Leading anthropologists and political scientists are brought together in this
volume to debate the problem of comparison, taking up a variety of topics from
nationalist violence and labor strikes to ritual forms and religious practices.
The contributors criticize conventional forms of comparative method, and
introduce new comparative strategies, ranging from abstract model building to
ethnographically based methods. They represent a wide variety of theoretical
positions, from rational choice theory to interpretivism, and the issues are
clarified in the cut and thrust of debate.