The Southeast Asian Maroons

Jesse Walker | August 25, 2008

"The huge literature on state-making, both contemporary and historical, pays virtually no attention to its obverse, which is the history of deliberate and reactive statelessness." That's the always fascinating James C. Scott, author of Weapons of the Weak, Domination and the Arts of Resistance, and Seeing Like a State, in a recent lecture at the London School of Economics. You can hear the whole thing here.

Elsewhere in Reason: My review of Scott's last book.

[Hat tip: Bryan Alexander.]

Comments

Technomist|8.25.08 @ 11:56AM|#

Very interesting lecture. So, I have to decide if I am a hill or a valley person.

|8.25.08 @ 1:44PM|#

Technomist:

Much have I have seen, and much have I done! Do not cast your lot with the valley people, for we fear and distrust them.

I can tell by the position of the sun in the sky, that is time for us to go. Until next time, I am

Lothar of the Hill People!

|8.25.08 @ 4:48PM|#

Haven't listened to the lecture yet, but that conclusion fit with a lot of contemporary Chinese historical research, which is starting to pay a lot more attention to the gaps between periods of authoritarian rule and the limits of projected authority even during periods of supposedly strong state control.