Books by Anastasia Piliavsky
Introduction to NOBODY'S PEOPLE: HIERARCHY AS HOPE IN A SOCIETY OF THIEVES, 2020
This book gives an account of hierarchy as a source of active social imagination, as a normative ... more This book gives an account of hierarchy as a source of active social imagination, as a normative idiom and a set of social principles through which the people I have known in India advance their lives. Taking readers on an ethnographic journey to the North Indian countryside, it shows how hierarchy frames, motivates, and enables my Indian hosts’ and interlocutors’ ambitions, and why they look to it as a vehicle of their hopeful pursuits. It shows how and why hierarchy operates as a cultural resource for the making and unmaking of persons, why people appeal to it to assert their worth and pursue better lives, how it assists their movement through the social ranks—and why its absence can lead to social obliteration.
What if we could imagine hierarchy not as a social ill, but as a source of social hope? Taking us... more What if we could imagine hierarchy not as a social ill, but as a source of social hope? Taking us into a "caste of thieves" in northern India, Nobody's People depicts hierarchy as a normative idiom through which people imagine better lives and pursue social ambitions. Failing to find a place inside hierarchic relations, the book's heroes are "nobody's people": perceived as worthless, disposable and so open to being murdered with no regret or remorse. Following their journey between death and hope, we learn to perceive vertical, nonequal relations as a social good, not only in rural Rajasthan, but also in much of the world-including settings stridently committed to equality. Challenging egalo-normative commitments, Anastasia Piliavsky asks scholars across the disciplines to recognize hierarchy as a major intellectual resource.
Does patronage always imply a corruption of democratic political processes? Across sixteen essays... more Does patronage always imply a corruption of democratic political processes? Across sixteen essays by historians, political scientists and anthropologists Patronage as Politics in South Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2014), edited by Anastasia Piliavsky, explores this question and many more across a range of historical and cultural contexts. The volume’s collective drive to ask difficult and theoretically nuanced questions about the role of patronage in South Asia, gives the book a coherence that plays wonderfully against the contributions’ eclecticism and diversity.
From the back cover:
‘By insisting that what we call “patronage” is above all a moral idiom, and... more From the back cover:
‘By insisting that what we call “patronage” is above all a moral idiom, and by rejecting arguments that would prefer to confine patronage to the theoretical dustbin referred to as “tradition”, this brilliant volume will transform the study of South Asian politics. It combines a stellar assembly of researchers and imaginatively analysed case studies, and will provoke exciting debates about the past, present and future of democracy - both in South Asia itself, and far beyond.’
Jonathan Spencer, Professor of the Anthropology of South Asia
University of Edinburgh
‘It is remarkable how much the historical course in India is guided rather by institutional memories and their persisting structural paradigms. Testifying to this reproduction of the past in modern political garb, essay after essay of this fine work offers a nuanced, anthropological sense of how cultural order is revealed by historical change, even as the change manifests a historical order.’
Marshall Sahlins, Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
The University of Chicago
'Even those of us who see the importance of patronage waning will find an abundance of crucial insights in these subtle, deeply learned analyses.'
James Manor, Professor of Commonwealth Studies
University of London
‘This excellent book demonstrates the importance of maintaining a focus on morality as it intersects with political and economic process ... Drawing on rich empirical case material, it is a refreshing and revitalizing “return” to the category of patronage that will be valuable to both regional specialists and those with a broader interest in global political processes.’
Jon P Mitchell, Reader in Anthropology, Director of Doctoral Studies for Global Studies
University of Sussex
Chapters, articles, talks, reviews by Anastasia Piliavsky
Current Anthropology, 2023
Does equality have to be democracy's orienting value? My answer is: no. Read on to see why - and ... more Does equality have to be democracy's orienting value? My answer is: no. Read on to see why - and why it matters - for understanding politics in India and far, far beyond.
HAU:Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2022
This special section approaches "politics" from a specifically ethnographic point of view. It doe... more This special section approaches "politics" from a specifically ethnographic point of view. It does this by privileging ethnographically derived political concepts rather than more familiar preestablished and supposedly universal categories of political analysis. This introduction offers a general theoretical framework for doing this, and establishes a shared language of analysis. It situates current developments in relation to the history of political anthropology and of the broader discipline, and proposes a definition of the domain of political anthropology through an emphasis on politics as collective ethics. It then reflects on the relationship between language and concepts, and the articulation of different "global" hierarchies of value.
Political Theology, 2022
People across India's landscape and political spectrum deify their political leaders, subjecting ... more People across India's landscape and political spectrum deify their political leaders, subjecting them to lavish rituals of veneration. They festoon politicians with flower garlands, bedeck them with crowns and swords, enshrine them in temples and douse their murtis in milk, curds, and ghee. This happens during elections as much as between them, in cities as well as in villages, in the Communist Party as much as in the BJP. The worship of politicians is as crucial an institution of India's democracy as elections, as important to how political representatives and the people that they represent relate. Yet while political analysts devote much energy to elections, in their writings politician worship simply does not feature. Its descriptions appear in ethnographic accounts, 1 but, as far as mainstream political analysts (in journalism and academe) are concerned, this is India's quaint and quirky exotica, the stuff of religion or tradition, an element of cultural style with no political substance, meaning, or consequence. 2 And little wonder. Today's professional political analysts, whether in popular media or in academe, are heirs to ways of thinking about politics, and indeed of conceptualizing "the
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 2019
In the Gray Zone. In conversation with Gregory Feldman, Pál Nyíri, and Jatin Dua about crime, mor... more In the Gray Zone. In conversation with Gregory Feldman, Pál Nyíri, and Jatin Dua about crime, moral judgment, and problems of jurisdiction.
Anthropology of This Century, 2019
Anthropology of This Century, 2018
Debates on the epistemological, ethical, and historical constitution of the anthropological corpu... more Debates on the epistemological, ethical, and historical constitution of the anthropological corpus are one of the reasons why anthropology has always thrived. Whether in terms of the complex relation between the production of anthropological knowledge and the political systems in which it takes place, or the proliferation of the language of " mutual constitution " as a way to bypass questions of causality, the question of the " suffering " vs. the " good, " the attribution of " colonial " or " white male privilege " to ethnographic classics, or the hackneyed debates on the precariousness of academic life, contemporary anthropology is traversed by critical shortcuts, worn paths we often take, without reflecting on them. This first installment of a new journal section titled " Shortcuts " aims to investigate and question the analytical, historical, and interpretive arguments that have become common knowledge in anthropology, intuitively true and agreeable, yet rarely subject to rigorous scrutiny and discussion. The first " Shortcut " engages with the question " Why read the classics? " and offers six varied responses by scholars who deal with how the anthropological canon is produced and what is at stake in preserving it, going back to it, or getting away from it.
Everybody hates bureaucracy – even bureaucrats hate bureaucracy (who likes stamping forms all day... more Everybody hates bureaucracy – even bureaucrats hate bureaucracy (who likes stamping forms all day long?) – but David Graeber hates it more than most.
This study of the moral logic of the striking success of goondas (gangsters or toughs) in North I... more This study of the moral logic of the striking success of goondas (gangsters or toughs) in North Indian politics comes by way of a comment on intellectual method in the anthropology of moralities. More especially, it offers critical remarks on the recent adoption of ‘virtue’ as the cardinal moral co-ordinate of human life. Drawing on field research conducted across northern India, we show that when people celebrate goondas as leaders, they do so not because they see in them virtuous men, but because they think them capable of ‘getting things done’. This ethics of efficacy is neither merely instrumental nor is it but another variant of virtue ethics. It presents, instead, an altogether different moral teleology orientated towards effective action rather than excellent character. While challenging the self-centred bent of the late anthropology of ethics, we also make preliminary remarks on the contrast between ‘moral’ and ‘practical’ judgement, and the limits of ‘the moral’ as such.
ЧЕЛОВЕЧЕСКАЯ ДЕМОКРАТИЯ ИНДИИ (пер. с англ. Марии Маглеванной) Здесь прохладно, и в воздухе пахне... more ЧЕЛОВЕЧЕСКАЯ ДЕМОКРАТИЯ ИНДИИ (пер. с англ. Марии Маглеванной) Здесь прохладно, и в воздухе пахнет розами. Снаружи -жара под 50°С, тысячи людей толпятся, пытаясь взглянуть на редкое зрелище, а я внутри, на диване, рядом с тем самым зрелищем -Васундхарой Радже. Сегодня она главный министр Раджастана, но на тот момент, в 2013 г., она еще только кандидат в министры. Мы в микроавтобусе во время eе грандиозного предвыборного турне. Автобус, называемый ратх, или «колесница», -одна из ранних демократических инноваций в Индии. Впервые такой автобус был сделан в 1990 г. для Л.К. Адвани, тогдашнего президента партии «Бхаратия Джаната Парти» (БДП). 25 лет назад Адвани пронесся на своей «Огненной колеснице», как ее называли в то время, от штата Гуджарат до Айодхьи, опаляя страну пламенем хиндутвы (индуистского национализма). Сегодня Колесница БДП уже не символ господства индуистов и последователи партии не осеняют пылью с ее колес свои лбы, как 20 лет назад. Она олицетворяет экономический рост и техно-бум -два новых политических стяга, поднятых новоизбранным премьер-министром Индии Нарендрой Моди.
Witsoe’s is the most rigorous ethnographic account to date of what may well be the world’s most f... more Witsoe’s is the most rigorous ethnographic account to date of what may well be the world’s most fervent democracy. Essential reading for anyone interested in the politics of the subcontinent, it shows just how much anthropologists can teach political analysts, if only we pass over their jejune theories and turn instead to the world.
Patronage is a structural pivot of social life in South Asia. Drawing on the ethnography of relat... more Patronage is a structural pivot of social life in South Asia. Drawing on the ethnography of relations between a caste of professional thieves in rural Rajasthan, known as Kanjars, and their patron-goddesses, I show that patronage is also, crucially, a normative formula which encompasses a set of values. I examine the nature of these values, and why the Kanjars value them such a lot, to show an alternative sense of hierarchy, based neither on substantive values (like purity or auspiciousness) nor on transactions, but on a set of relational values (like attachment and generosity) which may have cardinal provenance beyond the given context.
Uploads
Books by Anastasia Piliavsky
‘By insisting that what we call “patronage” is above all a moral idiom, and by rejecting arguments that would prefer to confine patronage to the theoretical dustbin referred to as “tradition”, this brilliant volume will transform the study of South Asian politics. It combines a stellar assembly of researchers and imaginatively analysed case studies, and will provoke exciting debates about the past, present and future of democracy - both in South Asia itself, and far beyond.’
Jonathan Spencer, Professor of the Anthropology of South Asia
University of Edinburgh
‘It is remarkable how much the historical course in India is guided rather by institutional memories and their persisting structural paradigms. Testifying to this reproduction of the past in modern political garb, essay after essay of this fine work offers a nuanced, anthropological sense of how cultural order is revealed by historical change, even as the change manifests a historical order.’
Marshall Sahlins, Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
The University of Chicago
'Even those of us who see the importance of patronage waning will find an abundance of crucial insights in these subtle, deeply learned analyses.'
James Manor, Professor of Commonwealth Studies
University of London
‘This excellent book demonstrates the importance of maintaining a focus on morality as it intersects with political and economic process ... Drawing on rich empirical case material, it is a refreshing and revitalizing “return” to the category of patronage that will be valuable to both regional specialists and those with a broader interest in global political processes.’
Jon P Mitchell, Reader in Anthropology, Director of Doctoral Studies for Global Studies
University of Sussex
Chapters, articles, talks, reviews by Anastasia Piliavsky
‘By insisting that what we call “patronage” is above all a moral idiom, and by rejecting arguments that would prefer to confine patronage to the theoretical dustbin referred to as “tradition”, this brilliant volume will transform the study of South Asian politics. It combines a stellar assembly of researchers and imaginatively analysed case studies, and will provoke exciting debates about the past, present and future of democracy - both in South Asia itself, and far beyond.’
Jonathan Spencer, Professor of the Anthropology of South Asia
University of Edinburgh
‘It is remarkable how much the historical course in India is guided rather by institutional memories and their persisting structural paradigms. Testifying to this reproduction of the past in modern political garb, essay after essay of this fine work offers a nuanced, anthropological sense of how cultural order is revealed by historical change, even as the change manifests a historical order.’
Marshall Sahlins, Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Anthropology
The University of Chicago
'Even those of us who see the importance of patronage waning will find an abundance of crucial insights in these subtle, deeply learned analyses.'
James Manor, Professor of Commonwealth Studies
University of London
‘This excellent book demonstrates the importance of maintaining a focus on morality as it intersects with political and economic process ... Drawing on rich empirical case material, it is a refreshing and revitalizing “return” to the category of patronage that will be valuable to both regional specialists and those with a broader interest in global political processes.’
Jon P Mitchell, Reader in Anthropology, Director of Doctoral Studies for Global Studies
University of Sussex
Our workshop explores the deep social roots of this crisis through a comparative investigation of different cultural orders of responsibility. Bringing social anthropologists into conversation with philosophers and other social scientists, we will examine how different social orders—hierarchical, individualist, egalitarian—distribute responsibility, allocate social duties, and hold their members to account. How do the different ways of placing persons within a society relate to the different cultural allocation of responsibility? How do different norms of personhood and relatedness shape conceptions of social obligation and prescribe means of discharging it? What happens to structures of responsibility when regimes of valuation shift or radically transform? And how do the different orders of responsibility relate to the asymmetries of power and privilege, and the ways these are normatively conceived?
Hierarchy offers an instructive contrast to the Euro-American case, since it allocates responsibility with a clarity lacking in egalitarian schemes. What lessons might egalitarians draw from hierarchical modes of allocating responsibility? And in what ways do hierarchical arrangements already resemble the egalitarian, in ways an egalitarian normative sense may fail to appreciate or even recognize? What can we learn from alternative egalitarian and individualist schemes? And finally, how do these reflections help us to square the notion of individual, equally distributed responsibility with the de facto asymmetries of resources, status and power, and the stated requirements of accountability?
This workshop challenges the ‘flattening’ of the social terrain both in popular imagination and in social theory, which relies increasingly on individualist tropes like ‘agency’ and socially horizontal, mechanistic models like ‘networks’ or ‘reciprocity’. In doing this, we hope to bring into sharper focus the rapidly globalizing egalitarian normativity, whose implications are as political as they are intellectual.
Four drastically different places and four distinct points of view will bring to the table the force of broad cross-cultural comparison to bear on the most urgent problems which haunt democracies around the globe and at home.
With Mary McCauley (on Russia), Helen Thompson (on Britain), Mukulika Banerjee (on India) and Andrea Teti (on the Middle East)
These questions have enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the study of the subcontinent, but they have recently been made redundant as social scientists turned to concerns of violence and ‘power’. Inviting contributions on all forms of leadership (political, moral, religious and otherwise) in the region and the global South Asian diaspora, we ask participants to consider what makes South Asia’s leaders acceptable or even intensely desirable in their followers’ eyes. What institutions, ideas and practices give persons the right to lead, represent or rule? What obligations and potencies does this right entail? And how do established local conventions of legitimation shape—and are shaped by—new institutions, circumstances and norms?