The Anthropology Of The State: A Reader (blackwell Readers In Anthropology)

"The Anthropology of the State "introduces some of the most exciting approaches to the study of the state in a transnational world. This volume is unique in that it stresses the interplay between theory, ethnography, history, and critique. It brings together classic and contemporary theoretical examinations of the state along with cutting-edge ethnographic analyses of specific state practices, institutions, and ideas in diverse geographical locations and historical periods. The articles in this volume are presented for students and scholars in a range of disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, political economy, and postcolonial studies.

This innovative reader brings together classic theoretical texts and cutting-edge ethnographic analyses of specific state institutions, practices, and processes and outlines an anthropological framework for rethinking future study of "the state."
Focuses on the institutions, spaces, ideas, practices, and representations that constitute the "state."
Promotes cultural and transnational approaches to the subject.
Helps readers to make anthropological sense of the state as a cultural artifact, in the context of a neoliberalizing, transnational world.