The challenge lies not in romanticizing indigenous forms, but in recognizing the plurality of political structures and learning from their strategies of social organization outside the logic of the state. --- Capitalist modernity-which, in our region, began with the arrival of European invaders in the late 15th century-gradually shaped several ideological constructs that persist to this day. On one hand, liberal ideas emerging from Europe established the concept of the "individual" as a subject autonomous from their social context-someone who, through personal effort and achievement, can master their own destiny and distinguish themselves endlessly from others, even while sharing the same territory, class, ethnicity, or gender. On the other hand, the capitalist social order presented itself as the only possible world, rendering the social injustices at its core invisible and promoting the narrative that current state institutions-which control our lives-are neutral and historically immutable.
This same liberal, capitalist perspective has permeated how other peoples across the globe are understood and treated. Europe-and later the United States-rose as global powers from whose vantage point the rest of the world is viewed and evaluated; consequently, other geographic regions-and especially the peoples of Africa and Latin America-are perceived as backward, underdeveloped, or simply inferior. An ethnocentric worldview took hold, creating a divide between the center and the periphery that justified-first through religion and later through science-the imposition of profound global injustices and inequalities.
The conquest of the Americas by various European powers resulted in the extermination and/or subjugation of many indigenous peoples. The Spanish and Portuguese debated whether the inhabitants of these territories were truly human or possessed souls capable of Christianization-discussions aimed at justifying their enslavement, alongside that of the people of African descent forcibly brought over to exploit natural resources. In every conquered territory, violence and exploitation against subjugated peoples were justified in different ways. To this day, the dominant perspective regarding indigenous peoples remains pejorative and ethnocentric; while their heroic past may be acknowledged, their contemporary cultural expressions are reduced to mere folklore. Meanwhile, those who identify as members of these peoples face pressure to shed their identity, abandon territorial claims, accept private land ownership, and assimilate into the individualistic citizenship model characteristic of nation-states. The underlying assumption remains that these are "backward" cultures that must hasten along the singular path of capitalist modernity.
Pierre Clastres
For this reason, *Society Against the State*-written by the anarchist anthropologist Pierre Clastres (1934-1977) and published in 1974-is considered a landmark work in 20th-century anthropology. It critiques the Western ethnocentrism that continues to justify the global inequalities of the capitalist system, specifically by challenging the linear conception of progress that tends to relegate indigenous societies to an "earlier" stage of social development.
Specifically, Clastres's research demonstrates that the State is not a universal destiny for all cultures but rather a specific historical form. Within this framework, the political division between those who rule and those who obey is not inherent to every society; instead, it is the result of a particular historical process: the emergence of coercive power.
With the exception of the great Inca, Aztec, and Maya empires, most indigenous peoples of the continent were characterized by social structures in which hierarchies lacked coercive capacity-meaning there was no standing body of warriors to enforce the will of the elites. While the indigenous chief did exercise political power, this power did not rely on a monopoly of force (which could give rise to state-like forms) but was instead grounded in collective recognition, the power of speech, conflict mediation, and acts of generosity toward other members of the group. There arises the possibility of societies that, despite possessing social hierarchies-and the attendant injustices-did not construct state forms of domination. The homogenizing horizon of capitalist modernity is not an inescapable reality, but rather an imposed form among other possibilities.
Unfortunately, Clastres does not develop a systematic definition of "political power"; instead, he operates with an implicit notion that he subsequently organizes through the distinction between coercive and non-coercive power. This creates ambiguities, as the political power he observed among native peoples-despite lacking coercive capacity-did reproduce hereditary hierarchies based on prestige, tradition, or charisma. In other words, by prioritizing coercion as the decisive criterion, Clastres tends to underestimate symbolic dimensions of power capable of generating obedience and hierarchy without the need for force.
Secondly, his assertion that "society controls the chief" appears weakly substantiated, as he fails to identify concrete mechanisms used to remove chiefs and install new structures. Despite these limitations, Clastres's contribution is pivotal in denaturalizing the association between social development and the creation of the State as a form of political domination. It is not merely a matter of imagining a stateless society, but of recognizing the past and present existence of social forms that-while reproducing hierarchies-do not consolidate coercive mechanisms, thereby decisively broadening the spectrum of possibilities for social organization.
By questioning the universality of the State as a political form, Clastres's research can be read in dialogue with decolonial approaches that challenge the imposition of European epistemological frameworks upon diverse historical realities. Thus, Indigenous societies cease to be objects of a narrative of backwardness and instead become subjects of their own political rationality, possessing their own specificities and contradictions.
From an anarchist perspective, we acknowledge the contributions of Pierre Clastres's anthropology, yet we also recognize its weaknesses-such as the underestimation of symbolic power and the idealization of certain forms of equality within the groups studied. Relevant here are subsequent contributions demonstrating how domination can operate without the use of force *per se*, as well as research revealing more conflict-ridden internal dynamics within Indigenous societies. From this perspective, the challenge is not to romanticize indigenous forms of social organization, but to recognize the plurality of possible political forms and learn from their strategies of social articulation outside of state logics.
https://revistalibertaria.cl/la-sociedad-contra-el-estado-de-pierre-clastres/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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