Marxism has tended to be a theoretical or analytical discourse about revolutionary strategy. Part of the problem, Graeber claims, is that traditionally, academics on the radical left have gravitated toward the more "High Theory"-oriented Marxism ( Karl Marx himself was a PhD) rather than the more practice-oriented anarchism. It is, for example, the only discipline in a position to make generalizations about humanity as a whole-since it is the only discipline that actually takes all of humanity into account, and is familiar with all the anomalous cases." (p. 96) Anthropologists, Graeber writes, may be also simply afraid of being dismissed as "utopian." Graeber offers several possibilities why anthropologists are reluctant to come out and make normative judgments and proposals: "In many ways, anthropology seems a discipline terrified of its own potential. Reasons for the nonexistence of anarchist anthropology Suffering and pleasure: on the privatization of desire."Because violence, particularly structural violence, where all the power is on one side, creates ignorance." (p. 72)) Power/ignorance, or power/stupidity (Graeber explores a possible theory of the relation of power not with knowledge, but with ignorance and stupidity, in explicit opposition to Foucault's theories of power and knowledge.A theory of political entities that are not states.In particular, Graeber suggests several areas a hypothetical anarchist anthropology would need to tackle, and in the book elaborates on each point briefly: Road near a Tsimihety village, negotiate the terms with apparently cooperative elders, and return with the equipment a week later only to discover the village entirely abandoned-every single inhabitant had moved in with some relative in another part of the country.
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To this day they have maintained a reputation as masters of evasion: under the French, administrators would complain that they could send delegations to arrange for labor to build a Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology (Paradigm) Paperback Apby David Graeber (Author) 128 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle from 3.99 Read with Our Free App Paperback 12.95 7 Used from 8.31 18 New from 9.90 Everywhere anarchism is on the upswing as a political philosophyeverywhere, that is, except the academy.
The Tsimihety, rejecting all governmental authority and organizing their society along very egalitarian lines, were able to continue their autonomy and culture for decades on end, up to the present, not by confronting the government, but by retreating.
Graeber did postgraduate work with tribal cultures in Madagascar, including one with the Tsimihety in the northwest of the country. One of the most striking suggestions in the pamphlet challenges the traditional anarchist notion of aggressive confrontation with the state. 3 Reasons for the nonexistence of anarchist anthropology.
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