Prinzipien der Sozialorganisation bei den Yukpa : Ergebnisse einer ethnosoziologischen Untersuchung bei den Irapa-Yukpa der Sierra de Perijá Nordwest-Venezuelas / eingereicht von Ernst Halbmayer

• VerfasserIn: Halbmayer, Ernst
• Place / Publishing House: 1997
• Year of Publication: 1997
• Language: German
• Physical Description: 352 Bl.; Ill., graph. Darst., Kt.

eng: This study deals with the principles of social organisation among the approximately 4000 Carib-speaking Yukpa-Indians living in the Sierra de Perija between Venezuela and Colombia. The presented ethnosociological data have been collected during a total of 14th months of field research in the years 1988, 1991/92 and 1994. By analysing macro- as macro-levels (e.g. the kinship system) of social organisation the difference between internal and external is identified as the core distinction of Yukpa social organisation. This distinction is reproduced at various levels and establishes a multi-level system which guarantees an extreme flexibility of social organisation. Based on it the processes of inclusion and exclusion are central for the social systems reproduction and can be identified in marriage habits and conflict settlement. In addition power is based on the ability to include (socialise) aspects of the outside or - if this is impossible - to fight effectively against the non-socialised outside. This difference is also stressed in Yukpa-mythology. On a theoretical level the empirical data are discussed in relation to Louis Dumont's concept of "hierarchical Opposition". The internal on the one hand includes/socialises the external, but an the other hand every inside is surrounded by an outside. Therefore in contrary to core distinctions in stratified societies the main distinction in Yukpa-society introduces it's own inversion, avoids social stratification and produces a distinction between an integrated (included) and a non-integrated (surrounding) outside.