Zomia: Successful Strategies of Flight from the State

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Abstract

This publication is a synopsis-translation of the first chapter from the book by James Scott “The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia” (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009), which came out in the “Yale Agrarian Studies” series. It continues the line of argument started by Scott in his work “Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed”: the central task of the state is to control the territories and the citizens, this is why the mobile, self-governing communities are opposed to the very idea of national unity. Scott suggests that we take a different look at the conventional history of mankind (focusing exclusively on national institutes in all possible formats), taking the example of South-East Asia and drawing numerous historical and regional analogies.

About the authors

J Scott

Yale University

Author for correspondence.
Email: agrarian.studies@yale.edu

Faculty/Program of Agrarian Studies

References

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Copyright (c) 2012 Scott

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