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Kapcsolat

Headless State

Aristocratic Orders, Kinship Society, and Misrepresentations of Nomadic Inner Asia

Szerző: David Sneath

Nyelv:

Kötés: Kemény kötésű

Kiadó: Columbia University Press

Elérhetőség: Beszállítói készleten

Küldés 9-15 napon belül

33 723 Ft

In this groundbreaking work, social anthropologist David Sneath aggressively dispels the myths surro...

Információk a könyvről

Szerző

David Sneath

Nyelv

Angol

Kötés

Könyv - Kemény kötésű

Kiadva

2007

oldal

288

EAN

9780231140546

ISBN

0231140541

Enbook ID

04558487

Kiadó

Columbia University Press

Súly

546

Méretek

158 x 234 x 21

Teljes leírás

In this groundbreaking work, social anthropologist David Sneath aggressively dispels the myths surrounding the history of steppe societies and proposes a new understanding of the nature and formation of the state. Since the colonial era, representations of Inner Asia have been dominated by images of fierce nomads organized into clans and tribes--but as Sneath reveals, these representations have no sound basis in historical fact. Rather, they are the product of nineteenth-century evolutionist social theory, which saw kinship as the organizing principle in a nonstate society. Sneath argues that aristocratic power and statelike processes of administration were the true organizers of life on the steppe. Rethinking the traditional dichotomy between state and nonstate societies, Sneath conceives of a "headless state" in which a configuration of statelike power was formed by the horizontal relations among power holders and was reproduced with or without an overarching ruler or central "head." In other words, almost all of the operations of state power existed at the local level, virtually independent of central bureaucratic authority. Sneath's research gives rise to an alternative picture of steppe life in which aristocrats determined the size, scale, and degree of centralization of political power. His history of the region shows no clear distinction between a highly centralized, stratified "state" society and an egalitarian, kin-based "tribal" society. Drawing on his extensive anthropological fieldwork in the region, Sneath persuasively challenges the legitimacy of the tribal model, which continues to distort scholarship on the history of Inner Asia.