Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earlier States

Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earlier States

By: James C. Scott (Yale University Press, 2017)

In this book, James C. Scott explores why we avoided sedentism and plow agriculture, the advantages of mobile subsistence, the unforeseeable disease epidemics arising from crowding plants, animals, and grain, and why all early states are based on millets and cereal grains and unfree labor. He also discusses the “barbarians” who long evaded state control, as a way of understanding continuing tension between states and non-subject peoples. The first agrarian states, says James C. Scott, were born of accumulations of domestications: first fire, then plants, livestock, subjects of the state, captives, and finally women in the patriarchal family—all of which can be viewed as a way of gaining control over reproduction.

DISCUSSANTS
-            Irsyad Martias (Department of Anthropology, Universitas Brawijaya)
-            Rucitarahma Ristiawan (Wageningen University, Belanda)

 MODERATOR
Hatib Abdul Kadir (UCSC alumni; researcher at Center for Culture and Frontiers Studeis, Universitas Brawijaya)

Day, Date : Friday, July 30th, 2021
Time : 15-17 WIB