States of imitation : mimetic governmentality and colonial rule / edited by Patrice Ladwig and Ricardo Roque.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ladwig, Patrice, editor.

Roque, Ricardo, editor.

Series:

Studies in Social Analysis ; 11

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Colonies--Administration--History.

Colonies.

Asia--Colonization.

Asia.

Asia--Colonial influence.

Africa--Colonization.

Africa.

Africa--Colonial influence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 214 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

New York ; Oxford : Berghahn, [2020]

Summary:

Late Western colonialism often relied on the practice of imitating indigenous forms of rule in order to maintain power; conversely, indigenous polities could imitate Western sociopolitical forms to their own benefit. Drawing on historical ethnographic studies of colonialism in Asia and Africa, States of Imitation examines how the colonial state attempted to administer, control, and integrate its indigenous subjects through mimetic governmentality, as well the ways indigenous states adopted these imitative practices to establish reciprocal ties with, or to resist the presence of, the colonial state.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Mimetic Governmentality, Colonialism, and the State

Chapter 1 Dances with Heads: Parasitic Mimesis and the Government of Savagery in Colonial East Timor

Chapter 2 Variants of Frontier Mimesis: Colonial Encounter and Intercultural Interaction in the Lao-Vietnamese Uplands

Chapter 3 The Hut-Hospital as Project and as Practice: Mimeses, Alterities, and Colonial Hierarchies

Chapter 4 Imitations of Buddhist Statecraft: The Patronage of Lao Buddhism and the Reconstruction of Relic Shrines and Temples in Colonial French Indochina

Chapter 5 Colonial Mimesis and Animal Breeding: Karakul Sheep in Southwestern Angola

Chapter 6 The Colonial State and Carnival: The Complexity and Ambiguity of Carnival in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa

Chapter 7 Mimetic Primitivism: Notes on the Conceptual History of Mimesis

Postscript. The Risks and Failures of Imitation

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-80539-872-5

1-78920-739-8

OCLC:

1347247850