Nobody's People

Hierarchy as Hope in a Society of Thieves

Anastasia Piliavsky

• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781503614208
  9781503604643
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781503614215
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: Social Sciences

What if we could imagine hierarchy not as a social ill, but as a source of social hope? Taking us into a "caste of thieves" in northern India, Nobody's People depicts hierarchy as a normative idiom through which people imagine better lives and pursue social ambitions. Failing to find a place inside hierarchic relations, the book's heroes are "nobody's people": perceived as worthless, disposable and so open to being murdered with no regret or remorse. Following their journey between death and hope, we learn to perceive vertical, non-equal relations as a social good, not only in rural Rajasthan, but also in much of the world—including settings stridently committed to equality. Challenging egalo-normative commitments, Anastasia Piliavsky asks scholars across the disciplines to recognize hierarchy as a major intellectual resource.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Series Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Dramatis Personae
• Note on Transliteration
• Prologue
• 1. Hierarchy as Hope
• 2. The Lords of Begun
• 3. The People Who Were Not There
• 4. The Perils of Masterless People
• 5. How to Make and Eat a Goddess in Nine Days
• 6. Who and Whose
• 7. The New Lords of Begun
• 8. Every Man a King
• Notes
• References
• Index
• Series List