The Calligraphic State by Brinkley Messick

University of California Press, 1993, ISBN: 5-4. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law Springer Journals īOOK REVIEW Brinkley Messick, The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society. It was argued instead that law organizes, extends and legitimates unequal social relations whether or not it is explicitly an instrument created by

Gaps between law and society were no longer understood as a problem of delay in legal development. Marxist scholars challenged the Durkheimian view by arguing that law ideologically masked rather than reﬂecting the true character of social life. It was Marxist scholars who ﬁrst questioned the relationship of law and society. Whereas early sociologists, most prominently Durkhiem, posited a simple transition between the analysis of law and claims about a society’s social form, over the last century, scholars have come to recognize a host of epistemological problems speciﬁc to the study of society through law. The work of anthropologists, lawyers, political scientists and sociologists within the ﬁeld of law and society can, by and large, be characterized as falling into one of two categories: the study of “law in society” and the study of “society through law.” Studying society through law cannot take place, however, without conceiving of law’s relationship to ordinary social life.

Brinkley Messick, The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society Brinkley Messick, The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim SocietyīOOK REVIEW Brinkley Messick, The Calligraphic State: Textual Domination and History in a Muslim Society.

The Calligraphic State by Brinkley Messick