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In 1947 a group of Yoruba-speaking fishermen who had been persecuted because of their religious beliefs founded their own community in order to worship in peace. Although located in an impoverished part of Nigeria, within a few years the village enjoyed remarkable economic success. This was partly because the fishermen held all goods in common, pooled the profits in the community treasury, and attempted to reduce the importance of the family and marriage. After about a generation the utopia began to fall apart. The early religious zeal faded, private enterprise replaced communalism, and the family became strong once more. In an attempt to explain the initial success and eventual decline of the utopia, the author compares it with neighbouring villages that embraced similar religious beliefs but did not enjoy the same economic success. He sets the problem firmly in a broad comparative framework and draws the implications for theories of development, especially Weber’s Protestant ethic thesis.

Collective settlements --- Yoruba (African people) --- Communal settlements --- Communistic settlements --- Communism --- Cooperation --- Socialism --- Collective farms --- Communal living --- Politics and government --- Religion --- UNSPECIFIED --- History & Archaeology --- Regions & Countries - Africa --- Yariba (African people) --- Yooba (African people) --- Yorubas --- Ethnology --- Sociology of the developing countries --- Economic conditions. Economic development --- Regional documentation --- Nigeria --- Politics and government. --- Religion.

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The works of F. G. Bailey (1924–2020) provide a seminal template for good ethnography. Central to this is Bailey’s ability to conceptually connect the well-described micro-contexts of individual interactions to the macro-context of culture. Bailey’s core concerns – the tension between individual and collective interests, the will to power, and the dialectics of social forces which foster both collective solidarity as well as divisiveness and discontent – are themes of universal interest; the beauty of his work lies in his analyses of how these play out in local arenas between real people. His models provide nuanced, yet explicit road maps to analysing the different leadership styles of everyday people and contemporary leaders. This volume seeks to inspire new generations of anthropologists to revisit Bailey’s seminal texts, to help them navigate their way through the ethnographic thicket of their own research.

Agency. --- Gluckman. --- India. --- Leaders and followers. --- Manchester School. --- Normative rules. --- Political anthropology. --- Power. --- Situational analysis. --- Transactionalism.