Pierre Clastres was a French anthropologist and ethnographer, renowned for his fieldwork among the Guayaki people of Paraguay and his theory on stateless societies. He critiques the evolutionary notion that the state is the ultimate destiny of all societies, as well as the Rousseauian myth of the noble savage. Clastres argued that the desire for autonomy is innate, leading societies to develop customs that actively avert the rise of despotic power. He viewed the state as a specific hierarchical power structure emerging in societies that have lost mechanisms preventing the separation of power from the community. His work offers a critique of Marxist economic determinism, positing politics as an autonomous sphere that actively counteracts authority in stateless societies.
Pierre Clastres untersucht die Rolle von Gewalt in primitiven Gesellschaften und deren Funktion zur Verhinderung der Entstehung eines Staatsapparates. Er argumentiert, dass Stammesgesellschaften Gewalt nicht nur als Teil ihrer Existenz akzeptieren, sondern sie systematisch einsetzen, um das "kalte Monster" des Staates zu vermeiden. Clastres widerlegt gängige Theorien, die Krieg als Ergebnis von Jagd oder misslungenen Handelsbeziehungen betrachten, und beschreibt stattdessen die primitive Gesellschaft als eine, die sich in einem ständigen Kriegszustand befindet.
Review: "The War machine is the motor of the social machine; the primitive social being relies entirely on war, primitive society cannot survive without war. The more war there is, the less unification there is, and the best enemy of the State is war. Primitive society is society against the State in that it is society-for-war." Anthropologist Pierre Clastres significantly influenced Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's Anti-Oedipus and contributed to political anthropology. The posthumous publication of Archeology of Violence in 1980 compiled Clastres's final essays and the opening chapters of a book he began before his death in 1977. Building on his earlier work, Society Against the State, Clastres critiques his mentor, Claude Levi-Strauss, and challenges Marxist anthropology and other Western models of "primitive societies." He rejects the notion that violence among South American Indians stems from resource scarcity, instead arguing it serves as a deliberate strategy for territorial segmentation and preventing State formation. By intertwining the political and social spheres and ensuring tribal chiefs remain dependent on their communities, the "savages" Clastres describes emerge as astute political actors who preemptively resist globalization efforts.
Duchovní svět indiánských kočovníků očima francouzského etnologa. Autor, přední znalec araguayských kultur, strávil rok na východě země mezi příslušníky kmene Guayaquí a o svém pobytu napsal mimořádně výstižnou knihu. Všímá si v ní všech aspektů života zmíněného společenství, od narození dítěte až po projevy kanibalismu. Hluboký psychologický vhled se prolíná s líčením materiálních podmínek života kmene.Perokresby v textu.
The narrative captures Clastres's initial fieldwork in the 1960s, detailing his interactions with the Guayaki Indians, a distinctive tribe from Paraguay that has since disappeared. Through vivid observations, the book explores their culture, social structure, and way of life, offering a poignant glimpse into a world that has been lost to time. Clastres's anthropological insights highlight the complexities of the Guayaki's existence and their relationship with the surrounding environment.
In this landmark text in anthropology and political science, Pierre Clastres
offers examples of South American Indian groups that, though without
hierarchical leadership, were both affluent and complex.
