1987 Constructing Institutions rationalized by a sacrificial ethic:the the form and extent of manipulation vary. parts are supposed to sacrifice for the Apathetic cultures are manipulated;fatal- whole. ists live by rules others make and impose Committed to a life of purely voluntary upon them.Manipulation is built into association,those from egalitarian cul- hierarchies;orders come down and obedi- tures reject authority.They can live a life ence presumably flows up.The evocative without coercion or authority only by language of New Guinea anthropology greater equality of condition.Thus egali- (the "big men"versus the "rubbish men") tarians may be expected to prefer reduc- expresses the growth of manipulation in tion of differences-between races,or market cultures as some people cease to income levels,or men and women, possess the resources to regulate their own parents and children,teachers and stu- lives.Egalitarians try to manipulate the dents,authorities and citizens. other cultures by incessant criticism;they An apathetic culture arises when people coerce one another by attributing in- cannot control what happens to them. equalities to corruption and duplicity.s Because their boundaries are porous but To identify with,to become part of a the prescriptions imposed on them are culture,signifies exactly that:the un- severe,they develop fatalistic feelings: viable void of formlessness-where every- what will be,will be.There is no point in thing and therefore nothing is posible-is their having preferences on public policy replaced by social constraint.Even so, because what they prefer would not,in individuals keep testing the constraints, any event,matter. reinforcing them if they prove satisfactory But none of these modes of organizing in practice,modifying or rejecting them, social life is viable on its own.A com- when possible,if unsatisfactory.It is indi- petitive culture needs something-the viduals as social creatures,not only being laws of contract-to be above negotiat- molded by but actively molding their ing;hierarchies need something-anar- social context-shaping the maze as well chic individualists,authority-less egali- as running it-that are the focus of cul- tarians,apathetic fatalists-to sit on top tural theory. of;egalitarians need something-unfair Suppose a new development occurs. competition,inequitable hierarchy,non- Without knowing much about it,those participant fatalists-to criticize;fatalists who identify with each particular way of require an external source of control to life can guess whether its effect is to tell them what to do."What a wonderful increase or decrease social distinctions, place the world would be,"say the adher- impose,avoid,or reject authority- ents of each culture,"if only everyone guesses made more definitive by observ- were like us,"conveniently ignoring that ing what like-minded individuals do.Of it is only the presence in the world of peo- course,people may be,and often are, ple who are not like them that enables mistaken.To seek is not necessarily to them to be the way they are.Hence,cul- find a culturally rational course of action. tural theory may be distinguished by a Gramsci's would-be capitalists may try to necessity theorem:conflict among cul- establish hegemony over others,but they tures is a precondition of cultural identity. are often mistaken about which ideas and It is the differences and distances from actions will in fact support their way of others that define one's own cultural life.They may,for instance,use govern- identity. mental regulation to institute a pattern of Alone,no one has power over anyone. cumulative inequalities that convert Power is a social phenomenon;power, market arrangements into state capital- therefore,is constituted by culture.But ism,leading to their ultimate subordina-