Anthropology

Angelbeck, Bill, and Colin Grier (2012). [WWW] “Anarchism and the Archaeology of Anarchic Societies: Resistance to Centralization In the Coast Salish Region of the Pacific Northwest Coast.” Current Anthropology 53.5: 547-568.

Barclay, Harold B. (1997). Culture and Anarchism. London: Freedom Press.

– – – (2003). “Islam, Muslim Societies and Anarchy.” Anarchist Studies 10.2: 105-118.

  • <–Abstract: “This contribution addresses the question of a possible relationship between the idea of anarchy and Muslim society. First, the Kharijite and the Sufi traditions in Islam are briefly considered. Then, the paper turns to various manifestations of tribal organisation in North Africa and Southwest Asia. Finally, there is a brief assessment of the writings of Mu’ammar Qaddafi, dictator of Libya, which appear to have some anarchistic content. While the search for anything remotely resembling anarchist thought or practice in Muslim society might at first sight seem a frivolous venture, it is apparent that anarchistic themes do pervade Muslim societies, although there is no consistent rejection of the notion of domination, and no advocacy of a free society.”

– – – (2005). Longing for Arcadia: Memoirs of an Anarcho-Cynicalist Anthropologist. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford.

– – – (1982). People Without Government. London: Kahn & Averill with Cienfuegos Press.

– – – (2005). “Power: Some Anthropological Perspectives.” Anarchist Studies 13.2: 104-117.

  • <–Abstract: “Discussions concerning power and authority by anarchist writers are often marked by confusion. This essay reviews some key analyses of power, and puts forward an anthropologically-informed anarchist analysis concerning the inevitability of forms of power relationships. One cannot dispense with all forms of power and still maintain social relations.”

– – – (2003). The State. London: Freedom Press.

Barnard, Alan (2004). [WWW] “Mutual Aid and the Foraging Mode of Thought: Re-reading Kropotkin on the Khoisan.” Social Evolution and History 3.1: 3-21.

– – – (1998). “The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity In Hunter‐Gatherer Lifeways.” American Ethnologist 25.1: 36-37.

– – – (1993). “Primitive Communism and Mutual Aid: Kropotkin Visits the Bushmen.” Socialism: Ideals, Ideologies, and Local Practice. Ed. C. M. Hann. New York: Routledge. 32-49.

Baroin, Catherine (1985). Anarchie et cohésion sociale chez les Toubou: les Daza Késerda (Niger). Paris: Les Editions de la MSH.

Bonanno, Alfredo M. (1969). [WWW] “Antropologismo e teismo.” Volontà 22.4: 293-294.

Bookchin, Murray (2003). The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy. Warner,NH: Silver Brook Press.

Buier, Natalia (2014). [WWW] “The Promise of Anarchist Anthropology: The Three Burials of the Anarchist Project.” ”Studia Universitates Babes-Bolyai Sociologia” 59.1: 73-90.

  • <– “In this article, anthropologist Natalia Buier discusses David Graeber’s proposition of an anarchist anthropology. She focuses on three key issues: Graeber’s understanding of ethnography and its role within the politics of anthropology, his reading of the anarchist tradition, and his involvement with the Occupy Wall Street movement as a concrete example of the limitations of the political project of an anarchist anthropology. The argument of the article is that Graeber’s representation of the discipline of anthropology, together with his partial reading of the anarchist tradition, run counter to a political and analytic focus that centralizes the notions of class and exploitation.” “This text is an astute if not sometimes brutal critique of David Graeber’s presentation of anarchism and anthropology. I think it is a necessary though sometimes problematic text for all us libcommies in the library. While some of her claims about anarchism (her apparent dismissal of the division of labor, for instance) are certainly subject to some scrutiny, all in all I deeply appreciate this critique of our comrade David as I’m sure the rest of you will. I would be very interested in hearing David’s response to this analysis as well and I hope he can take the time to approach this extremely critical appraisal. – f”

Chodorkoff, Dan (2014). The Anthropology of Utopia: Essays on Social Ecology and Community Development. New Compass Press.

Clastres, Pierre (1998). Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians. New York: Zone Books.

– – – (1977). Society against the State: The Leader As Servant and the Humane Uses of Power Among the Indians of the Americas. New York: Urizen Books.

Cross, Jamie J. (2003). [WWW] “Anthropology and the Anarchists: Culture, Power, and Practice in Militant Anti-Capitalist Protests.” Theomai 7: n.p.

da Rimini, Francesca, and Jonathan Paul Marshall (2017). “Unreal Property: Anarchism, Anthropology and Alchemy.” Property, Place and Piracy. Ed. Martin Fredriksson and James Arvanitakis. London: Routledge. 50-64.

Demma, Domenico (1967). “Antropologia e questione sessuale.” Volontà 20.5: 283-288.

Durrenberger, Paul (2016). [WWW] “Anarchism, Existentialism and Anthropology.” Bronislaw: Magazine of Provocative Open-Ended Anthropological Debate 1: n.p.

Ferretti, Federico (2017). “‘The Murderous Civilisation’: Anarchist Geographies, Ethnography and Cultural Differences in the Works of Elie Reclus.” cultural geographies 24.1: 111-129.

Gilles, Gérard (1967). [Gilles, Gérard. Problemi di antropologia libertaria (I) (pagg. 475-494) “Problemi di antropologia libertaria (II).”] Volontà 20.11: 623-635.

  • <– Also appearing in French: “Problèmes d’anthropologie libertaire (2),” [WWW] ”Recheches libertaires” 4 (1967): 1-20. Note: Gilles does not have in mind “ethnology” but the domain of philosophy concerned with the question of what defines or characterizes the human.

– – – (1967). [WWW] “Problemi di antropologia libertaria (I).” Volontà 20.8-9: 475-494.

Graeber, David (2002). “The Anthropology of Globalization (with Notes on Neomedievalism, and the End of the Chinese Model of the Nation-State).” American Anthropologist 104.4: 1222-1227.

– – – (2007). “Army of Altruists.” Harper’s ??: 31-38.

– – – (2005). “Fetishism as Social Creativity.” Anthropological Theory 5.4: 407-438.

– – – (2004). [WWW] ”Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology”. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.

– – – (2000). [WWW] “Give It Away.” In These Times ??.??: ??-??.

– – – (2005). “The Globalization Movement: Some Points of Clarification.” The Anthropology of Development and Globalization: From Classical Political Economy to Contemporary Neoliberalism. Ed. Marc Edelman and Angelique Haugerud. Malden, MA: Blackwell. ??-??.

– – – (2007). Lost People: Magic and the Legacy of Slavery in Madagascar. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

– – – (1997). “Love Magic and Political Morality in Central Madagascar, 1875-1990.” Gendered Colonialisms in African History. Ed. Nancy Rose Hunt et al. Malden, MA: Blackwell. 94-117.

– – – (1997). “Manners, Deference, and Private Property in Early Modern Europe.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 39.4: 694-728.

– – – (1998). “The Politics of Magic.” Review of Magic in the Ancient World by Fritz Graf. The Nation 266.6: 26-31.

– – – (2007). Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion and Desire. Edinburgh: AK Press.

– – – (2001). Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of Our Own Dreams. New York: Palgrave.

  • <–Profound and insightful, grounded in empirical research and high theory; unfortunately fails to draw on the anarchist archives, however, and thus reinvents the wheel a bit on some points. Nonetheless, indispensable.

– – – (2006). “Turning Modes of Production Inside Out: Or, Why Capitalism is a Transformation of Slavery.” Critique of Anthropology 26.1: 61-85.

  • <–Abstract: “Marxist theory has by now largely abandoned the (seriously flawed) notion of the ‘mode of production,’ but doing so has only encouraged a trend to abandon much of what was radical about it and naturalize capitalist categories. This article argues a better conceived notion of a mode of production — one that recognizes the primacy of human production, and hence a more sophisticated notion of materialism — might still have something to show us: notably, that capitalism, or at least industrial capitalism, has far more in common with, and is historically more closely linked with, chattel slavery than most of us had ever imagined.”

– – – (2000). “What Did This Man Do to the Yanomami?” In These Times ??.??: 38.

Kalb, Don (2014). “Mavericks: Harvey, Graeber, and the Reunification of Anarchism and Marxism in World anthropology.” Focaal 69: 113-134.

Knight, Chris (2011). Review of Debt: The First Five Thousand Years, by David Graeber. Radical Anthropology 5: 36-38.

Komadina, Céline Geffroy (2002). [WWW] “L’économie participative à Huancarani, une communauté bolivienne.” Réfractions 9: 91-100.

  • <–Abstract: “‘The poor person has nothing. He is an orphan.’ Poverty is not only material; it is also symbolic. The poor person is not only someone who has very little or nothing ; but just as much someone who has no one. In the context of an economy of reciprocity, the poor person is someone who cannot make use of the labor power of his kin, who cannot depend on his own, and whose access to various resources is therefore restricted. In pre-Colombian society, in which there was no circulation of money and in which agricultural life required the massive participation of families, the poor person was someone who did not have the benefit of close family ties, who did not have kin at his disposal. In short, the orphan embodied the very image of poverty. Today, the ubiquity of the market economy today complicates the situation and introduces new aspects to the problematic: for example, the need for money in order to have access to goods sold on the market rather than produced by the community.”

Kropotkin, Peter A. (1902). Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution. New York: McClure, Phillips & Co.

Lee, Dorothy (1959). Freedom and Culture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

  • <–Lee was not, to my knowledge, a self-defined anarchist or an activist per se, but her defense of various Native American lifeways as models of autonomy-within-collectivity seems very much to present an anthropological anarchism — and has been read as such by Murray Bookchin.

– – – (1976). Valuing the Self: What We Can Learn from Other Cultures. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Macdonald, Charles. “The Anthropology of Anarchy.” Indian Journal of Human Development 6.1 (2012): 49-66.

Maddock, Kenneth (1980). Anthropology, Law, and the Definition of Australian Aboriginal Rights to Land. Nijmegen [Netherlands]: Instituut voor Volksrecht, Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid, Katholieke Universiteit.

– – – (1973). The Australian Aborigines: A Portrait of Their Society. London: Allen Lane.

– – – (1963). “Primitive Societies and Social Myths.” Anarchy 24: 45-55.

– – – (1962). “The Bounds of Possibility.” Anarchy 16: 171-178.

  • <–A critique of Lucy Mair’s Primitive Government with reference to several African societies.

– – – (1961). “Action Anthropology or Applied Anarchism?” Anarchy 8: 232-236.

Mintz, Jerome R. (2004). The Anarchists of Casas Viejas. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Morris, Brian (2015). “The Anthropology of Anarchist Solidarity.” Review of Anarchic Solidarity: Autonomy, Equality and Fellowship in Southeast Asia, ed. Thomas Gibson and Kenneth Sillander. Anthropology Today 31.3: 19-20.

– – – (2015). “Anarchism and Mysticism.” Review of The Anarchist Revelation: Being What We’re Meant to Be by Paul Cudenec. Anarchist Studies 23.1: 111-115.

– – – (2014). Anthropology, Ecology, and Anarchism: A Brian Morris Reader. Oakland, CA: PM Press.

– – – (2014). Anthropology and the Human Subject. Victoria: Trafford Publishing.

– – – (2014). “Bakunin and the Human Subject.” Anarchist Studies 22.2: 8-16.

– – – (2014). [WWW] “Anarchism, Individualism and South Indian Foragers: Memories and Reflections.” The Eastern Anthropologist 67.3-4: 303-323.

– – – (2007). “Islam and Anarchism.” Social Anarchism 40: 5-8.

– – – (2005). Anthropology and Anarchy: Their Elective Affinity.[WWW] http://research.gold.ac.uk/248/1/ANT-GARP11_GRO.pdf Goldsmiths Anthropology Research Papers. London.

Purchase, Graham (2011). Review of The Art of Not Being Governed, by James C. Scott. Radical Anthropology 5: 27-35.

Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. [Alfred Reginald] (1952). Structure and Function in Primitive Society: Essays and Addresses. Glencoe, Ill: The Free Press.

  • <–A major author of modern anthropology, nicknamed “Anarchy Brown” in his student days for his avowed anarchist politics and admiration for Peter Kropotkin (later redefining himself as a socialist).

Rathbone, Stuart (2017). “Anarchist Literature and the Development of Anarchist Counter-Archaeologies.” World Archaeology 49.3: 291-305.

– – – (2015). [www.iai.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IAI-Conference-Proceedings-2014.pdf#page=15 “It’s All Gone Pear Shaped: Urbanism, Active Resistance and the Early Settlement Pattern of Ireland.”] Proceedings of the IAI Spring Conference 2014: The Archaeology of Settlement — Creating and Inhabiting Urban and Rural Spaces. n.l.: Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland. 13-20.

Roca Martínez, Beltrán (2006). “Anarchism, Anthropology and Andalucia: An Analysis of the CNT and the ‘New Capitalism.'” Anarchist Studies 14.2: 106-130.

– – – (2008). [WWW] “Acción directa y sindicalismo: Una etnografía de combate.” Nómadas: Critical Journal of Social and Juridical Sciences 17.1: n.p.

Scheele, Judith (2015). “The Values of ‘Anarchy’: Moral Autonomy Among Tubu-Speakers In Northern Chad.” Journal Of The Royal Anthropological Institute 21.1: 32-48.

Schulze, Frederick (2013). “Flirting with Anarchism: Class, State, and Anthropology.” Review of Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology by David Graeber, Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism: Counter Power, vol. 1, by Lucien Van Der Walt and Michael Schmidt, and Two Cheers for Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity, and Meaningful Work and Play by James Scott. Focaal 66: 133-138.

Scott, James C. (2012). Two Cheers for Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity, and Meaningful Work and Play. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

– – – (2012). Decoding the Subaltern: Ideology, Disguise, and Resistance in Agrarian Politics. London: Routledge.

– – – (2009). The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

  • <–For two thousand years the disparate groups that now reside in Zomia (a mountainous region the size of Europe that consists of portions of seven Asian countries) have fled the projects of the organized state societies that surround them—slavery, conscription, taxes, corvée labor, epidemics, and warfare. This book, essentially an “anarchist history,” is the first-ever examination of the huge literature on state-making whose author evaluates why people would deliberately and reactively remain stateless. Among the strategies employed by the people of Zomia to remain stateless are physical dispersion in rugged terrain; agricultural practices that enhance mobility; pliable ethnic identities; devotion to prophetic, millenarian leaders; and maintenance of a largely oral culture that allows them to reinvent their histories and genealogies as they move between and around states. In accessible language, James Scott, recognized worldwide as an eminent authority in Southeast Asian, peasant, and agrarian studies, tells the story of the peoples of Zomia and their unlikely odyssey in search of self-determination. He redefines our views on Asian politics, history, demographics, and even our fundamental ideas about what constitutes civilization, and challenges us with a radically different approach to history that presents events from the perspective of stateless peoples and redefines state-making as a form of “internal colonialism.” This new perspective requires a radical reevaluation of the civilizational narratives of the lowland states. Scott’s work on Zomia represents a new way to think of area studies that will be applicable to other runaway, fugitive, and marooned communities, be they Gypsies, Cossacks, tribes fleeing slave raiders, Marsh Arabs, or San-Bushmen.

– – – (1997). Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

– – – (1990). Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

– – – (1989). [WWW] “Everyday Forms of Resistance.” The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies 4.1: 33-62.

– – – (1985). Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Ssorin-Chaikov, Nikolai (2015). “Sociopolitics.” Reviews in Anthropology 44.1: 5-27.

Tremlett, Paul-François (2004). “On the Formation and Function of the Category ‘Religion’ In Anarchist Writing.” Culture and Religion 5.3: 367-381.

Vigné d’Octon, Pierre (1934). “Anthropologie.” Encyclopédie anarchiste. Ed. Sébastien Faure. Paris: Librairie internationale. 91 .

– – – (1934). “Anthropométrie.” Encyclopédie anarchiste. Ed. Sébastien Faure. Paris: Librairie internationale. 91.

– – – (1934). “Anthropomorphisme.” Encyclopédie anarchiste. Ed. Sébastien Faure. Paris: Librairie internationale. 91-92.

– – – (1934). “Anthropophagie.” Encyclopédie anarchiste. Ed. Sébastien Faure. Paris: Librairie internationale. 92.

Viola, Carmelo R. (1967). [WWW] “Antropologia e libertà sessuale.” Volontà 20.7: 423-428.

Walker, Harry (2012). “On Anarchist Anthropology.” Anthropology of This Century 3: n.p.

Zehmisch, Philipp (2016). “Undoing Subalternity? Anarchist Anthropology and the Dialectics of Participation and Autonomy.” Negotiating Normativity: Postcolonial Appropriations, Contestations, and Transformations. Ed. Nikita Dhawan, Elisabeth Fink, Johanna Leinius, and Rirhandu Mageza-Barthel. Cham: Springer. 95-109.

Special Issues

(2018) Journal des anthropologues 1-2.152-153 (Special issue: “Anthropologie et anarchisme”)

  • Accolas, Sophie, Jacob Durieux, and Ariel Planeix. “Anthropologie et anarchisme.” 15-24.- – – . “‪Anthropology and anarchism‪.” 25-34.

    Pelletier, Philippe. “‪Géographie, anthropologie et anarchie au XIXe siècle‪: Carrefours, rendez-vous manqués et promesses.” 35-56.

    Jeffs, Nikolai. “‪Notes on some possible hierarchies within anthropology’s anarchism(s)‪.” 57-81.

    Escauriza, Bettina. “‪That which will become the earth: anarcho-indigenous speculative geographies‪.” 83-106.

    Falleiros, Guilherme. “Race, class, gender and zodiac signs‪.” 107-126. ‪

    Siron, Thomas. ‪‪”Une ‪« ‪communauté d‪’‪égaux‪ »‪ sur la br‪è‪che: L‪es institutions élémentaires de l‪’‪organisation pionnière‪ ‪des‪ « ‪paysans‪ ‪sans‪ ‪terre‪ »‪ boliviens‪‪‪.” 127-146.

    Araujo, Erin. “‪Moneyless economics and non-hierarchical exchange values in Chiapas, Mexico‪.” 147-170.

    Lendaro, Annalisa. “Désobéir en faveur des migrants‪: Répertoires d’action à la frontière franco-italienne.” 171-192.

    Lindsey, Jason Royce. “‪An anarchist policing? Some suggestive examples from speculative fiction‪.” 193-212.

    Delorme, Pierre-Alexandre, and Clément Poutot. “Pierre Clastres ou la pensée ensauvagée‪: À propos du colloque « Pierre Clastres : d’une ethnologie de terrain à une anthropologie du pouvoir » 25 et 26 octobre 2017 Abbaye d’Ardenne de l’IMEC – MRSH de l’université Caen Normandie.” 291-296.

(2012) Critique of Anthropology 32.2 (Special issue: “Anthropology and Anarchy”)

  • High, Holly. “Anthropology and Anarchy: Romance, Horror or Science Fiction?” 93–108Lea, Tess. “When Looking for Anarchy, Look to the State: Fantasies of Regulation in Forcing Disorder within the Australian Indigenous Estate.” 109–124

    Martin, Keir. “The ‘Potlatch of Destruction’: Gifting against the State.” 125–142.

    Robinson, Andrew, and Simon Tormey. “Beyond the State: Anthropology and ‘Actually-Existing-Anarchism.'” 143-157.

    Jonsson, Hjorleifur. “Paths to Freedom: Political Prospecting In the Ethnographic Record.” 158–172.

    Ringel, Felix. “Towards anarchist futures? Creative presentism, vanguard practices and anthropological hopes.” 173–188.

    Ssorin-Chaikov, Nikolai. “Writing Power: An Anarchist Anthropologist In the Looking Glass of Critical Theory.” 189–205.

    Nugent, Stephen. “Anarchism Out West: Some Reflections on Sources.” 206–216.

Collections

Gibson, Thomas, and Kenneth Sillander, eds. (2011). Anarchic Solidarity: Autonomy, Equality, and Fellowship In Southeast Asia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

  • A theoretical overview of anarchic solidarity / Charles MacdonaldSources of sociality in a cosmological frame : Chewong, Peninsular Malaysia / Signe Howell

    Cooperative autonomy : social solidarity among the Batek of Malaysia / Kirk Endicott

    Childhood, familiarity and social life among East Semai / Robert Dentan

    Kinship and fellowship among the Palawan / Charles Macdonald

    Kinship and the dialectics of autonomy and solidarity among the Bentian of Borneo / Kenneth Sillander

    Egalitarianism and ranking in the Malay world / Geoffrey Benjamin

    Encapsulation and solidarity in northeast Borneo : Punan of the Malinau area / Lars

    Mending nets of relatedness : words and gifts as sources of solidarity in a Sama Dilaut fishing community / Clifford Sather

    Nicknames at work and at play : sociality and social cohesion among the Cuyonon of the Philippines / James Eder

    Egalitarian islands in a predatory sea / Thomas Gibson.

    <–Sirojuddin Arif writes: “As stated by Charles Macdonald in the introduction to the volume, the book is meant as an anthropological parallel to Scott’s monograph. While Scott provides an historical account of social anarchism among the highland people of mainland Southeast Asia, Anarchic Solidarity is an ethnographic monograph of the island people. The former focuses on the “objective” utilitarian nature of social anarchism, which is to escape from state control, while the latter emphasizes the “subjective” components of social anarchism. To summarize briefly the whole argument in the volume under review, social anarchism is rooted not in the people’s struggle to escape from the state, as Scott argues, but in the values, norms, and practices inherent in their culture.”