Overview

In Subversive Archaism, Michael Herzfeld explores how individuals and communities living at the margins of the modern nation-state use nationalist discourses of tradition to challenge state authority under both democratic and authoritarian governments. Through close attention to the claims and experiences of mountain shepherds in Greece and urban slum dwellers in Thailand, Herzfeld shows how these subversive archaists draw on national histories and past polities to claim legitimacy for their defiance of bureaucratic authority. Although vilified by government authorities as remote, primitive, or dangerous-often as preemptive justification for violent repression-these groups are not revolutionaries and do not reject national identity, but they do question the equation of state and nation. Herzfeld explores the political strengths and vulnerabilities of their deployment of heritage and the weaknesses they expose in the bureaucratic and ethnonational state in an era of accelerated globalization.

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9781478017622

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Reviews

“In Subversive Archaism, Michael Herzfeld proposes the concept of ‘subversive archaism,’ a bold new paradigm to investigate forms of resistance by which people claiming to represent authentic national communities thwart incursions on their autonomy by bureaucratic authorities. The writing is lucid, at times lyrical. The utilization of the anthropological archive is masterful. Above all, the comparative ethnography is impeccable, yielding a profoundly human document of the lives and struggles of people in Greece and Thailand during periods of upheaval and change.” -- Douglas R. Holmes, Distinguished Professor, Binghamton University, State University of New York “Working closely with citizens and social movements that are portrayed as affronts to modernity, Michael Herzfeld shows us how state authorities both fetishize and are threatened by the ‘subversive archaism’ of marginalized groups, especially those who proudly embrace their alterity and believe they have morally superior claims to national identity. The book offers an acute assessment of belonging and resistance in nation-state formations, and it does so using ethnographic materials that mainstream political science and orthodox nationalists would rather we ignore.” -- Andrew Shryock, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan ""Herzfeld’s Subversive Archaism is a masterly comparative study that will define scholarship on Greece and Thailand for many years to come. Scholars and graduate students of Greek and Thai studies, anthropology, political science, and sociology will benefit greatly from his deep knowledge of cultural anthropology and the richness of his fieldwork studies."" -- Eftychia Mylona * IIAS Review * ""This work makes an important contribution to the anthropology of the state, providing a set of concepts that help clarify the often troubling rise of traditionalist fundamentalisms globally. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.""   -- J. MacKenzie * Choice * “Herzfeld has delineated an approach to human lives too often dismissed as marginal, self-destructive, or blinkered, to instead foreground exemplary civility, empathy, and creativity. . . . The book closes with . . . a powerful and passionate call for anthropology’s sustained attention to the human virtues of resilience, humor, and mutuality as an antidote to the despair conjured and fed through the ersatz patriotism of charlatan-zealots.” -- Keith Brown * Journal of Anthropological Research * ""The book is a pleasure to read, and brims with useful ideas on every page. The concept is also sufficiently generalizable, so that it will likely be cited far and wide, and it will apply to numerous contexts beyond the cases he has used. Congratulations are in order."" -- Erik Harms * HAU * ""Ultimately, Herzfeld’s model of subversive archaism offers us an example of understanding how marginalised groups challenge and subvert authority. Herzfeld is not proposing that any given group needs to fit neatly into the category of subversive archaists, but rather how some groups reach back into the past to offer an alternative future. . . .  I suspect that given the rise of nationalist movements across the globe, the tools of subversive archaism, rather than subversive archaists groups per se, will become all the more visible."" -- Olivia Porter * LSE Review of Books *

In Subversive Archaism, Michael Herzfeld proposes the concept of 'subversive archaism,' a bold new paradigm to investigate forms of resistance by which people claiming to represent authentic national communities thwart incursions on their autonomy by bureaucratic authorities. The writing is lucid, at times lyrical. The utilization of the anthropological archive is masterful. Above all, the comparative ethnography is impeccable, yielding a profoundly human document of the lives and struggles of people in Greece and Thailand during periods of upheaval and change. -- Douglas R. Holmes, Distinguished Professor, Binghamton University, State University of New York Working closely with citizens and social movements that are portrayed as affronts to modernity, Michael Herzfeld shows us how state authorities both fetishize and are threatened by the 'subversive archaism' of marginalized groups, especially those who proudly embrace their alterity and believe they have morally superior claims to national identity. The book offers an acute assessment of belonging and resistance in nation-state formations, and it does so using ethnographic materials that mainstream political science and orthodox nationalists would rather we ignore. -- Andrew Shryock, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan Herzfeld's Subversive Archaism is a masterly comparative study that will define scholarship on Greece and Thailand for many years to come. Scholars and graduate students of Greek and Thai studies, anthropology, political science, and sociology will benefit greatly from his deep knowledge of cultural anthropology and the richness of his fieldwork studies. -- Eftychia Mylona * IIAS Review * This work makes an important contribution to the anthropology of the state, providing a set of concepts that help clarify the often troubling rise of traditionalist fundamentalisms globally. Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. -- J. MacKenzie * Choice * Herzfeld has delineated an approach to human lives too often dismissed as marginal, self-destructive, or blinkered, to instead foreground exemplary civility, empathy, and creativity. . . . The book closes with . . . a powerful and passionate call for anthropology's sustained attention to the human virtues of resilience, humor, and mutuality as an antidote to the despair conjured and fed through the ersatz patriotism of charlatan-zealots. -- Keith Brown * Journal of Anthropological Research *

In Subversive Archaism, Michael Herzfeld proposes the concept of 'subversive archaism,' a bold new paradigm to investigate forms of resistance by which people claiming to represent authentic national communities thwart incursions on their autonomy by bureaucratic authorities. The writing is lucid, at times lyrical. The utilization of the anthropological archive is masterful. Above all, the comparative ethnography is impeccable, yielding a profoundly human document of the lives and struggles of people in Greece and Thailand during periods of upheaval and change. -- Douglas R. Holmes, Distinguished Professor, Binghamton University, State University of New York Working closely with citizens and social movements that are portrayed as affronts to modernity, Michael Herzfeld shows us how state authorities both fetishize and are threatened by the 'subversive archaism' of marginalized groups, especially those who proudly embrace their alterity and believe they have morally superior claims to national identity. The book offers an acute assessment of belonging and resistance in nation-state formations, and it does so using ethnographic materials that mainstream political science and orthodox nationalists would rather we ignore. -- Andrew Shryock, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan

Author Information

Michael Herzfeld is Ernest E. Monrad Professor of the Social Sciences, Emeritus, in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. He is the author of numerous books, most recently Siege of the Spirits: Community and Polity in Bangkok and Evicted from Eternity: The Restructuring of Modern Rome.

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