The fall of the Marxist paradigm has necessitated a new framework for French anthropological study of ‘primitive’ societies. Basic assumptions about the relationship between anthropology and development and the appropriateness of binary oppositions need to be reevaluated. An analysis of the opposing pair ‘people of power’ and ‘people of the earth’ suggests that the phenomena of reappropriation are the result of certain universal values. It reinforces the need for anthropologists to begin with a hypothesis of similarities and to move to an appreciation of individuality.
