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  In anthropology as much as in popular imagination, kings are figures of

  fascination and intrigue, heroes or tyrants in ways presidents and prime

  ministers can never be. This collection of essays by two of the world’s

  most distinguished anthropologists—David Graeber and Marshall

  Sahlins—explores what kingship actually is, historically and anthropo-

  logically. As they show, kings are symbols for more than just sovereignty:

  indeed, the study of kingship offers a unique window into fundamental

  dilemmas concerning the very nature of power, meaning, and the human

  condition.

  Reflecting on issues such as temporality, alterity, and utopia—not to

  mention the divine, the strange, the numinous, and the bestial—Graeber

  and Sahlins explore the role of kings as they have existed around the

  world, from the BaKongo to the Aztec to the Shilluk and beyond. Richly

  delivered with the wit and sharp analysis characteristic of Graeber and

  Sahlins, this book opens up new avenues for the anthropological study

  of this fascinating and ubiquitous political figure.

  * * *

  If you deem that anthropology is neither a form of pompous navel-

  gazing, nor an exercise in making preposterous generalizations out

  of sketchy personal experiences, this book is for you. With impecca-

  ble scholarship, conceptual imagination, and wit, David Graeber and

  Marshall Sahlins think anew, and within a broad comparative scope, an

  ancient and illustrious question: why and how can a single man come to

  rule over the many as the embodiment or the delegate of a god? Such a

  question, they show, can only be answered by shifting towards an analysis

  where human, non-human, and meta-human persons are treated on the

  same ontological level as parts of a hierarchical cosmic polity. A golden

  spike in the coffin of eurocentrism, sociocentrism and anthropocentrism!

  Philippe Descola (Col ège de France), author of Beyond nature and culture

  The wealth and volume of the ethnographic data analyzed in this book

  is dizzying. The authors allow us to venture along a variety of paths,

  ranging from the well-established kingdoms of Africa and Asia to the

  apparently egalitarian societies of Papua New Guinea and the Americas,

  revealing the astonishing dispersal of the “stranger king” model. The

  authors’ decisive step was to reject, on a strictly ethnographic basis, the

  commonplace analytic division made between cosmology and politics.

  It is in the ritual sphere, where spirits of diverse kinds meet with hu-

  mans, that the diverse forms of state originate. A relationship that shows

  spiritual life, even in societies marked by egalitarianism, to be a domain

  impregnated with the same relations of hierarchy, control and subjection

  that characterize the kingdoms of this world. A work that will make

  history for sure.

  Aparecida Vilaça (Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de

  Janeiro), author of Praying and preying: Christianity in indigenous Amazonia

  Two of the world’s leading anthropologists combine their “complemen-

  tary observations” to offer the most productively disruptive work on king-

  ship since Hocart. The lost world they exhume is a continual affront to

  contemporary theory: a world where superstructure determines base and

  sociology recapitulates cosmology (kings are gods imitating men, not the

  reverse); where connection, competition, and imitation (of galactic he-

  gemons, for example) are the reality and the monadic society a fiction. At

  the same time, their paleohistory of sovereignty points the way toward a

  deeper understanding of our contemporary moment, where sovereignty

  has become “popular” and we are ruled by kleptocrats and buffoon kings.

  Sheldon Pollock (Columbia University), author of The language of the

  gods in the world of men

  Graeber and Sahlins’ On kings—a dialogue, not a union—takes Divine

  Kingship from its burial ground in the classics and puts it deep into

  enduring concerns about the brutality of political processes over the

  long haul of human history, ancient and current in ever new forms. In

  case studies of sovereign rulers conceived as gods, demons, nurslings,

  ancestral guests, and populist heroes—ultimate strangers—Graeber and

  Sahlins invite us to reconsider the nature of tyranny from inside the

  tiger’s many mouths and to ask how we might, for once, refuse the king

  his long customary seat at the table.

  Gillian Feeley-Harnik (University of Michigan), author of The Lord’s

  table: The meaning of food in early Judaism and Christianity

  ON KINGS

  Hau

  BOOKS

  Executive Editor

  Giovanni da Col

  Managing Editor

  Katharine Herman

  Editorial Board

  Carlos Fausto

  Ilana Gershon

  Michael Lempert

  Stephan Palmié

  Jonathan Parry

  Joel Robbins

  Danilyn Rutherford

  Anne-Christine Taylor

  Jason Throop

  www.haubooks.com

  ON KINGS

  David Graeber and Marshall Sahlins

  Hau Books

  Chicago

  Open Access Version

  © 2017 Hau Books, Marshall Sahlins, and David Graeber

  Cover, Frontispiece of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, by Abraham Bosse, with

  creative input from Thomas Hobbes, 1651, with a sketch from Arctic Researches and

  Life Among the Esquimaux: Being the Narrative of an Expedition in Search of Sir John

  Franklin in the Years 1860, 1861, and 1862 by Charles Francis Hall (circa 1865).

  Cover and layout design: Sheehan Moore

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  ISBN: 978-0-9861325-0-6

  LCCN: 2017951344

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  Hau Books is printed, marketed, and distributed by The University of Chicago Press.

  www.press.uchicago.edu

  Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.

  Table of Contents

  Analytical table of contents

  ix

  Preface

  xiii

  introduction

  1

  David Graeber and Marshall Sahlins

  chapter 1

  The original political society

  23

  Marshall Sahlins

  chapter 2

  The divine kingship of the Shilluk: On violence, utopia,

  and the human condition

  65

  David Graeber

  chapter 3

  The atemporal dimensions of history: In the old Kongo

  kingdom, for example

  139

  Marshall Sahlins

  chapter 4

  The stranger-kingship of the Mexica

  223

  Marshall Sahlins

  viii

  ON KINGS

  chapter 5

  The people as nursemaids of the king: Notes on monarchs

  as children, wome
n’s uprisings, and the return of the ancestral

  dead in central Madagascar

  249

  David Graeber

  chapter 6

  The cultural politics of core–periphery relations

  345

  Marshall Sahlins

  chapter 7

  Notes on the politics of divine kingship: Or, elements for an

  archaeology of sovereignty

  377

  David Graeber

  Bibliography

  465

  Index

  515

  Analytical table of contents

  INTRODUCTION ( Pp. 1–22). Structures ( Pp. 1–7) – Kingship in general ( Pp.

  1–2) – The cosmic polity ( Pp. 2–4) – Stranger-king formations ( Pp. 5–7)

  – Kingship politics ( Pp. 7–14) – In general ( Pp. 7–12) – Core–periphery relations (galactic polities) ( Pp. 13–14) – The political economics of

  traditional kingship ( Pp. 15–16) – On shopworn concepts that have

  outlived their usefulness ( Pp. 16–22) – Shopworn economic concepts

  ( Pp. 18–19) – Shopworn concepts of sociocultural order ( Pp. 19–22).

  CH. 1 THE ORIGINAL POLITICAL SOCIETY ( Pp. 23–64). For example:

  Chewong and Inuit ( Pp. 25–35) – Why call them spirits? ( Pp. 35–40)

  –Social relations of people and metaperson-others ( Pp. 40–42) –

  Metaperson powers-that-be ( Pp. 42–45) – The cosmic polity ( Pp. 46-51)

  – Determination by the religious basis ( Pp. 51–57) – To conclude ( Pp. 57–62)

  – Coda ( Pp. 62–64).

  CH. 2 THE DIVINE KINGSHIP OF THE SHILLUK: ON VIOLENCE, UTOPIA,

  AND THE HUMAN CONDITION ( Pp. 65–138). Theories of divine kingship

  ( Pp. 67–82) – The Shilluk as seen from Equatoria ( Pp. 68–81) – Three

  propositions ( Pp. 81–82) – A brief outline of Shilluk history ( Pp. 82–89)

  – Mytho-history ( Pp. 89–101) – A word on Nilotic cosmologies ( Pp.

  89–92) – The legend of Nyikang ( Pp. 92–100) – Return to Fashoda ( Pp.

  102–107) – The installation ritual: Description ( Pp. 107–116) – The

  x

  ON KINGS

  installation ritual: Analysis ( Pp. 116–127) – Some words in way of a

  conclusion ( Pp. 127–138).

  CH. 3 THE ATEMPORAL DIMENSIONS OF HISTORY: IN THE OLD KONGO

  KINGDOM, FOR EXAMPLE ( Pp. 139–221). Introduction: Paradigmatic

  histories ( Pp. 139–144) – African stranger-kingdoms ( Pp. 144–152) –

  On the way to the kingdom ( Pp. 152–160) – Advent of the stranger-

  king ( Pp. 160–169) – Naturalizing the stranger-king ( Pp. 169–175) –

  On crossing the river and marrying the land ( Pp. 175–187) – The dual

  society ( Pp. 187–196) – Serial stranger-kingship ( Pp. 196–200) – Origins

  of the Kongo kingdom ( Pp. 20–-210) – Historiography (the end) ( Pp.

  210–221).

  CH. 4 THE STRANGER-KINGSHIP OF THE MEXICA ( Pp. 223–248). Stranger

  kings, galactic polities ( Pp. 227–237) – Chichimeca and Tolteca ( Pp.

  238–248).

  CH. 5 THE PEOPLE AS NURSEMAIDS OF THE KING: NOTES ON MONARCHS

  AS CHILDREN, WOMEN’S UP RISINGS, AND THE RETURN OF THE ANCESTRAL

  DEAD IN CENTRAL MADAGASCAR ( Pp. 249–343). Introduction: Leiloza

  and the prophet of Valalafotsy ( Pp. 252–265) – Leiloza, the last prince

  of Imamo ( Pp. 252–260) – The real Leiloza and the bandit queen ( Pp.

  260–265) – Emblematic labor and the king as child ( Pp. 265–298) – On

  ritual labor ( Pp. 268–274) – Speaking, carrying, and making ( Pp. 274–

  279) Royal service as principle of government ( Pp. 280–285) – Reversals:

  The king as child ( Pp. 285–290) – Reflections on the king as toddler ( Pp.

  290–294) – The ritual system seen from the perspective of the child-king

  ( Pp. 294–297) – Popular contestation, women’s rebellions, and the return

  of the ancestral dead ( Pp. 298–343) – Case 1: Andrianamboatsimarofy,

  an unstable king ( Pp. 301–308) – Case 2: Radama I and the first women’s

  uprising ( Pp. 308–315) – Case 3: Ranavalona I, the toddler queen and

  the return of the dead ( Pp. 315–325) – Case 4: Radama II and the second

  women’s rebellion ( Pp. 325–335) – Conclusions ( Pp. 335–343).

  ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

  xi

  CH. 6 THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF CORE–PERIPHERY RELATIONS ( Pp. 345–

  376). The anthropology of core–periphery relations ( Pp. 350–358) –

  Cultural dynamics of galactic polities ( Pp. 358–365) – Galactic mimesis:

  Uneven development in core–periphery systems ( Pp. 365–376).

  CH. 7 NOTES ON THE POLITICS OF DIVINE KINGSHIP: OR, ELEMENTS FOR AN

  ARCHAEOLOGY OF SOVEREIGNTY ( Pp. 377–464). Sovereignty contained

  in time and space ( Pp. 380–398) – The divine kingship of the Natchez

  ( Pp. 390–398) – On the constitutive war between king and people ( Pp.

  398–464) – When kings lose: The tyranny of abstraction ( Pp. 403–419)

  – When kings win: The war against the dead ( Pp. 420–437) – Killing or

  exiling the dead ( Pp. 437–440) – Becoming the dead ( Pp. 440–442) –

  Outdoing the dead ( Pp. 442–446) – Reversing the direction of history

  ( Pp. 446–452) – Conclusions ( Pp. 456–464).

  Preface

  This book is more of a conjunction than a collaboration of its two authors. The

  several studies on kingship and kingly politics assembled here were originally

  conceived and written separately by one or the other—for conferences or on

  other occasions—and were then elaborated with these common purposes in

  mind. Accordingly, the effect is a set of complementary observations on king-

  ship rather than a cumulative and sustained argument. The closest thing to the

  latter is the Introduction, where we gather the observations on various aspects

  of kingship featured in the several individual studies. It almost goes without

  saying that the overall result is a work “on kings,” but not all about kings: it does

  not pretend to deal with kingship in all its structural dimensions and historical

  manifestations. Except where otherwise indicated, our observations on king-

  ship concern its so-called “traditional,” premodern, or archaic forms—which

  are, however, its most common, indeed archetypal, forms.

  Of the seven essays comprising the book, all but two are published here for

  the first time. The exceptions are Marshall Sahlins’ “The original political society”

  (chapter 1, published simultaneously with this book in HAU: Journal of Ethno-

  graphic Theory 7 [2], 2017: 91–128) and David Graeber’s “The divine kingship of

  the Shilluk: On violence, utopia, and the human condition” (chapter 2, original:

  HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 1 [1], 2011: 1–62). “The original political

  society” is based on the Inaugural Arthur M. Hocart Lecture at SOAS, Univer-

  sity of London, April 29, 2016). Chapter 3 by Sahlins, “The atemporal dimen-

  sions of history: In the old Kongo kingdom, for example,” was developed from

  xiv

  ON KINGS

  a paper in the conference on The varieties of historical experience at the Univer-

  sity of Chicago (April 2014); chapter 4 by Sahlins, “The stranger-kingship of

  the Mexica,” was a plenary lecture at the Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of

  the Museo Nacional de A
ntropología, Mexico (October 2014); chapter 5 by

  Graeber, “People as nursemaids of the king: notes on monarchs as children,

  women’s uprisings, and the return of the ancestral dead in central Madagascar,”

  was written for this volume but appeared in abbreviated form as “Le peuple,

  nurse du roi: notes sur les monarques enfants dans le centre de Madagascar,” in

  Madagascar, d’une crise l’autre: ruptures et continuité, edited by Mireille Razafin-

  drakoto, François Roubaud, and Jean-Michel Wachsberger (Paris: ORSTOM,

  2017, pp. 120–44); chapter 6 by Sahlins, “Cultural politics of core–periphery

  relations,” was developed from the keynote lecture of a conference on Cul-

  tural imperialism and soft power at the University of Chicago Center, Beijing

  (December 2016); and chapter 7 by Graeber, “Notes on the politics of divine

  kingship: Or, elements for an archaeology of sovereignty,” was written for this

  volume and has not been published elsewhere in any form.

  * * *

  D. G. : I would like to thank all those who thought with, argued with, helped, or

  generally put up with me during the period in question, but since I can’t fit in

  all their names, I would like to draw special attention to (in alphabetical order)

  Neil Aptaker, the late Roy Bhaskar, Sophie Carapetian, Rebecca Coles, Boris T.

  Corovic, Ayca Cubukcu, Giovanni da Col, Ewa Domaradzka, Magdalen Drum-

  mond, Gillian Feeley-Harnik, Stephan Feuchtwang, Livia Filotico, Charlie

  Gilmore, Stephanie Grohmann, Andrej Grubacic, Havin Guneser, Keith Hart,

  Rebecca Hudson, Insa Koch, Zeynep Kurban, Erica Lagalisse, Mark Lamont,

  Nhu Le, Lauren Leve, Rona Lorimer, Sharifa Syed Ahmad Mayang, Christina

  Moon, Dyan Neary, Yancey Orr, Mathijs Pelkman, Elif Sarican, Alpa Shah,

  John Summers, Marine Temersohn, Terence Turner, David Wengrow, Hylton

  White, and Heather Williams. Finally, of course, to my teacher and mentor,

  Marshall Sahlins. There was a widespread rumor in Chicago that I was “un-

  teachable.” I like to think this volume demonstrates that this was not the case.

  M. S. : For intellectual aid and comfort in relation to the composition of one

  or more of my essays, I would like to thank (in alphabetical order) Mauro