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E-book
Author Piliavsky, Anastasia, 1981- author.

Title Nobody's people : hierarchy as hope in a society of thieves / Anastasia Piliavsky
Published Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2021]

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Description 1 online resource (xxxix, 252 pages) : illustrations, maps
Series South Asia in motion
South Asia in motion.
Contents Hierarchy as hope -- The lords of begun -- The people who were not there -- The perils of masterless people -- How to make and eat a goddess in nine days -- Who and whose -- The new lords of Begun -- Every man a king
Summary "What if we could imagine hierarchy not as a social ill, but as a source of social creativity and hope? In Nobody's People, Anastasia Piliavsky takes us into the world of thieves, the Kanjars, in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Introducing us to wily policemen, quirky aristocrats, and resourceful goddesses, she shows that locally hierarchy is a potent normative idiom through which they imagine better lives and pursue social ambitions. A community once patronized secretly by aristocrats and now precariously in the service of farmers and the police, Kanjars try and fail repeatedly to find a way into hierarchic relations rather than out of them. In a world where to be is to belong, they are nobody's people, who can be murdered with no moral restraint or remorse. Following Kanjars on their journey between death and hope, Piliavsky invites readers to see in hierarchy - not inequality - a viable ethical frame instead of an archaic system of subjugation. Doing so, she suggests, will help us understand not only rural Rajasthan, but also much of the world, including settings stridently committed to equality. Challenging egalo-normative commitments, Piliavsky asks scholars across the disciplines to consider hierarchy as a major intellectual resource"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on October 15, 2020)
Subject Kanjar (South Asian people) -- India -- Rajasthan -- Social conditions
Thieves -- India -- Rajasthan -- Social conditions
Social status -- India -- Rajasthan
Rural conditions
Social status
SUBJECT Rajasthan (India) -- Rural conditions
Subject India -- Rajasthan
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2020025601
ISBN 9781503614215
1503614212