[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-43051-en":3,"doc-seo-43051-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},43051,137441390410,"Hazel","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/2000252f4ab5702993?_k=1776741390130283984",8,"Research & Report","James C Scott Against the Grain A Deep History of the Earliest States","Against the Grain by James C. Scott presents a deep historical inquiry into the emergence of the earliest states through the intertwined processes of domestication, settlement, and agricultural development. The work traces key arguments from fire, plants, and animals to zoonotic dynamics, agro-ecology, and the political consequences of population control and state fragility. Framed as a reconnaissance report for updated scholarship, the book emphasizes reexamining received wisdom and situating prehistory and archaeology within anthropology and ancient history perspectives.","Against the Grain  \n1AMES C. SCOTT  \nYale  \nUNIVERSITY PRESS  \nNewHaven and London  \nPublished with assistance from the foundation established in memory of Amasa Stone Mather of the Class of 1907, Yale College.  \nCopyright «:> 2017 by Yale University.  \nAll rights reserved.  \nThis book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press}, without written permission from the publishers.  \nYale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please  \ne-mail sales.[press@yale.edu](press@yale.edu) (U.S. office) or sales@yaleup. [co.uk](co.uk)  \n([U.K. office](U.K. office)).  \nSet inJanson and MonotypeVan Dijck types by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.  \nPrinted in the United States of America.  \nLibrary of Congress Control Number: 2016960155  \nISBN 978-0-300-18291-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)  \nA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.  \nThis paper meets the requirements ofANs1/N1so z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).  \nIO 9 8 7 6 5 4 J 2 l  \nFor my grandkids headed deeper into the Anthropocene  \nLillian Louise Graeme Orwell Anya Juliet Ezra David  \nWinifred Daisy  \nClaude Levi-Strauss wrote thus:  \nWriting appears to he necessary for the centralized, stratified state to reproduce itself. . . . Writing is a strange thing. . . . The one phenomenon which has invariably accompanied it is the formation of cities and empires: the integration into a political system, that is to say, of a considerable number of individuals. . . into a hierarchy of castes and classes. . . . It seems to favor rather the exploitation than the enlightenment of mankind.  \nContents  \nPreface lX INTRODUCTION . A Narrative in Tatters:  \nWhat I Didn't Know   \noNE . The Domestication of Fire, Plants,  \nAnimals, and ... Us 3 7  \nTWO . Landscaping the World: The Domus Complex 68  \nTHREE . Zoonoses: A Perfect Epidemiological Storm 93  \nFOUR . Agro-ecology of the Early State n6  \nFIVE . Population Control: Bondage and War 150  \nSIX . Fragility of the Early State:  \nCollapse as Disassembly 183  \nSEVEN . The Golden Age of the Barbarians 219  \nNotes 25 7  \nBibliography 279  \nPreface  \nWhat you will find here is a trespasser's reconnaissance report. Let me explain. I was asked to give two Tanner Lectures at Harvard in 2on. The request was flattering, but having just finished an arduous book, I was enjoying a welcome spell of\"free reading\" with no particular aim in mind. What could I possibly do in four months that might be jnteresting? Casting about for a manageable theme, I thought about the two opening lectures I had been in the habit of giving to a graduate course on agrarian societies for the past two decades. They covered the history of domestications and the agrarian structure of the earliest states. Although they had gradually evolved, I was aware that they were woefully out of date. Perhaps, I reasoned, I could hurl myself at the more recent work on domestication and the earliest states and at least write two lectures that would reflect newer scholarship and be more worthy of my discerning students.  \nWas I ever in for a surprise! The preparation for the  \nix  \nPREFACE  \nlecture upset a great deal of what I thought I knew and exposed me to a host of new debates and findings that I realized I would have to put under my belt to do justice to the topic. The actual lectures, therefore, served more to register my astonishment at the amount of received wisdom that had to be thoroughly reexamined than to attempt that reexamination itself. Homi Bhabha, my host, selected three astute commentators-Arthur Kleinman, Partha Chatterjee, and Veena Das-who, in a seminar following the lectures, convinced me that my arguments were not remotely ready for prime time. Only five years later did I emerge with a draft that I thought was well f","cbCaipcqYFGOEO3K","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipcqYFGOEO3K","pdf",13072521,5,1,322,"English","en",105,"# Preface\n# Introduction\n## A Narrative in Tatters: What I Didn't Know\n# Domestication and Early State Formation\n## The Domestication of Fire, Plants, Animals, and Us\n## Landscaping the World: The Domus Complex\n## Zoonoses: A Perfect Epidemiological Storm\n## Agro-ecology of the Early State\n## Population Control: Bondage and War\n## Fragility of the Early State: Collapse as Disassembly\n## The Golden Age of the Barbarians\n# Notes\n# Bibliography","[{\"question\":\"What does the author mean by the book being a “trespasser's reconnaissance report” in the preface?\",\"answer\":\"The author describes the project as crossing into multiple fields and updating ideas after discovering that prior assumptions were outdated. The lectures become a record of astonishment at how much received wisdom needed reexamination.\"},{\"question\":\"Which themes are central to the book’s account of the earliest states?\",\"answer\":\"The narrative links domestication of humans, plants, and animals to settlement and agricultural structuring, then to disease dynamics, agro-ecology, and political mechanisms like population control and war.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the book address fragility in early states?\",\"answer\":\"The contents emphasize fragility as a structural issue, framing collapse as disassembly and highlighting instability within the political and social organization of early states.\"}]",1783377151,811,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":28},"james-c-scott-against-the-grain-a-deep-history-of-the-earliest-states","",{"@graph":36,"@context":86},[37,54,69],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/james-c-scott-against-the-grain-a-deep-history-of-the-earliest-states/43051/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":41,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-19","2026-07-06",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"What does the author mean by the book being a “trespasser's reconnaissance report” in the preface?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"The author describes the project as crossing into multiple fields and updating ideas after discovering that prior assumptions were outdated. The lectures become a record of astonishment at how much received wisdom needed reexamination.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"Which themes are central to the book’s account of the earliest states?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"The narrative links domestication of humans, plants, and animals to settlement and agricultural structuring, then to disease dynamics, agro-ecology, and political mechanisms like population control and war.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"How does the book address fragility in early states?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"The contents emphasize fragility as a structural issue, framing collapse as disassembly and highlighting instability within the political and social organization of early states.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":88,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":59,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":90,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":93},[94,98,102,106,110,115,120,123,128,131,135],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":95,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":97},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":99,"show_sort_weight":100,"slug":101},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":53,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":136,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":137,"show_sort_weight":20,"slug":138},19,"General","general"]