Many of the communities in which anthropologists work are hierarchically organized, and the people who live in them often describe this arrangement in positive terms. Nevertheless, anthropologists rarely paint hierarchy in a favorable light. This special issue aims to question this tendency with ethnographic insights into social contexts where hierarchy is regarded as a desirable social good. By way of an introduction to the research articles, we explore those aspects of Western thought that make it difficult for anthropologists to take hierarchy seriously. In addition, we develop an interpretive approach that treats hierarchy both as a relational form and as a theoretical model—that is, as a framework for understanding value—drawing in part on our own ethnographic research in southern Africa.

中文翻译：

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层次结构、价值和层次结构的价值

人类学家工作的许多社区都是按等级组织的，生活在其中的人们经常用积极的词来描述这种安排。尽管如此，人类学家很少以有利的方式描绘等级制度。本期特刊旨在通过对社会背景的人种学洞察力来质疑这种趋势，在这种背景下，等级制度被视为一种理想的社会福利。通过对研究文章的介绍，我们探讨了西方思想中使人类学家难以认真对待等级制度的那些方面。此外，我们开发了一种解释方法，将等级视为一种关系形式和一种理论模型——即作为理解价值的框架——部分借鉴了我们自己在南部非洲的民族志研究。