David Colborne reviewed The Art of Not Being Governed by James C. Scott (Yale Agrarian Studies)
The Art of Not Being Reviewable
3 stars
There's something about James C. Scott's writing style that makes his books easy for me to put aside while also providing moments of deep insight.
In this book, Scott discusses the history of Zomia — a geographical zone centered near Southeast China and the hills of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. In the history he presents, the people of Zomia are largely the castoffs of "civilized" padi-rice society, with all of its conscription, taxes and central authority. To escape the control and deprivations of central authority, the people of Zomia organize themselves into various groups (Hmong, Miao, etc.). Since many of the people of Zomia are refugees from Thai, Chinese, and other fixed agriculture societies, the corresponding ethnicity of any group of people in Zomians is consequently fluid, in much the same way "Californian" could ethnically be just about anything.
Makes one wonder how fixed ethnicities truly are anywhere else. …
There's something about James C. Scott's writing style that makes his books easy for me to put aside while also providing moments of deep insight.
In this book, Scott discusses the history of Zomia — a geographical zone centered near Southeast China and the hills of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. In the history he presents, the people of Zomia are largely the castoffs of "civilized" padi-rice society, with all of its conscription, taxes and central authority. To escape the control and deprivations of central authority, the people of Zomia organize themselves into various groups (Hmong, Miao, etc.). Since many of the people of Zomia are refugees from Thai, Chinese, and other fixed agriculture societies, the corresponding ethnicity of any group of people in Zomians is consequently fluid, in much the same way "Californian" could ethnically be just about anything.
Makes one wonder how fixed ethnicities truly are anywhere else.
The book contains several insights about the nature of state-building, which are generally compelling if a little "just so" at times. Many of the claims in the book are somewhat grandiose and binary, however, and it seems somewhat ungrateful to openly disdain state creation in a book that couldn't exist in an illiterate society.
It was definitely thought provoking, albeit difficult to grip.
