The Art of Not Being Scripted So Much

Abstract

If it is the author's pre-published version, changes introduced as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing and formatting may not be reflected in this document. For a definitive version of this work, please refer to the published version.1. This title borrows from both James C. Scott's (2009) book title (The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia) and a conference given in 1978 by Michel Foucault in which he discussed l'art de n'être pas tellement gouverné, translated by Judith Butler (2002) as "the art of not being governed quite so much." This article continues a series of reflections first published in my article "What's (Written) History for? On James C. Scott's Zomia, Especially Chapter 6½" in Anthropology Today (2017). That article and this one are thus connected and can be read together.