Subversive archaism : troubling traditionalists and the politics of national heritage

Resource Information

The work Subversive archaism : troubling traditionalists and the politics of national heritage represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Subversive archaism : troubling traditionalists and the politics of national heritage

Title remainder

troubling traditionalists and the politics of national heritage

Statement of responsibility

Michael Herzfeld

Creator

• Herzfeld, Michael, 1947-

Subject

• Marginality, Social -- Political aspects
• Nation-state
• National characteristics -- Political aspects
• Nationalism -- Social aspects
• Political crimes and offenses -- Greece | Crete
• Political crimes and offenses -- Thailand | Bangkok
• State crimes
• Authority -- Social aspects

Language

eng

Summary

"In Subversive Archaism, Michael Herzfeld explores the challenge that "subversive archaism"-the ideology and practice of using state discourses of heritage and tradition against state authority-poses to governments both authoritarian and democratic. Building on the legacy of violence underlying all national independence movements, subversive archaists emphasize details of national history that reflect their own local values-rather than Eurocentric bureaucratic perspectives-to claim legitimacy for their defiance of official authority. The core of the book, while drawing on a wide range of examples, particularly concerns the actions and eventual fate of two communities: one, a supposedly remote mountain village in Greece traditionally notorious for endemic animal-theft and now accused of being a center of illegal drug cultivation and distribution, the other a small urban enclave in Thailand that became a cause célèbre as its leaders tried for a quarter-century to resist eviction as squatters. In contrasted but also complementary ways, these two communities illustrate the strengths and vulnerabilities of subversive archaism as a political stance and strategy amid today's globalizing dynamics"--

Member of

• Lewis Henry Morgan lectures

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

The Lewis Henry Morgan Lectures