Notes on Fragments

Revolution as a process, not a break. As building autonomous communities in an 'engaged withdrawal,' not as confronting state power. As seeing all of us as the same not as Us studying Them.

Graeber has some interesting things to say in his "Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology."
Another example.

"The Tsimihety are now considered a foko—a people or ethnic group—but their identity emerged as a political project. The desire to live free of Sakalava domination was translated into a desire—one which came to suffuse all social institutions from village assemblies to mortuary ritual—to live in a society free of markers of hierarchy. This then became institutionalized as a way of life of a community living together, which then in turn came to be thought of as a particular “kind” of people, an ethnic group—people who also, since they tend to intermarry, come to be seen as united by common ancestry."

A funny example of subversion:

"Residents of the squatter community of Christiana, Denmark, for example, have a Christmastide ritual where they dress in Santa suits, take toys from department stores and
distribute them to children on the street, partly just so everyone can relish the images of the cops beating down Santa and snatching the toys back from crying children."

One last note (for now):

"This of course brings up the “who will do the dirty jobs?” question—one which always gets thrown at anarchists or other utopians. Peter Kropotkin long ago pointed out the fallacy of the argument. There’s no particular reason dirty jobs have to exist. If one divided up the unpleasant tasks equally, that would mean all the world’s top scientists and engineers would have to do them too; one could expect the creation of self-cleaning kitchens and coal-mining robots almost immediately."

Of course I should be reading more than just white male academics. Thanks for the check, Becca.