Studying Voluntary Associations as Adaptive Mechanisms: A Review of Anthropological Perspectives [and Comments and Reply]

In this paper an attempt is made to review selected anthropological studies of voluntary associations, in particular, and common-interest associations, in general. The aim is to show how these groups have been studied as adaptive mechanisms in situations of social, cultural, and technological change, especially in those types of change involving rapid urban growth and large-scale migrations of rural populations to towns and cities. The review is organized in six sections: the first deals with some general theoretical considerations of the nature and types of associations; the second, third, and fourth focus on a review of studies in three geographic areas (Africa, Asia, Western Europe and North America), while the fifth section deals primarily with studies of rotating-credit associations; the sixth section covers some concluding remarks and suggestions for further studies.