REPRODUCTION AND SUCCESSION
     Studies in Anthropology, Law and Society

Hardback: 267 pages: ISBN: 1-56000-067-8
Paperback: 267 pages: ISBN:

Publisher: Transaction Publishers
www.transactionpub.com
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This is perhaps the best theoretical argument I have ever made (about the "war of kinship versus the state"); but you can read it for the fun of the individual "case histories" as well.

From the jacket:
     In yet another virtuoso intellectual performance, Robin Fox takes on issues of modern constitutional and case law, and delves into history, literature and ethnography, as part of his ongoing enquiry into "the resilience of kinship." He looks at four apparently diverse "case histories": The rights of Mormons to practice polygamy as a religious obligation; the rights of surrogate mothers to keep their babies if they change their minds (these constituting "reproduction"); the reasons for Antigone's stubbornness in insisting on her brother's burial; and the ubiquitousness of the priveleged relationship between a man and his mother's brother (these two concerning "succession.")
     In the first two cases Fox describes his actual involvement in real cases: a Mormon policeman's appeal as far as the Supreme Court, and the famous "Baby M" surrogate mother trials in New Jersey. In both cases he tries to show how behavioral science "facts" are more effective if used together with case law, than if used simply to design legislation. Fox's re-analysis of Antigone, and the whole Theban cycle of Sophocles goes as far back as Homer and as far forward as Kurt Vonnegut and the Mafia, to search for persistent patterns in "the war between kinship and the state." His re-analysis of the avunculate looks at six different approaches and tries, again, to find the common theme in theories as different as structuralism and sociobiology.
     Underlying all these phenomena is the shift from "kinship law to state law" paralleling Maine's shift from "status to contract." "All history," says Fox, "is the history of reproduction and succession." If the reader can appreciate that Antigone, May Beth Whitehead, Officer Potter, and the maternal uncle, are all fighting the same battle, then an "anthropology of law"at once new and yet thoroughly traditional will emerge from the fascinating detail of these discussions. Readers familiar with Fox's work will not be surprised by his "sympathy, wit, learning and acumen" (New Yorker), but some of the conclusions of this unusual book will certainly surprise them.

The table of contents gives you a good idea of what's in there.

Preface

Part One: REPRODUCTION

Introduction: Empirical Knowledge and Legal Theory

1. The Case of the Polygamous Policeman
     Potter vs. Murray City: Three IS a Crowd
     The Mormons and Polygamy: Useful Revelations
     The Dominance of Reynolds: Bad Facts Make Good Law
     Reynolds and History: Higamous, Hogamous, Who Is Monogamous?
     Reynolds and Ethnography: The Polygynous Persuasion
     Objections to the Objection: The Nature of Polygamy
     Judicial Reasoning: Not-So-Compelling Interest
     Conclusion: The Dangers of Honesty

2. The Case of the Reluctant Genetrix
     The Stern-Whitehead Contract: Thou Shalt Not Form Bonds
     The Legal Issues: When is a Parent Not a Parent
     The Scientific Position: Ethology of the Mother-Child Bond
          1. Evolutionary Background
          2. Physiology of Pregnancy and Bonding
          3. The Mother-Child Unit
          4. Bonding with the Embryo and at Parturition
          5. Continuing Bonding and Bond Disruption
          6. Grief Over the Loss of a Child
          7. The Role of the Father
     The Court's Decision: Parens Patriae Super
     The Appeal Decision: Enlightenment in Trenton
     The New Reproductive Technologies: Offspring Without Sex

Part Two: SUCCESSION

Introduction: The Lineal Equation

2. The Virgin and the Godfather: Kinship Law versus State Law in Greek Tragedy and After
     Kinship or Individual: Who's against Whom?
     The Problem in Antigone: The Virgin's Motives
     The Burial of the Dead: She IS Her Brother's Keeper
     The Issues in the Epics: No State to Speak of
     Problems and Passages: Odd Words and Sorry Poets
     Patrilineal Ideology: The Man Is Father to the Child
     Structuralist Challenge: Who Saws the Jigs?
     Oedipus as Innocent: The Sodomy of Laius
     The State Steps in: The Church Steps Along
     Kinship in Legend Today: All in the Family

3. Sisters' Sons and Monkeys' Uncles: Six Theories in Search of An Avunculate

     Introduction
     The Evolutionists: Mothers are the Necessity of Invention
     The Functionalists: Getting Dad Back In (Auntie As Well)
     The Structuralists: Splitting the Atom of Kinship
     The Ethologists: The Mother and Child Reunion
     The Primatologists: The Primate Baseline Drive
     The Sociobiologists: It's a Wise Chimp that Knows Its Own Father
     Conclusions

Notes etc.

Comments:
"The heady erudition of this book takes you from polygamy to surrogate mothers, from the kinship underpinnings of Greek tragedy to the mother's brother – and a lot in between. Its argument about the role of the biological base in cultural behavior is incontrovertible. You'll be really glad you read this book and sorry if you don't." Paul Bohannan, Professor Emeritus of Law and Anthropology and former Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Communication, University of Southern California. Past President of the Association for Legal and Political Anthropology.

"This is a startlingly creative book by one of the world's most imaginative, daring and ambitious anthropologists. With detailed studies of such unexpected but related subjects as anti-polygamy law in America, motherhood by contract, and the struggle between kinship and polity in ancient Greece, Professor Fox has produced one of the most unique, intriguing and provocative works in the field of law, family and society." Donald Black, University Professor of the Social Sciences, University of Virginia.

Reviews:

"In sum, this an erudite, well-written and often fascinating series of essays, written by one of the most original thinkers in anthropology today. It demonstrates that legal anthropology can be much more than just the study of courts and law in Third World societies. For this alone he deserves our gratitude." William Arens (SUNY), in The Law and Politics Book Review.

"This is an essay in the application of anthropological knowledge by one of the discipline's most prominent theorists. It is also an essay in the application of case studies to social theory… It would be a mistake to dismiss this book on the grounds of biological essentialism. It is far too clever and provocative. Written with tremendous gusto and verve, and alarmingly easy to read, the assurance of its style should not be mistaken for an unequivocal position… these extended commentaries are in themselves a fascinating and revealing exercise. My quarrel with Fox's quarrels requires extended commentary in turn, and this is not the place." Marylin Strathern, Professor of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University, in Man, the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Professor Strathern's "extended commentary" (sixteen pages) appeared as: "New Knowledge for Old? Reflections following Fox's Reproduction and Succession" in the official journal of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, Social Anthropology (1994: vol. 2 no. 8