Explain the significance of resistance within political anthropology Flashcards
How to define resistance in the introduction?
A response to domination
What is the argument
Anywhere that here are forms of domination, there will be some form of resistance so long as one pays attention to different scales
Rather than only large scale forms of resistance what also must be acknowledged?
That which is easily obscured
Which aspects of resistance need to be understood
Affective aspects
What is the first paragraph?
Marx vs Weber
What is the idea of Marx
False consciousness. The proletariat do not appreciate their own exploitation. They would resist if they understood
What is the argument of Weber
Even though people do not revolt, t hey are aware that they are being dominated. They believe it to be in their interest for whatever reason, for example they might think that it is more orderly.
What is the second paragraph, and how does it build on the first
Scale and Scott. Both Marx and Weber put too much weight on the idea of large scale forms of resistance such as revolution
What does James Scott do in 1985
Disagree with the Gramscian idea of hegemony, because he does not think that the dominated consent to their domination
What does James Scott do in 1990
He argues that subordinate groups employ infrapolitics against the oppressors
What argument can you make about infrapolitics based on the USA and racial discrimination
Inverse of micro aggressions
What are the three ehtngorpahic examples for this essay
Abu Lughod and the resistance of bedouin women
Jansen 2014 besieged Sarajevo Suburb
Harvey and Knox 2012 peru
According to Abu-Lughod, how do Bedouin women resist?
Through small choices such as underwear and poetry. Even if they themselves do not resist the broad idea of arrange marriage, they still work to get the most desirable outcome for themselves
What is the critique after the paragraph concerning scale and Scott 1985 and 1990
Ortner 1995 (easy to remember as the three come in 5 year gaps)
What is Ortner 1995’s critique
That if you define the category so broadly, its analytical value is lost
How to critique Ortner’s argument
You really need to understand what happens affectedly. Then, if the intent of the action is resistance then it will be clear that that is what it is.
What is a good part of Ortner’s argument
That there has been inefficient attention paid to resistance within ethnography and anthropology
What can Abu Lughod (1990) be integrated with (next paragraph after Ortner)
Foucault
How does Foucault see resistance ?
as a diagnostic of power
Who argues that Foucault is insufficiently empowering in regard to resistance?
Pickett
Pickett argues that which specific aspect of Foucault’s work is particularly unempowering ?
early work
What aspect of Foucualt’s work is beneficial to this essay
The emphasis on the small scale acts that constitute power
What is the final paragraph?
Desire for domination
What does the final paragraph draw on
Jansen 2014 and Harvey and Knox 2012
What is the deal with Harvey and Knox 2012
The indigenous peruvians want roads from the government, even if this means exporting the state’s most repressive aspects. It is conceived of as a way to escape marginalisation, even though it is the government who has marginalised them.
What is the deal with jansen 2014
Looks at a Sarajevo suburb post-war. Here people cling onto signs of domination as emblems of pre-war stability.
What is the critique of Jansen
Even if they were once symbols of domination, that does not mean that, if they are understood affectively, that they should still be understood in the same way
What did Foucault write about resistance?
Where there is power, there is resistance.
What village does Scott do his fieldwork in?
Sadakha
