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4 Field Colloquium Series: "A Brief History of Flight from the State"

James Scott
Monday, October 31, 2016
3:00-5:00 PM
411 West Hall Map
Our 4 Field Colloquium series presents speakers from the four fields of anthropology on new and topical interests in the field.

"“Zomia,” the designation invented by Willem van Schendel for that portion of upland Southeast Asia that has, until recently, evaded incorporation into nation states and empires, could be, metaphorically, extended to other areas of the world that have become zones of state evasion. My talk explores some of those zones in Southeast Asia and elsewhere. Though Zomia is mountainous, wetlands, swamps, marshes, deltas and even city slums have also served historically as refugia for state-fleeing populations. The principles of geography, subsistence practices, mobility, and social structure that abet both state avoidance and state-prevention are examined.

Inevitably, flight from the state raises questions about the earliest agrarian states in the Mesopotamian alluvium; questions which I raise on the basis of a cursory review of the literature. To what degree, I wonder, did infectious diseases, captured labor, and taxes on variable grain harvests provoke state evasion and flight."

Cosponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies
Building: West Hall
Event Type: Lecture / Discussion
Tags: AEM Featured, Anthropology, Southeast Asia
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Department of Anthropology, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, International Institute