Anthropology in the Margins of the State (School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series) [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Veena Das (Author, Editor), Deborah Poole (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2004 | Series: School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series

The form and reach of the modern state are changing radically under the pressure of globalization. This innovative exploration of these transformations develops an ethnographic methodology and theoretical apparatus to assess perceptions of power in three regions where state reform and violence have been particularly dramatic: Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. Understanding how people perceive and experience the agency of the state; who is of, and not of, the state; and how practices at the margins shape the state itself are central themes. VEENA DAS is Professor of Anthropology at the Johns Hopkins University; DEBORAH POOLE is Professor of Anthropology at the Johns Hopkins University. North America: School for Advanced Research Press

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is an innovative collection on a seminal theme....Of particular importance is...the emphasis that the 'margins' are not peripheral to the working of the state but, on the contrary, highlight crucial aspects of its everyday functioning. - --Peter Geschiere, University of Amsterdam

The contributors show how we can theorise and analyse the spectral presence of the state on its margins, and how issues of hermeneutic power, representation, justice and citizenship involve an interplay of competing force-fields at such liminal locations as check-points, border crossings, military lines, black markets, bureaucratic counters and international frontiers. --Michael Jackson, Anthropological Forum, Vol. 16, no. 1 (March 2006)

This engaging, thoughtful book presents and sustains a distinctively anthropological perspective on the contemporary state and its relations to citizenship, identity, power, and daily life….The authors' attention to the margins of state power leads us to consider the difficulty of drawing a line that separates zones within and without state control-insights that grow increasingly timely. --Ben Orlove, Univ. of California-Davis

Product Details

• Hardcover: 354 pages
• Publisher: SAR Press; illustrated edition edition (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930618409
• ISBN-13: 978-1930618404
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,061,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Start, February 8, 2010

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This review is from: Anthropology in the Margins of the State (School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series) (Paperback)

The subject of this title has been on my mind for a few years, so when I bumped into it on Amazon I bought it immediately. In the past, anthropology has often focused its stare on ostensibly specific and discrete groups. This book represents a late entry into an anthropology that has turned to face the dynamics of cultural becoming. The central idea is that the state is not absent at its margins and, in fact, is more readily seen as it struggles to obtain some level of certainty in uncertain political terrain. So, nothing revelatory in the thesis-except that anthropologists are saying it. The book contains 11 essays of unequal insight, with Veena Das's 'Paradox of Legibility', and Talal Asad's 'Where are the Margins of the State' being the stand-outs.

I enjoy the detailed analysis of quotidian statecraft without falling back on excruciating Marxist analogs. For that I thank the authors. However, I have a number of gripes. First, there are some shallow, introductory digs at both Giorgio Agamben (p.15) and James Scott (pp.9-10) that I found weak enough to wonder whether the authors making them had actually read the work(s) of their targets. In the end, 'Anthropology in the Margins of the State' lacks a strong theoretical thrust, and some essays flitter a bit too far from the titular topic, and toward a personal micro-journalism. For such reasons, I cannot imagine a casual reader taking much from the book. Rather, this is a collection for anthropologists, and perhaps, for academic professionals in related fields (geography, maybe?).