The vast majority of history books are about countries, states, and governments ruling over their citizens, while this book is about the people who refused to be governed and instead form communities in isolated places to protect their freedoms.
Anarchy is often used in a negative way to express a state of chaos and disorder. Anarchy comes from Greek meaning, “without a leader” it is only pessimistic people who believe that living without a leader would mean chaos and disorder. Optimists think that humanity can not only survive but thrive without leaders and governments because people will come together for the collective well-being of everyone.
The author, James C. Scott provides a well-researched book that describes the lives of these anarchic communities living in Southeast Asia in a region known as Zomia which includes parts of various countries like, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, India, Myanmar, and China. There are many different communities that live in isolated highland villages, far away from center of government in order to protect their way of life. These communities are able to survive by growing crops that are easy to grow in high altitudes and require a minimum amount of maintenance. The heavy forested and mountainous region they live in provides security against states trying to conquer them because the terrain makes any attack difficult and not worth the cost. In addition, when any of these communities are under attack; it is easy for them to split up into smaller numbers and disperse into a new area.
One of the more interesting ways these communities repel state intervention is by having, “A highly egalitarian social structure that makes it difficult for a state to extend its rule through local chiefs and headmen. One of the key material conditions of egalitarian structure is open and equal access to subsistence resources.” When everyone shares the land’s resources, society becomes more equal and therefore little reason to revolt.
Modern society can learn a lot by studying these anarchist communities in Southeast Asia and hopefully begin to see the benefits of living in a society with less structure and more equality.— From Cultures
From the acclaimed author and scholar James C. Scott, the compelling tale of Asian peoples who until recently have stemmed the vast tide of state-making to live at arm’s length from any organized state society
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.
"Scott’s panoramic view will no doubt enthrall many readers . . . one doesn’t have to see like a Zomian nor pretend to be an anarchist to appreciate the many insights in James Scott’s book."—Grant Evans, Times Literary Supplement
"James Scott has produced here perhaps his most masterful work to date. It is deeply learned, creative and compassionate. Few scholars possess a keener capacity to recognize the agency of peoples without history and in entirely unexpected places, practices and forms. Indeed, it leads him ever closer to the anarchist ideal that it is possible for humans not only to escape the state, but the very state form itself."—Prasenjit Duara, National University of Singapore
"A brilliant study rich with humanity and cultural insights, this book will change the way readers think about human history—and about themselves. It is one of the most fascinating and provocative works in social history and political theory I, for one, have ever read."—Robert W. Hefner, Boston University
"Underscores key, but often overlooked, variables that tell us a great deal about why states rise and expand as well as decline and collapse. There are no books that currently cover these themes in this depth and breadth, with such conceptual clarity, originality, and imagination. Clearly argued and engaging, this is a path-breaking and paradigm-shifting book."—Michael Adas, Rutgers University