Description
Book SynopsisIn this text, the author, Arun Agrawal uses the story of the Raikas, a little-known group of migrant shepherds in western India, to re-examine scholarship on markets and exchange, local and state politics, and community and hierarchy.
Trade Review“A salutary alternative to the ‘noble savage’ stereotyping that so often characterizes writings about nomads, this book also deals nicely with some fundamental issues about social research. . . . Agrawal vividly portrays the failure of ‘development’ programs that ignore local customs and attitudes, and clearly shows why making nomads sedentary is an unlikely way to ‘modernize’ them. This clear, well-organized, unusual ethnography makes several important points.” - Choice
“[A] useful book that answers some important questions. . . . If comparative economists are looking for a short and stimulating book on migratory pastoral economies that has some important messages for our discipline, this is a fine place for a start.” - Frederic L. Pryor and Amanda Bayer,
Journal of Comparative Economics“[A] tremendously rich book and a scholarly achievement worth applauding.” - B. G. Karlsson,
American Ethnologist“[A] skillful treatment of the Raikas. . . .
Greener Pastures is a book that will appeal to diverse scholars and students. It is must reading for those interested in pastoralism, while political scientists and anthropologists will find colorful explorations of questions that are central to those disciplines. Additionally, this is a useful text for the fields of human geography, political ecology, development theory, and community-based-cooperatives theory, as well as for South Asian studies.” - Robert G. Varady and Katherine Hankins,
The Journal of Asian Studies“Beautifully researched and rigorously analyzed, this book will be of interest to economists, political scientists, and anthropologists,a s well as all who are concerned with the environment.”—Robert H. Bates, Harvard University
“This is a rare book. Not only does it give the reader an excellent indepth view of the life of the raikas, it also contributes to our theoretical understanding of how individuals in field settings overcome social dilemmas. Few books convey such rich theoretical and empirical understanding within the same covers.”—Elinor Ostrom, Indiana University
“A riveting combination of sophistication in formal theory, brilliant ethnography, and analytical imagination.”—James C. Scott, Yale University
“[A] skillful treatment of the Raikas. . . .
Greener Pastures is a book that will appeal to diverse scholars and students. It is must reading for those interested in pastoralism, while political scientists and anthropologists will find colorful explorations of questions that are central to those disciplines. Additionally, this is a useful text for the fields of human geography, political ecology, development theory, and community-based-cooperatives theory, as well as for South Asian studies.” -- Robert G. Varady and Katherine Hankins * Journal of Asian Studies *
“[A] tremendously rich book and a scholarly achievement worth applauding.” -- B. G. Karlsson * American Ethnologist *
“[A] useful book that answers some important questions. . . . If comparative economists are looking for a short and stimulating book on migratory pastoral economies that has some important messages for our discipline, this is a fine place for a start.” -- Frederic L. Pryor and Amanda Bayer * Journal of Comparative Economics *
“A salutary alternative to the ‘noble savage’ stereotyping that so often characterizes writings about nomads, this book also deals nicely with some fundamental issues about social research. . . . Agrawal vividly portrays the failure of ‘development’ programs that ignore local customs and attitudes, and clearly shows why making nomads sedentary is an unlikely way to ‘modernize’ them. This clear, well-organized, unusual ethnography makes several important points.” -- Choice
Table of ContentsTables and Figures ix
Preface xi
Introduction: Politics, Markets, and Community among a Migrant People 3
I. Subaltern Politics, Development, and the State 35
II. Markets and Exchange 79
III. Community, Institutions, Hierarchy 125
Notes 169
Bibliography 185
Index 211
