i loved your chapter on a a stateless law, tribes, villages, networks and gangs. D then that's where you get someone like gondy that says, all right, we're just going to not obey the laws, but peacefully, exactlyy. Who's getting at the brithis were ther? You know, it really, really hurty. He was a lawyer. He understood that he was,. yes, yes, i loved your book on a aStateless law, Tribes, Villages, Networks and Gangs. I was thinking of the godfather a and the whole mafia, you know, whih we're all familiar with now because of the movies
Rulers throughout history have used laws to impose order. But laws were not simply instruments of power and social control. They also offered ordinary people a way to express their diverse visions for a better world. The variety of the world’s laws has long been almost as great as the variety of its societies.
In this conversation, Shermer speaks with Oxford professor of the anthropology of law, Fernanda Pirie, who traces the rise and fall of the sophisticated legal systems underpinning ancient empires and religious traditions, showing how common people — tribal assemblies, merchants, farmers — called on laws to define their communities, regulate trade, and build civilizations. What truly unites human beings, Pirie argues, is our very faith that laws can produce justice, combat oppression, and create order from chaos.