The Rise of Hierarchy

Afterword to Hierarchy and Value: Comparative Perspectives on Moral Order
(edited by Jason Hickel and Naomi Haynes), pp. 135-150

The sword the sponge and the paradox of performativity

Abstract: Terms such as ‘fate’ and ‘luck’ are ways of talking about the ambiguities and antinomies of temporal existence that all humans, even social theorists, have to confront in one form or another. Concepts that include mana, s ́akti, baraka, and orenda might best be considered as grappling with the exact same paradoxes.