Conflict, equilibrium and social change in Max Gluckman's work

The paper discusses Max Gluckman's contribution to the critic of the functionalist's models in anthropology, and his theoretical-methodological proposal to the analysis of conflict. In the first section, I will describe Gluckman's biography in order to situate him in the British intellectual scene of the mid-twenty Century. In the second section, I will analyze the Extended-Case: a qualitative methodology based in the case studies and in the introduction of a historical perspective to the ethnographical view. The third section describes Gluckman's theory of conflict and its central elements (recovered from his classic book "Custom and Conflict in Africa"). The fourth section deals with the concepts of equilibrium and social change, also describing a typology of conflicts. Last but not least, the paper discusses Gluckman's contributions to actual anthropological challenges. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]