{"product_id":"negara-by-clifford-geertz-9780691007786","title":"Negara","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCombining great learning, interpretative originality, analytical sensitivity, and a charismatic prose style, Clifford Geertz has produced a lasting body of work with influence throughout the humanities and social sciences, and remains the foremost anthropologist in America. His 1980 book \u003cem\u003eNegara\u003c\/em\u003e analysed the social organisation of Bali before it was colonised by the Dutch in 1906.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHere Geertz applied his widely influential method of cultural interpretation to the myths, ceremonies, rituals, and symbols of a precolonial state. He found that the nineteenth-century Balinese state defied easy conceptualisation by the familiar models of political theory and the standard Western approaches to understanding politics. \u003cem\u003eNegara\u003c\/em\u003e means \"country\" or \"seat of political authority\" in Indonesian. In Bali, Geertz found \u003cem\u003enegara\u003c\/em\u003e to be a \"theatre state,\" governed by rituals and symbols rather than by force.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Balinese state did not specialise in tyranny, conquest, or effective administration. Instead, it emphasised spectacle. The elaborate ceremonies and productions the state created were \"not means to political ends: they were the ends themselves, they were what the state was for...Power served pomp, not pomp power.\" Geertz argued more forcefully in \u003cem\u003eNegara\u003c\/em\u003e than in any of his other books for the fundamental importance of the culture of politics to a society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMuch of Geertz's previous work—including his world-famous essay on the Balinese cockfight—can be seen as leading up to the full portrait of the \"poetics of power\" that \u003cem\u003eNegara\u003c\/em\u003e so vividly depicts.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47597308248300,"sku":"9780691007786","price":113.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/adbcada7a6994007f7270d9441b968aa.jpg?v=1777954290","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/negara-by-clifford-geertz-9780691007786","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}