It is widely believed that current disparities in economic, political, and social outcomes reflect distinct institutions. Institutions are invoked to explain why some countries are rich and others poor, some democratic and others dictatorial. But arguments of this sort gloss over the question of what institutions are, how they come about, and why they persist. They also fail to explain why institutions are influenced by the past, why it is that they can sometimes change, why they differ so much from society to society, and why it is hard to study them empirically and devise a policy aimed at altering them. This 2006 book seeks to overcome these problems, which have exercised economists, sociologists, political scientists, and a host of other researchers who use the social sciences to study history, law, and business administration. It presents a multi-disciplinary perspective to study endogenous institutions and their dynamics.

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Institutions and the path to the modern economy

The evolution of relationship marketing

Based on Moscovici’s (1961) classical study on the cultivation of psychoanalytic ideas in France in the 1950’s and our own research on modern biotechnology, we propose a paradigm for researching social representations. Following a consideration of the nature of representations and of the ‘iconoclastic suspicion’ that haunts them, we propose a model of the emergence of meaning relating three elements: subjects, objects, and projects. The basic unit of analysis is the elongated triangle of mediation (SOPS): subject 1, object, project, and subject 2, captured in the image of a ‘Toblerone’. Such social units cultivate, that is produce, circulate and receive representation which may be embodied in four modes–habitual behaviour, individual cognition, informal communication and formal communication–and in three mediums–words, visual images or non-linguistic sounds. We propose an operational definition of a ‘social representation’ as the comparison of four characteristics of communication systems: the content structures (anchorings and objectifications; core and peripheral elements), the typified processes (diffusion, propagation, propaganda etc.), and their functions (identity, attitude, opinion, resistance, ideology etc.), within the context of segmented social milieus. Seven implications for research on social representations are outlined: (1) content and process; (2) segmentation by social milieus rather than taxonomies; (3) cultivation studies within social milieus; (4) multi-method (mode and medium) analysis; (5) time structures and longitudinal data; (6) the crossover of cultural projects and trajectories; (7) the disinterested research attitude. This ideal type paradigm leads to an operational clarification to identify new research questions, and to guide the design and evaluation of studies on social representations.

Towards a Paradigm for Research on Social Representations

This book offers the first detailed comparative study of the seven best-documented early civilizations: ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Shang China, the Aztecs and adjacent peoples in the Valley of Mexico, the Classic Maya, the Inka, and the Yoruba. Unlike previous studies, equal attention is paid to similarities and differences in their sociopolitical organization, economic systems, religion, and culture. Many of this study's findings are surprising and provocative. Agricultural systems, technologies, and economic behaviour turn out to have been far more diverse than was expected. These findings and many others challenge not only current understandings of early civilizations but also the theoretical foundations of modern archaeology and anthropology. The key to understanding early civilizations lies not in their historical connections but in what they can tell us about similarities and differences in human behaviour.

http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam034/2002074052.pdf

Understanding early civilizations : a comparative study

While human beings cope with the production and distribution of goods by trying to achieve maximum efficiencies in energy expenditures, the basic way they symbolize power is through the conspicuous consumption of energy, control of which is the fundamental measure of power. Conspicuous consumption occurs in the form of monumental construction, supporting large numbers of energy consumers, production of high energy‐consuming luxury goods, and an emphasis on non‐useful movement (processions, needlessly large rooms, etc.). By expanding the concept of energy‐use to cover conspicuous consumption as well as efficiency of production, it can be seen as a basic factor in shaping the political as well as the economic behaviour of human beings and can explain why, as systems of inequality evolve, monumental architecture becomes an increasingly prominent feature of the archaeological record. This enlarged concept would also broaden a materialist perspective on human behaviour to take account of many signific...

Monumental architecture: A thermodynamic explanation of symbolic behaviour

The Early Islamic Conquests

The main argument of this book is that the conventional opinion of the rise of Islam is based on classical accounts of the trade between south Arabia and the Mediterranean some 600 years earlier than the time of Muhammed. The author draws on literary, epigraphical and archaeological evidence from Classical and Islamic sources to argue that the Meccans were never the commercial tycoons that current theory suggests, nor was Mecca ever an important trade centre. Moreover, she rejects the claims that Mecca was a religious sanctuary and a centre of Arabian pilgrimage. Following this, she seeks to clarify the nature of the sources on which an explanation of the birth of the new religion in Arabia in her view should be based.

Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam

This is a paperback edition of a controversial study of the origins of Islamic civilisation, first published in 1977. By examining non-Muslim sources, the authors point out the intimate link between the Jewish religion and the earliest forms of Islam. As a serious, scholarly attempt to open up a new, exploratory path of Islamic history, the book has already engendered much debate. This paperback edition will make the authors' conclusions widely accessible to teachers and students of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies.

Hagarism. The Making of the Islamic World

Preface A note on conventions Part I. Introduction: 1. Historiographical introduction 2. The nature of the Arab conquest Part II. The Evolution of the Conquest Society: 3. The Sufyanid pattern, 661-84 [41-64] 4. Syria of 684 [64] 5. The Marwanid evolution, 684-744 [64-126] 6. The Marwanid faction 7. Syria of 744 [126] 8. Umayyad clientage Part III. The Failure of the Islamic Empire: 9. The abortive service aristocracy 10. The emergence of the slave soldiers 11. The emergence of the medieval polity Appendices Notes Bibliography General index Prosopographical index.

Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity

1. Introduction 2. The title khalifat Allah 3. The Umayyad conception of the caliphate 4. Caliphal law 5. From caliphal to Prophetic sunna 6. Epilogue Appendices Index.

Patricia Crone

Papers

The Early Islamic Conquests

Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam

Hagarism. The Making of the Islamic World

Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity

God's Caliph : Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam