The Headless State: Aristocratic Orders, Kinship Society, and Misrepresentations of Nomadic Inner Asia - Hardcover

Sneath, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0231140541 ISBN 13: 9780231140546

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2007

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

David Sneath is director of the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at Cambridge University and a lecturer in social anthropology. He conducted doctoral research in Inner Mongolia in the 1980s and since then has carried out research in Mongolia and other parts of Inner Asia.

Review:

A study rich in both historical fact and linguistic analysis... Highly recommended. (Choice)

The author presents intelligent, clearly writtenarguments, disagreement with which should callfor serious reflection. (Daniel Prior Journal of the Royal Anthropological institute)

About this edition

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0231140541
• ISBN 13: 9780231140546
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288