Processes

Abstract

Fredrik Barth’s work is exemplary for the study of social processes. He used his ethnographic studies as ways of breaking previously applied frames of analysis. His work with Swat Pathans of Pakistan and the Baktaman of Papua New Guinea is adduced to show how his ethnographic findings led him to break or modify other frames of analysis. He inserted the study of competitive power politics into segmentary lineage theory. He struggled with the fluidity of Baktaman ideas, and the workings of secret knowledge, leading him to consider memory, loss of information, and ritual variation among different groups. He eschewed whole system typologies and a temptation to impose too structured an interpretation of data. His work verges on what we now call embodiment theory.