307 books
—
232 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia” as Want to Read:
The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia
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 exami
...more
Hardcover, 464 pages
Published
September 30th 2009
by Yale University Press
(first published September 29th 2009)
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
The Art of Not Being Governed,
please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about The Art of Not Being Governed
Community Reviews
(showing 1-30)
This volume is a history of Southeast Asia from three thousand feet - or rather, the lives of the 'hill peoples' who lived in the more mountainous and forested areas of southwest China, Himalayan India, northern Burma, Laos, and Thailand. This broad mass of land, with a current population of almost 100,000,000 people, is called 'Zomia'.
Now these areas have been targets of anthropological study for decades. What's newer here is Scott's assertion that these areas are populated by refugees from be ...more
Now these areas have been targets of anthropological study for decades. What's newer here is Scott's assertion that these areas are populated by refugees from be ...more
Masterful, and even though I've been studying many aspects of history for forty years, for me it lives up to the front cover blurb by one reviewer who said it would "change the way readers think about human history - and about themselves." It's dry in places, and it took me a while to get into it, but once I did it kept me up at night reading it.
The author's theme is that in many places, peoples who have historically eked out subsistence livings in isolated and rugged environments have not been ...more
The author's theme is that in many places, peoples who have historically eked out subsistence livings in isolated and rugged environments have not been ...more
Jun 28, 2015
André
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommended to André by:
Patrick McCormick, Mathias Jenny
Shelves:
not-my-own
Just as promised, the book changed my understanding of human history indeed. At least of the history of "Zomia", the mountainous region stretching all over continental Southeast Asia. And also other commentators here were right: The author *is* very repetitive. So repetitive in fact, that I now wish I hadn't spend all that time reading through every chapter. The introduction and the conclusion chapters might have been sufficient to get the general idea Scott wanted to bring across: namely that t
...more
I'd read Scott's Seeing Like a State and had absolutely loved it - in my review, I'd described my experience reading it "as if someone's opened a window to let the light in". I wanted to love The Art of Not Being Governed and ten pages in, I had high hopes for the book - just as Seeing Like a State sought to provide a new lens with which to understand how our landscape/operating context is shaped and managed, The Art of Not Being Governed seeks to provide a new lens with which to view the relati
...more
Dec 11, 2012
Bryn Hammond
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
steppe-history
So. I've always been an anarchist in principle (didn't Merlin say in The Once and Future King, every decent person is?) and I come to this, not with a special interest in upland SE Asia, but after this on hunter-gatherers Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior and after this on pastoral nomads Pastoralists: Equality, Hierarchy, And The State, and after a brave foray into the classic Pierre Clastres too. Wherein I've learnt statelessness is common, and clung to stubbornly,
...more
Simply an amazing work of scholarship with tremendous political implications, particularly for anarchist historiography.
I think this is by far the Scott's most important work to date.
I have followed Prof. Scott's work since the mid-1990's while I attended graduate school. In particular, I found his ability to highlight the agency/resistance of a people without a history insightful and extremely useful in discussing and analyzing my own work on social movements along the U.S.-Mexico border.
His ...more
I think this is by far the Scott's most important work to date.
I have followed Prof. Scott's work since the mid-1990's while I attended graduate school. In particular, I found his ability to highlight the agency/resistance of a people without a history insightful and extremely useful in discussing and analyzing my own work on social movements along the U.S.-Mexico border.
His ...more
A fairly interesting read on a region I knew little about, but this book has several problems. It feels pretty repetitive—Scott tends to make the same points over and over again. He also relies on a concept of political "choice" that is never really defined, but allows him to view pretty much all aspects of SE Asian hill societies as aligning with his own anarchist politics. Although (because?) I'm an anarchist myself, it doesn't make for a convincing or enlightening read. In many ways this book
...more
An honest attempt at an anarchist history, well-written, and full of detail about the highlands of Southeast Asia, a place I love deeply. It presents any number of radical theories about how supposedly “primitive” peoples came to be through intention rather than any kind of putative underdevelopment. Is this an interesting theory, and one with serious potential? Absolutely. Is it something that merits further, data-driven research? Totally. Is there much in the way of data? Not so much. For a se
...more
Interesting book, interesting premise. several hundred pages longer than it needed to be.
pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, a history book about how a number of nonstate peoples in upland southeast asia have limited the influence of various configurations of state power on their autonomy. Has a fair amount of details about agriculture and terrain, which I appreciate -- I like an eye to those kind of material conditions. I particularly got into the bit about the kinds of social structures fostered by different staple foods, I've been telling everybody that sweet potato is t
...more
This book is impressively multidisciplinary — the closest comparison that comes to mind is Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel in the way it sets out to explore interlinked concepts across history, varying political systems, and the physical world. I have to acknowledge that my Southeast Asian history and political knowledge is minimal, one class in undergrad aside, so I’m not in a position to confirm or correct the historiography involved. That said, this book offered me insights relevant to
...more
"Why this sudden restlessness, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly?
Everyone's going home lost in thought
Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come
And some who have just returned from the border say
There are no barbarians any longer
And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution." -C. Cavafy
An illuminating read about the relationship between "civilization" ...more
(How serious people's faces have become)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly?
Everyone's going home lost in thought
Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come
And some who have just returned from the border say
There are no barbarians any longer
And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution." -C. Cavafy
An illuminating read about the relationship between "civilization" ...more
A comprehensively argued case for cultural fluidity and “simplification” as a political response of state-evasion. This is enormously helpful in looking at history with fewer state-friendly assumptions, even if it can be a little overwhelming to a reader unfamiliar with Southeast Asia. It doesn't pretend to ring true today, but it's enlightening in creating more complete histories. So good. So good and so needed.
The author made a very bold claim on his argument over the nature of ethnic minorities of Southeast asia's Zomia. Very interesting read.
He has some really interesting things to say but basically just keeps repeating himself over and over. If this was something like a hundred pages it would be a lot easier for me to recommend it.
paradigm-shifting work... i wish the book was less repetitive in its first half.
This was a bit of a letdown. The idea behind the book, the content, the new vision are all worthwhile but the style and order of the book are a real challenge to keep on reading.
On the plus side. The book brings us a radical new view on what used to be savages, heathens, primitives; scoundrels and are coined ethnic minorities or marginal identities today but always on the fringes of centralizing bureaucratic homogenizing states. These hill people are no living fossils but represent alternative ...more
On the plus side. The book brings us a radical new view on what used to be savages, heathens, primitives; scoundrels and are coined ethnic minorities or marginal identities today but always on the fringes of centralizing bureaucratic homogenizing states. These hill people are no living fossils but represent alternative ...more
An interesting glimpse in isolated community living. Worth a read, though not exactly proof of concept for how to structure an ancap society, since it largely depends on isolation brought about by unique and challenging geography which doesn't allow for large group living.
James C. Scott's landmark book about the "maroon societies" of upland southeast Asia is riveting in its scope and imagination, though dense and academic in its execution. It concerns the intentional decision by roughly 80-100 million people, spread across an area spanning five Asian countries ("Zomia"), to seek a less fixed, less "civilized" life. It's an anarchist history because it involves people who chose to flee the predations of states and state-making (anarchy = absence of any form of pol
...more
I came across this book more or less randomly (I think it was briefly mentioned in an article by Matthew Yglesias). I'm not even sure why I decided to read it, as the topic is somewhat outside my usual areas of interest. Nevertheless, I found the it fascinating. Before I picked it up, I would have told you that I knew nothing about the subject matter; it turned out, however, that my brain was actually full of various preconceived notions about stateless people that were mostly incorrect. I can h
...more
There's the idea that our world is one of states, rulers and the arrangements we are bound to with each. Herein we ruminate, worry, plan, coerce and be coerced. We flirt with poetic and picturesque escapes, declaring how we "leave it all behind" for a beach, a hiking trail, a mountain top. But we are never far from the clutches and designs of our masters.
Enter the perennially stateless peoples of Zomia, named for a continental span of highlands that elude any significant influence from nearby s ...more
Enter the perennially stateless peoples of Zomia, named for a continental span of highlands that elude any significant influence from nearby s ...more
I found The Art of Not Being Governed far more disappointing than I had hoped. Perhaps this is an unfair judgment-- if the book had been written by someone other than James Scott, I would have been happy to have accepted it as a lackluster but well-written anthropological history of Burma, but between his authorship and the titillating subtitle, I can't help but feel disappointed by the final product. In my opinion, the theoretical arguments were retreads of his Seeing Like a State , and the res
...more
A look at the history and culture of stateless people in Southeast Asia. Scott's book challenges the idea that tribal people living in remote or hard-to-access areas have been "left behind" by "civilization". Instead he constructs an alternative history in which statelessness is often a choice and a survival mechanism by people seeking to avoid the burdens of living within a state.
Although the subject matter may appear obscure at a glance - Southeast Asia receives little attention in the US (whe ...more
Although the subject matter may appear obscure at a glance - Southeast Asia receives little attention in the US (whe ...more
This was supposed to be about Zomia, a proposed region running through the mountainous area between India to Vietnam. Scott spends less time discussing that and more time discussing state rejection in general. In essence, he argues against Hobbes, claiming that there are good reasons not to want to be part of a state. I think I generally accept his arguments on that front. The part of the book that is about Zomia, especially chapter 6 1/2, is a bit more difficult to swallow--so for example, he a
...more
Can't recommend highly enough and frankly isn't getting enough attention for the way it revolutionizes our conceptualizations of societies- yes, I didn't say 'tribes'- living on the outside of the historic state/empire making projects. Many complained it was repetitive, though reiterating his thesis was necessary throughout as it would have been easy for a reader- even a specialist- to get lost in the myriad of details on hill societies examined and other historical examples he frequent weaves i
...more
Would have gotten 5 stars, but was too long winded. This is labeled as a history/politics book, but it could also have been an anthropology book or even an agriculture studies book. After reading this I understand more fully (and sympathize with) some of the claims which anarcho-primitivists make about the aggressive and detrimental nature of early agricultural states.
It was also nice that the author brought in some stuff from outside SE asia to give the reader a frame of reference. The best sec ...more
It was also nice that the author brought in some stuff from outside SE asia to give the reader a frame of reference. The best sec ...more
Professor Scott's history of stateless peoples in SE Asia is thought-provoking and relevant. Scott provides examples of peoples who persistently avoid the strictures and confines of the traditional state. This work is valuable for providing a glimpse into the lives of those who chose to truly "opt out." Given the pressures of the state, the days of these people are probably numbered; Leviathan continues on the march.
In the concluding chapter, Scott nails the challenge facing humanity: "For virtu ...more
In the concluding chapter, Scott nails the challenge facing humanity: "For virtu ...more
Really impressive, well-argued and researched look at the shifting political and ethnic identities in Southeast Asia. I saw this as a more convincing enumeration of Scott's thesis in Seeing Like A State - that only certain ways of life are easily captured by state systems, and other strategies are formulated in opposition to them.
My only issue with the book is that Scott seems overly careful in returning to his main theses, reiterating previous statements with only a small additional detail or ...more
My only issue with the book is that Scott seems overly careful in returning to his main theses, reiterating previous statements with only a small additional detail or ...more
An excellent and exciting work by an old master. We are so used to seeing history from the standpoint of the state (as Scott demonstrated in his earlier work Seeing Like a State), but this is history from the standpoint of people who refuse to be subject to the state, in one of the last areas of the world where such a thing is possible. Interesting for students of history in general, and especially historians of Southeast Asia. After reading this work, one sees a deep continuity between the earl
...more
This book made the most novel argument that I had ever read about understanding the impact of geography in the political history of an area. Scott's detailed analysis of the ways in which the altitude gradient of a geographical area can be so impactful is immediately obvious to anyone who has tried to cross a mountain range, but for those of us who grew up used to seeing two dimensional representations of our world it was truly mind-blowing.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
received his bachelor's degree from Williams College and his MA and PhD (1967) from Yale. He taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison until 1976, when he returned to Yale. Now Scott is the Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology and is Director of the Agrarian Studies Program. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has held grants from the N
...more
More about James C. Scott...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Not so very long ago, however, such self-governing peoples were the majority of humankind. Today, they are seen from the valley kingdoms as “our living ancestors,” “what we were like before we discovered wet-rice cultivation, Buddhism and civilization.” on the contrary, I argue that hill peoples are best understood as runaway, fugitive, maroon communities who have, over the course of two millennia, been fleeing the oppressions of state-making projects in the valleys — slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labor, epidemics, and warfare.”
—
4 likes
“Nothing could be further from the truth. All identities, without exception, have been socially constructed: the Han, the Burman, the American, the Danish, all of them. Quite often such identities, particularly minority identities, are at first imagined by powerful states, as the Han imagined the Miao, the British colonists imagined the Karen and the Shan, the French the Jarai. Whether invented or imposed, such identities select, more or less arbitrarily, one or another trait, however vague-religion, language, skin color, diet, means of subsistence-as the desideratum. Such categories, institutionalized in territories, land tenure, courts, customary law, appointed chiefs, schools, and paperwork, may become passionately lived identities. To the degree that the identity is stigmatized by the larger state or society, it is likely to become for many a resistant and defiant identity. Here invented identities combine with self-making of a heroic kind, in which such identifications become a badge of honor”
—
3 likes
More quotes…
