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The Freedom of Things: An Ethnology of Control
With remarkable clarity, Peter Harrison reveals how the assumed escape from 'savagery' that the Enlightenment promised was ever only the transformation of humans into commodities freely available in a independence and autonomy being replaced by dependence and drudgery. His interpretation of the lifestyles of peoples who lived both before the rise of the State and in societies that still live independently of State administration is both original and non-patronizing.
Within this framework is developed a convincing challenge to the orthodoxy that the feud in pre-State societies was a means of social control, and this leads into a radical re-evaluation of violence in non-State societies. Inspired by the profound critiques of capitalism posed by Indigenous perspectives, it also serves to chronicle the left’s persistent inability to provide a theory that does not ultimately align itself with the paternalist and controlling ethos at the core of Enlightenment, progressivist, and expansionist values.
Within this framework is developed a convincing challenge to the orthodoxy that the feud in pre-State societies was a means of social control, and this leads into a radical re-evaluation of violence in non-State societies. Inspired by the profound critiques of capitalism posed by Indigenous perspectives, it also serves to chronicle the left’s persistent inability to provide a theory that does not ultimately align itself with the paternalist and controlling ethos at the core of Enlightenment, progressivist, and expansionist values.
306 pages, Paperback
Published February 14, 2017
About the author
Peter Harrison
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There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 9, 2018
Excellent. Surprisingly non-(anti-?)materialist to the point where I feel like I need to re-read NihCom because I remember a completely different vibe there. Takes down the roots of mostly/all anthropology/philsophy; re-asserts that Clastres is great.
April 12, 2025
Impossible to overstate the impact this book has on my thinking life and day-to-day life. So few works of nonfiction, esp theory, accomplish this. This text has my utmost recommendation for every one concerned with world changing esp y’all who favor Marxism over anarchy (which La Peter Harrison still won’t embrace totally)
I will say, I’m not so sure I share Harrison’s pessimism. We, right now, cannot see through the water. But we, as humanity, will (perhaps soon) reach an era in which our material conditions cannot support large, all encompassing, truncheon-wielding, peace-keeping states. A centrifugal return to the “tribal zone” and its understanding of violence and time or even beyond that is imminent. In the meantime, we writhe… thank you Crisp for the rec
I will say, I’m not so sure I share Harrison’s pessimism. We, right now, cannot see through the water. But we, as humanity, will (perhaps soon) reach an era in which our material conditions cannot support large, all encompassing, truncheon-wielding, peace-keeping states. A centrifugal return to the “tribal zone” and its understanding of violence and time or even beyond that is imminent. In the meantime, we writhe… thank you Crisp for the rec
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews