Bibliograph

The art of not being governed, an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia, James C. Scott

Type

Label

The art of not being governed, an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia, James C. Scott

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-406) and index

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The art of not being governed

Nature of contents

bibliographyindexes

Oclc number

301948134

Responsibility statement

James C. Scott

Series statement

Yale agrarian studies series

Sub title

an anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia

Summary

For two thousand years the disparate groups that now reside in Zomia (a mountainous region the size of Europe that consists of portions of seven Asian countries) have fled the projects of the organized state societies that surround them - slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labor, epidemics, and warfare. This book, essentially an 'anarchist history', is the first-ever examination of the huge literature on state-making whose author evaluates why people would deliberately and reactively remain stateless. Among the strategies employed by the people of Zomia to remain stateless are physical dispersion in rugged terrain; agricultural practices that enhance mobility; pliable ethnic identities; devotion to prophetic, millenarian leaders; and maintenance of a largely oral culture that allows them to reinvent their histories and genealogies as they move between and around states

Classification