In
political anthropology
Political anthropology is the comparative study of politics in a broad range of historical, social, and cultural settings.
History of political anthropology Origins
Political anthropology has its roots in the 19th century. At that time, thinkers ...
, a theatre state is a political
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
directed towards the performance of
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
and
ritual
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...
rather than more conventional ends such as
warfare
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regu ...
and
welfare
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
. Power in a theatre state is exercised through
spectacle
In general, spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. Derived in Middle English from c. 1340 as "specially prepared or arranged display" it was borrowed from Old French ''spectacle'', itself a reflection of t ...
. The term was coined by
Clifford Geertz
Clifford James Geertz (; August 23, 1926 – October 30, 2006) was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology and who was considered "for three decade ...
in 1980 in reference to political practice in the nineteenth-century Balinese
Negara, but its usage has since expanded. Hunik Kwon and Byung-Ho Chung, for example, argue that contemporary
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
is a theatre state. In Geertz's original usage, the concept of the theatre state contests the notion that
precolonial society can be analysed in the conventional discourse of
Oriental despotism.
[Heder, S. "Political Theatre in the 2003 Cambodian Elections", in Strauss, J. C. & O'Brien, D. C. (eds.) (2007) ''Staging Politics: Power and Performance in Asia and Africa''. I. B. Tauris, p. 151.]
See also
* ''
Negara: The Theatre State in Nineteenth-Century Bali''
*
Bread and circuses
"Bread and circuses" (or bread and games; from Latin: ''panem et circenses'') is a metonymic phrase referring to superficial appeasement. It is attributed to Juvenal, a Roman poet active in the late first and early second century CE, and is used ...
*
Military parades in North Korea
*
Byzantinism
Byzantinism, or Byzantism, is the political system and culture of the Byzantine Empire, and its spiritual successors the Orthodox Christian Balkan countries of Greece and Bulgaria especially, and to a lesser extent Serbia and some other Orthodox ...
*
Divide and rule
Divide and rule policy ( la, divide et impera), or divide and conquer, in politics and sociology is gaining and maintaining power divisively. Historically, this strategy was used in many different ways by empires seeking to expand their ter ...
*
Ritual and music system
References
Anthropology
Ritual
Pejorative terms for forms of government
Political metaphors
Drama
Political anthropology
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