''Society Against the State'' (french: La Société contre l'État) is a 1974
ethnography
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
of power relations in South American rainforest native cultures written by anthropologist
Pierre Clastres
Pierre Clastres (; 17 May 1934 – 29 July 1977) was a French anthropologist, ethnographer, and ethnologist. He is best known for his contributions to the field of political anthropology, with his fieldwork among the Guayaki in Paraguay and his ...
and best known for its thesis that tribal societies reject the centralization of coercive power. Clastres challenged the idea that all cultures evolve through
Westernization
Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, economi ...
to adopt coercive leadership as a popular,
ethnocentric
Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead of ...
myth.
Further reading
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External links
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1974 non-fiction books
French-language books
Anthropology books
Ethnographic literature
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