Overview

The Political Machine investigates the essential role that material culture plays in the practices and maintenance of political sovereignty. Through an archaeological exploration of the Bronze Age Caucasus, Adam Smith demonstrates that beyond assemblies of people, polities are just as importantly assemblages of things--from ballots and bullets to crowns, regalia, and licenses. Smith looks at the ways that these assemblages help to forge cohesive publics, separate sovereigns from a wider social mass, and formalize governance--and he considers how these developments continue to shape politics today. Smith shows that the formation of polities is as much about the process of manufacturing assemblages as it is about disciplining subjects, and that these material objects or ""machines"" sustain communities, orders, and institutions. The sensibilities, senses, and sentiments connecting people to things enabled political authority during the Bronze Age and fortify political power even in the contemporary world.Smith provides a detailed account of the transformation of communities in the Caucasus, from small-scale early Bronze Age villages committed to egalitarianism, to Late Bronze Age polities predicated on radical inequality, organized violence, and a centralized apparatus of rule. From Bronze Age traditions of mortuary ritual and divination to current controversies over flag pins and Predator drones, The Political Machine sheds new light on how material goods authorize and defend political order.

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9780691163239

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Reviews

The coherence and brevity of the book reflects its development from the 2013 Rostovtzeff Lecture Series at New York University. The book can be read quickly, and its significance for evolutionary studies can be assimilated thoughtfully. It deserves to be read broadly by academics, graduate students and an interested public. --Timothy Earle, Antiquity I most strongly recommend this as a book with which to argue, for all interested in the newest forms of theory concerning politics and objects, as well as anyone examining ancient Eurasian cultural forms and connections. --Chris Gosden, American Anthropologist

The coherence and brevity of the book reflects its development from the 2013 Rostovtzeff Lecture Series at New York University. The book can be read quickly, and its significance for evolutionary studies can be assimilated thoughtfully. It deserves to be read broadly by academics, graduate students and an interested public. --Timothy Earle, Antiquity

Author Information

Adam T. Smith is professor of anthropology and chair of the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University. He is the author of The Political Landscape and the coauthor of The Archaeology and Geography of Ancient Transcaucasian Societies, Volume 1.

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