Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study (Paperback)

by Orlando Patterson (Author) "ALL HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS are structured an defined by the relative power of the interacting persons..." (more)
Key Phrases: wala relationship, political eunuchism, advanced slave systems, South Africa, Near East, New World (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
There can be no doubt that this rich and learned book will reinvigorate debates that have tended to become too empirical and specialized. Patterson has helped to set out the direction for the next decades of interdisciplinary scholarship. -- David Brion Davis "New York Review of Books" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
This is clearly a major and important work, one which will be widely discussed, cited, and used. I anticipate that it will be considered among the landmarks in the study of slavery, and will be read by historians, sociologists, and anthropologists--as well as many other scholars and students. It will be of concern to readers interested in just about any time and place, and not only to those with a specific interest in slavery. It covers an enormous range of materials in history, the social sciences, and the humanities, with unusually broad geographic and chronological scope. The materials are very well handled using a variety of methods, the questions asked are interesting and important, and the entire discussion is of highest quality.
--Stanley Engerman, coauthor with Robert Fogel of Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery

Densely packed, closely argued, and highly controversial in its dissent from much of the scholarly conventional wisdom about the function and structure of slavery worldwide. (Boston Globe )

There can be no doubt that this rich and learned book will reinvigorate debates that have tended to become too empirical and specialized. Patterson has helped to set out the direction for the next decades of interdisciplinary scholarship.
--David Brion Davis (New York Review of Books )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 15, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067481083X
• ISBN-13: 978-0674810839
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #112,707 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Natal alienation, June 22, 1999

By A Customer

Patterson's book is groundbreaking for many reasons. That is, unlike other scholars of slavery, Patterson does not solely restrict himself to describing slaves and the institutions of slavery by juridical terms (eg Moses Finley). What is crucial to understanding the station of slaves in all societies, African: the various tribal slave systems, European: Roman,Greek,French,Dutch and English;Asian: Jewish, Islam,Indian, Korean etc is that the slave is defined by the absence of power. The slave is compelled to forgo his or her rights and concede to the domination of the owner. The slave is powerless before his or her master.This absence of power on the part of the slave was common to all slave societies, least of all the American slave society who had embraced the Aristotlean notions of slavery and discarded the Romans' who saw slavery as an outcome of fate.

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine compartive study of slave societies, June 14, 1999

By A Customer

Patterson's book is one of the best books on slavery as an universal phenomena. There is simply no parallel to this vaunted study. That is, he reveals lucidly that slavery was an important factor among all civilizations, tribals groups among the pre Christian Europeans, Africans, and the Near and Far Easteners. Also, Patterson is one of the few to note that skin color was not the deciding factor of a slave. Wars, ransom, meagre economic circumstances all contributed to one's enslavement. Among the early African slaves in America, their hair symbolized their enslaved status. What he does not mention, though, is the fact that to understand the fullest implications of Nazi German racial laws, one must seek to understand the enslavement of the Slavs by the Germans.

5.0 out of 5 stars Analyzes The Internal Dynamics Of Slavery In Sixty-Six Societies, January 2, 2009

By	Aung Htun "www.amazon.com/shops/ahtun" (1022 1/2 Stophlet St. Fort Wayne IN 46802-4318) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"In a work of prodigious scholarship and enormous breadth, which draws on the tribal, ancient, premodern, and modern worlds, Orlando Patterson ANALYZES THE INTERNAL DYNAMICS OF SLAVERY IN SIXTY-SIX SOCIETIES over time.

These include Greece and Rome, medieval Europe, China, Korea, the Islamic kingdoms, Africa, the Caribbean islands, and the American South....."
[from the back cover of book]