With Elias in China

Abstract

This article argues for the relevance of Norbert Elias' theory of civilizing process and social figurations of power for a political anthropology of institutional emergence. The empirical case discussed here is the emergence of seemingly traditional institutions in the more `developed' regions of rural Southern China — temples and lineages — after the economic reforms. I show how Elias' theory of social figurations of these institutions out of local interdependencies and competition, their relatedness with both the state and `civil' society, the past and the present, and their ability to combine competition and inequality with the production of a `moral community'. Using Elias allows integrating these apparent contrasts because in his theory social institutions and the direction of social change are not the result of human intentions or values, but of social figurations of power that, in turn, shape self-interested strategies and collective moralities.