| The Headless State: Aristocratic Orders, Kinship Society, & Misrepresentations of Nomadic Inner Asia Contributor(s): Sneath, David (Author) |
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ISBN: 0231140541 ISBN-13: 9780231140546 Publisher: Columbia University Press OUR PRICE: $79.20 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: December 2007 Annotation: Since the colonial era, representations of Inner Asia's traditions and history have been dominated by images of fierce and free nomads, organized into clans and tribes. After years of extensive anthropological fieldwork, however, David Sneath has found that these representations have no basis in historical fact. Rather, they have their roots in nineteenth-century evolutionist social theory, which saw kinship as the organizing principle in a nonstate society. In his revolutionary new book, Sneath aggressively dispels the myths surrounding the history of steppe societies and proposes a new understanding of the nature and formation of the state. He 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. Consequently, the distinction between state-organized and stateless societies becomes meaningless, and a more accurate picture of steppe life emerges. Aristocrats determined the size, scale, and degree of centralization of political power, and the history of the region shows no clear distinction between a highly centralized, stratified "state" society and an egalitarian, kin-based "tribal" society. With this book, Sneath challenges the legitimacy of the tribal model, which continues to distortscholarship on the history of Inner Asia. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Asia - Central Asia - Social Science | Anthropology - General - History | Historiography |
| Dewey: 958.042 |
| LCCN: 2007020899 |
| Physical Information: 0.98" H x 6.4" W x 9.01" (1.14 lbs) 288 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Asian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: 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. |