LEADER 04594nam 2200757Ia 450 001 9910454874603321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-231-51167-1 024 7 $a10.7312/snea14054 035 $a(CKB)1000000000772148 035 $a(EBL)895222 035 $a(OCoLC)826477784 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000656342 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)12253269 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000656342 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10634022 035 $a(PQKB)11698066 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC895222 035 $a(DE-B1597)459342 035 $a(OCoLC)1013937923 035 $a(OCoLC)1029835721 035 $a(OCoLC)1032678950 035 $a(OCoLC)1037976394 035 $a(OCoLC)1042016635 035 $a(OCoLC)1046614525 035 $a(OCoLC)1046996953 035 $a(OCoLC)1049627014 035 $a(OCoLC)1054877611 035 $a(OCoLC)940694344 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780231511674 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL895222 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10563193 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000772148 100 $a20070518d2007 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe headless state$b[electronic resource] $earistocratic orders, kinship society, & misrepresentations of nomadic inner Asia /$fDavid Sneath 210 $aNew York $cColumbia University Press$dc2007 215 $a1 online resource (287 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-231-14054-1 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [239]-259) and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tContents -- $t1. Introduction -- $t2. The Myth of the Kinship. Society Evolutionism and the Anthropological Imagination -- $t3. The Imaginary Tribe. Colonial and Imperial Orders and the Peripheral Polity -- $t4. The State Construction of the Clan. The Unilineal Descent Group and the Ordering of State Subjects -- $t5. The Essentialized Nomad. Neocolonial and Soviet Models -- $t6. Creating Peoples. Nation-state History and the Notion of Identity -- $t7. The Headless State. Aristocratic Orders and the Substrata of Power -- $tNotes -- $tReferences -- $tAcknowledgments -- $tIndex 330 $aIn 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. 606 $aAristocracy (Political science)$zAsia, Central 606 $aClans$zAsia, Central 606 $aPower (Social sciences)$zAsia, Central 606 $aTribal government$zAsia, Central 607 $aAsia, Central$xPolitics and government$y1991- 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aAristocracy (Political science) 615 0$aClans 615 0$aPower (Social sciences) 615 0$aTribal government 676 $a958/.042 700 $aSneath$b David$01048788 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910454874603321 996 $aThe headless state$92477297 997 $aUNINA