The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia

摘要

James Scott provides a bird's-eye view of the political landscape of upland mainland Southeast Asia. Its scope is vast: it includes "virtually all the lands at altitudes above roughly three hundred meters all the way from the Central Highlands of Vietnam to northeastern India and traversing five Southeast Asian nations... and four provinces of China...." (p. ix). Scott stresses the unity of this (at least their states) emphasize chronology of reigns and genealogies that link each ruler to the lineage of previous rulers, while uplanders have a marked preference for shallow genealogies and oral rather than written traditions; lowland states have rigid hierarchical structures, while in the uplands social organization is relatively simple and easily replicated, and political power and leadership are minimal.