Description
Book SynopsisThe Political Machine investigates the essential role that material culture plays in the practices and maintenance of political sovereignty. Through an archaeological exploration of the Bronze Age Caucasus, Adam Smith demonstrates that beyond assemblies of people, polities are just as importantly assemblages of things--from ballots and bullets to c
Trade Review"The coherence and brevity of the book reflects its development from the 2013 Rostovtzeff Lecture Series at New York University. The book can be read quickly, and its significance for evolutionary studies can be assimilated thoughtfully. It deserves to be read broadly by academics, graduate students and an interested public."--Timothy Earle, Antiquity "I most strongly recommend this as a book with which to argue, for all interested in the newest forms of theory concerning politics and objects, as well as anyone examining ancient Eurasian cultural forms and connections."--Chris Gosden, American Anthropologist "The Political Machine surely succeeds in bringing the political back into the mainstream of archaeological theory. Smith's provocative work will be studied by all interested in ontology and the epistemology of things, and by archaeological theorists."--Geoffrey D. Summers, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Table of ContentsPreface ix Introduction: Reverse Engineering the Polity 1 The Conditions of Sovereignty 4 Machine Politics 7 Bodies and Things 11 Into the Caucasus 16 Schematic 20 Part I: The Machinery of Sovereignty Chapter 1. On Assemblages and Machines 27 Things and Objects 29 The Exile of Things 33 Nature Morte 40 The Assemblage Assembled 43 The Efficacy of Machines 48 Sense, Sensibility, and Sentiment 54 Chapter 2. On The Matter of Sovereignty 59 Sovereignty Disassembled 61 Prehistory and the Political 64 Archaeologies of Sovereignty 67 Assembly and Assemblage 72 Origin Myths 73 Wayward Things and the Dual Sovereign 78 Exit Objects 1: Liberal Theory and Things 81 Exit Objects 2: Marx and Matter 83 Sovereign Matter, Governmental Machines 86 The Sovereign Conditions 91 Part II: Assembling Sovereignty Chapter 3. The Civilization Machine in the Early Bronze Age 97 The Kura-Araxes 102 Sensibility 105 Sense 110 Sentiment 122 An Early Bronze Age Public 125 Chapter 4. The War Machine in the Middle Bronze Age 127 The Caucasus in Transition 130 Sensibility 138 Sense 144 Sentiment 148 Territorialization and Contradiction 151 Chapter 5. The Political Machine in the Late Bronze Age 154 The Caucasus at the Beginning of the Late Bronze Age 157 Sensibility 165 Sense 171 Sentiment 178 The Enduring Political Machine 183 Conclusion 186 Erebuni-Yerevan 188 Brother Axe 194 References Cited 197 Index 233
