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Synopsis This collection of essays addresses the notion of 'value' from a comparative and multi-disciplinary perspective, and aims at further stimulating contemporary theoretical and methodological discussions on the study of 'values'. The contributors analyse systems of symbolic and social classification, ritual performances, gift exchanges, local conceptualizations of the person, gender identity, indigenous political systems, and the interplay between local rituals and modern politics. In each paper, the question is raised as to whether specific cultural value configurations can be discerned from the cases discussed. The regional areas covered range from classical Greek society to the modern South Korean, from Afro-American communities in New York to North American Indians, from South Asia and the Indian Ocean to Mainland and Island Southeast Asia.

The book is dedicated to Georg Pfeffer, former head of the Department of Social Anthropology at the Free University of Berlin, whose lifelong work on Indian value systems was a source of inspiration to all authors of this joint volume. It was further inspired by the intellectual legacy of the French anthropologist Louis Dumont, who introduced a series of key concepts to modern anthropology, such as 'idea-value', 'hierarchy as the encompassment of the contrary', 'contexts' and 'levels', and 'holistic' versus 'individualistic' ideologies. This joint volume demonstrates that these key concepts became influential not only in France but also among scholars from India, England, the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands. It moreover shows that theoretical debates about the notion of 'value' and 'hierarchy' are no longer focussed on India alone, but have been applied and further refined with reference to other world regions as well.