Hughes/Comparison, 4. Context

This chapter explores how comparison ought to work. It does this by arguing that, unlike the grand comparative schemas of the past, we ought to remove traditional and unhelpful slogans—like “religion,” “Judaism,” “Islam,” and so forth—and instead pay attention to mundane and quotidian concerns as a social actors, in specific times, places, and spaces, make sense of themselves and their social worlds. Comparison, in sum, is about attention to contexts.