10
3. Principles of organization and structures of society 13
4. Some possible implications and prospects 14
II. WHAT IS CALLED THE STATE? 20
1. Conceptualizing the state: inevitable Eurocentrism? 20
2. The state: “to be or not to be?” 22
3. Centralization and bureaucratization: the criteria’s relevance for the 25
state theory
4. The Weber’s legacy: bureaucracy, violence, legitimation, and political 27
community
III. WAS THERE BENIN BUREAUCRACY? 31
1. Weber’s theory vs. Benin realities 31
2. The sovereign as supreme administrator 39
3. The rulers and the ruled: political culture as a manifestation of
47
worldview
4. Benin reality: homoarchic supercomplexity without bureaucracy 55
IV. WAS BENIN A SUPRAKIN-BASED SOCIETY? 65
1. Anthropological theory: kin vs. territory, biological vs. social 65
2. Kinship, territoriality, and the phenomenon of the state 68
3. Socio-political composition of Benin: interaction of the part and the 73
whole
4. Benin community, the encompassing part of the whole 83
V. HOW TO CALL BENIN? 90
1. The local-institution-matrix (super)complex societies 90
2. Heterarchic local-institution-matrix (super)complex societies 93
3. Benin as a homoarchic local-institution-matrix supercomplex society 97
4. The Benin megacommunity in the wider context of anthropological 103
theory
AFTERWARDS 109
NOTES 112
REFERENCES 126