Abstract
Klavs offered us a comprehensive and lucid presentation on Graeber and Wengrow’s new history of humanity, with a particular focus on their book’s tenth chapter entitled “Why the State Has no Origin.” He summarised Graeber and Wengrow’s dissatisfaction with the existing theories of state due to which either some states do not appear to be states or the application of the concept of state is derived teleologically from the fact of complexity. What do we lose out on by overlooking periods where states collapse, or disregarding institutions that work on a temporal, even seasonal basis? Graeber and Wengrow instead focus on power, through violence, information, and charisma, the three of which can come together in the modern state, but do not necessarily need to cohere in the future. Even though the reading opened possibilities for the future, hinging on the freedoms to disobey orders, to move away, and the ability to recast social ties, we wondered why in the present moment the state could so have embedded itself as to make us seem “stuck” with it. A focus on the margins, territorial or social, where the state’s reach is less certain, could offer insights here.
02 Feb 2023