E. Adamson Hoebel
Encyclopedia
E. Adamson Hoebel was Regents Professor Emeritus of anthropology
at the University of Minnesota
. He held a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University
, where he also attended the seminars of Karl N. Llewellyn
, who taught at the Columbia Law School from 1925-1951. Llewellyn (1893–1962) was the most important figure associated with the American Legal Realism of the 1920s and 1930s, which held that the law was indeterminate on the basis of statutes and precedents alone and required study of the how disputes are resolved in practice. The ‘sociological’ wing of legal realism championed by Llewellyn held that in American law dispute resolution was strongly influenced by norms such as those in mercantile practice. Llewellyn and Hoebel (1941) went to on to develop a means of determining legal practice from ethnographic description of trouble cases, including mediation and negotiation as well as adjudication. Their “case study method” applied both to social systems with and without formal courts.
Hoebel taught anthropology for a number of years at New York University
and subsequently at the University of Utah
, where he was also Dean of the University College (Arts and Sciences). He served as a Fullbright Professor in anthropology at Oxford
and law at Catholic University of Leuven
. At the University of Minnesota he chaired the Department of Anthropology until his retirement in 1972.
Between 1933 and 1949, Hoebel studied the legal systems of the Northern Cheyenne
, Northern Shoshone
, Comanche
, and Pueblo people
, and the legal system of Pakistan
in 1961. He was a close friend and colleague of Max Gluckman
, founder of the Manchester School
of British Social Anthropology
. Gluckman, also given to a realist orientation to the study of law, used and further developed Llewellyn that Hoebel's "case study method" of analysis of instances of social interaction to infer rules and assumptions used in trouble cases, and the influence of social norms and conflicts outside the law. The behavioral "case study" approach has continued and expanded in later anthropological works such as Network Analysis and Ethnographic Problems
(2005).
In 1954 Hoebel contributed his major book on legal anthropology, on broadening the legal realist tradition to include non-Western nations. In doing so, he concluded with a statement about the need for contributions from the comparative legal realism tradition if progress was to be made toward world governance. Eclipsed by the cold war, even the legal realist concepts of what constitutes law and government have failed to make an impact on Political Science and the concept of the state in the contemporary period. Hoebel's working definition of what is law is worth citing: "A social norm is legal if its neglect or infraction is regularly met, in threat or in fact, by the application of physicial force by an individual or group possessing the socially recognized privilege of so acting." Because "government without law is limited to the administration of services", one of the implications of the legal realist tradition is that it is not necessarily in the capital city that one must look to define the government of a modern nation but to how the law "will develop its shape in the arena of action," "hammered out as specific issues catalyze action for the trouble case at hand." Hoebel's definition, unlike that of neoconservative thought and its invocation of Leo Strauss for justification of government deception, is that to be legal, law must be based on social norms, and norms on agreements within communities, rather than the dominance of the few.
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
. He held a Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, where he also attended the seminars of Karl N. Llewellyn
Karl N. Llewellyn
Karl Nickerson Llewellyn was a prominent American jurisprudential scholar associated with the school of legal realism. The Journal of Legal Studies has identified Llewellyn as one of the twenty most cited American legal scholars of the 20th century.-Biography:He was born on May 22, 1893 in Seattle...
, who taught at the Columbia Law School from 1925-1951. Llewellyn (1893–1962) was the most important figure associated with the American Legal Realism of the 1920s and 1930s, which held that the law was indeterminate on the basis of statutes and precedents alone and required study of the how disputes are resolved in practice. The ‘sociological’ wing of legal realism championed by Llewellyn held that in American law dispute resolution was strongly influenced by norms such as those in mercantile practice. Llewellyn and Hoebel (1941) went to on to develop a means of determining legal practice from ethnographic description of trouble cases, including mediation and negotiation as well as adjudication. Their “case study method” applied both to social systems with and without formal courts.
Hoebel taught anthropology for a number of years at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and subsequently at the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
, where he was also Dean of the University College (Arts and Sciences). He served as a Fullbright Professor in anthropology at Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and law at Catholic University of Leuven
Catholic University of Leuven
The Catholic University of Leuven, or of Louvain, was the largest, oldest and most prominent university in Belgium. The university was founded in 1425 as the University of Leuven by John IV, Duke of Brabant and approved by a Papal bull by Pope Martin V.During France's occupation of Belgium in the...
. At the University of Minnesota he chaired the Department of Anthropology until his retirement in 1972.
Between 1933 and 1949, Hoebel studied the legal systems of the Northern Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
, Northern Shoshone
Shoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....
, Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
, and Pueblo people
Pueblo people
The Pueblo people are a Native American people in the Southwestern United States. Their traditional economy is based on agriculture and trade. When first encountered by the Spanish in the 16th century, they were living in villages that the Spanish called pueblos, meaning "towns". Of the 21...
, and the legal system of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
in 1961. He was a close friend and colleague of Max Gluckman
Max Gluckman
Max Gluckman was a South African and British social anthropologist.He grew up in South Africa, working later under the British Administration in Northern Rhodesia...
, founder of the Manchester School
Manchester school (anthropology)
The Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester, founded by Max Gluckman in 1947 became known among anthropologists and other social scientists as the Manchester School. Notable features of the Manchester School included an emphasis on "case studies", deriving from Gluckman's...
of British Social Anthropology
Social anthropology
Social Anthropology is one of the four or five branches of anthropology that studies how contemporary human beings behave in social groups. Practitioners of social anthropology investigate, often through long-term, intensive field studies , the social organization of a particular person: customs,...
. Gluckman, also given to a realist orientation to the study of law, used and further developed Llewellyn that Hoebel's "case study method" of analysis of instances of social interaction to infer rules and assumptions used in trouble cases, and the influence of social norms and conflicts outside the law. The behavioral "case study" approach has continued and expanded in later anthropological works such as Network Analysis and Ethnographic Problems
Network Analysis and Ethnographic Problems
Network Analysis and Ethnographic Problems: Process Models of a Turkish Nomad Clan is an anthropological and complexity science book by social anthropologists Douglas R. White, University of California, Irvine, and of the University of Cologne...
(2005).
In 1954 Hoebel contributed his major book on legal anthropology, on broadening the legal realist tradition to include non-Western nations. In doing so, he concluded with a statement about the need for contributions from the comparative legal realism tradition if progress was to be made toward world governance. Eclipsed by the cold war, even the legal realist concepts of what constitutes law and government have failed to make an impact on Political Science and the concept of the state in the contemporary period. Hoebel's working definition of what is law is worth citing: "A social norm is legal if its neglect or infraction is regularly met, in threat or in fact, by the application of physicial force by an individual or group possessing the socially recognized privilege of so acting." Because "government without law is limited to the administration of services", one of the implications of the legal realist tradition is that it is not necessarily in the capital city that one must look to define the government of a modern nation but to how the law "will develop its shape in the arena of action," "hammered out as specific issues catalyze action for the trouble case at hand." Hoebel's definition, unlike that of neoconservative thought and its invocation of Leo Strauss for justification of government deception, is that to be legal, law must be based on social norms, and norms on agreements within communities, rather than the dominance of the few.