Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Series
  • People
  • Depts & Colleges

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Series
  • People
  • Depts & Colleges
The media files for this episode are hosted on another site. Download the audio here.

Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture 2008

The Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture was on Wednesday 21st May 2008 at Somerville College, University of Oxford. Professor James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science, Yale University gave the lecture on the subject of Zomia, Southeast Asia.
This podcast was recorded at the Annual Elizabeth Colson Lecture which was on Wednesday 21st May 2008 at Somerville College, University of Oxford. Professor James C. Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science, Yale University gave the lecture on the subject of Zomia. Zomia is a shorthand reference to the huge massif of mainland Southeast Asia, running from the Central Highlands of Vietnam westward all the way to northeastern India and including the southwest Chinese provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and western Guangxi. Zomia has, I contend, been peopled over the last 2,000 years largely by runaways from several state-making projects in the valleys, most particularly Han state-making projects. They have, in the hills, acquired, and shifted, their ethnic identities. Far from being 'remnants' left behind by civilizing societies, they are, as it were, "barbarians by choice"?, peoples who have deliberately put distance between themselves and lowland, state-centers. It is in this context that their forms of agriculture, their social structures, and much of their culture, including perhaps even their illiteracy, can be understood as political choices.

Episode Information

People
Roger Zetter
James C. Scott
Keywords
burma
refugee studies centre
india
cambodia
anthropology
vietnam
china
asia
laos
oxford
thailand
forced migration
event
Department: 
Date Added: 27/05/2008
Duration: 00:52:40

Subscribe

Download

Download Audio

Footer

  • About
  • Accessibility
  • Contribute
  • Copyright
  • Contact
  • Privacy
'Oxford Podcasts' Twitter Account @oxfordpodcasts | MediaPub Publishing Portal for Oxford Podcast Contributors | Upcoming Talks in Oxford | © 2011-2022 The University of Oxford