Louis Dumont's modern classic, here presented in an enlarged, revised, and corrected second edition, simultaneously supplies that reader with the most cogent statement in the Indian castle system and its organizing principles and a provocative advance in the comparison of societies on the basis of their underlying ideologies. Dumont moves gracefully from the ethnographic data to the level of the hierarchical ideology encrusted in ancient religious texts which are revealed as the governing conception of the contemporary caste structure. On yet another plane of analysis, homo hierarchicus is contrasted with his modern Western antithesis, homo aequalis. This edition includes a lengthy new Preface in which Dumont reviews the academic discussion inspired by Homo Hierarchicus and answers his critics. A new Postface, which sketches the theoretical and comparative aspects of the concept of hierarchy, and three significant Appendixes previously omitted from the English translation complete in this innovative and influential work.

英國人類學家李區（Leach）稱本書是印度卡斯特研究史上的空前鉅構，而美國人類學家坦拜雅（Tambiah）稱本書融攝綜合了前人對印度研究的成果。然而本書所提出的「階序」這理念，實充分體現出「文化」的震撼：一方面揭明了印度這古老文明的基要理念，另方面則暗指西方近代那「平等」理念的局限。是以本書對漢學研究、比較文明研究，都有其不可抹殺的參考價值。初次閱讀宜從本書的附錄著手。

英國人類學家李區（Leach）稱本書是印度卡斯特研究史上的空前鉅構，而美國人類學家坦拜雅（Tambiah）稱本書融攝綜合了前人對印度研究的成果。然而本書所提出的「階序」這理念，實充分體現出「文化」的震撼：一方面揭明了印度這古老文明的基要理念，另方面則暗指西方近代那「平等」理念的局限。是以本書對漢學研究、比較文明研究，都有其不可抹殺的參考價值。初次閱讀宜從本書的附錄著手。