If a single, compact survey of a large and complex issue were adduced to justify the Association of Asian Studies's invention of its series of “Shorts,” scholars need look no further than Sumit Guha's volume on Tribes and State in Asia. It is an astute and wide-ranging guide to the term tribe in all its permutations: from what Europeans refer to as the Near East to the Far East and many places between, including South Asia, about which Guha is a renowned authority. It merits being considered the point of departure for any scholar who plans to study early state formation, the relationship between state-governed institutions and social organization outside (or often “alongside”) the state, and the modern usage of tribe as a legal and administered category.
The reader has the good fortune to be in the intellectual hands of a scholar who is a devotee of the très très...
