DIMENSIONAL AN ESSAY ON THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF POWER AND SYMBOLISM IN COMPLEX SOCIETY ABNER COHENCentral to this study is that Political Man is also Symbolist Man, that man is two- dimensional. Two-Dimenstonal Man ex- plores the possibilities of the systematic study of the dialectical interdependence between power relationships and symbolic action in modern, complex society. The discussion focuses on the processes by which interest groups, that cannot organize them- selves formally, manipulate different types of symbolic formations to articulate a number of basic organizational functions: distinctiveness, communication, decision- making, authority, ideology, and socializa- tion. The analysis is worked out in terms of specific case studies of different types of groupings, or “invisible organizations’ — ethnic, elitist, religious, ritually seeret, cousinhood—which go through processes of cultural metamorphosis, shifting from one symbolic strategy toanother in response to changes in their circumstances. In con- clusion, the discussion is brought to bear on the study of stratification in large-scale industrial society generally A good deal of analysis in this field has been carried out by social anthropologists in the course of studying small-scale. simple. pre-industrial societies. Mr. Cohen ex- amines the extent to which the theories, concepts, methods, and techniques of social anthropology can be adapted to the study of modem, complex, industrial societies in both developing and developed countries University of California Press Berkelely 94720 Material protegido por derectTwo-Dimensional Man An essay on the anthropology of power and symbolism in complex society Abner Cohen University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles This one OBB5-KUA-1A15.