In anthropology as much as in popular imagination, kings are figures of fascination and intrigue, heroes or tyrants in ways presidents and prime ministers can never be. This collection of essays by two of the world?s most distinguished anthropologists?David Graeber and Marshall Sahlins?explores what kingship actually is, historically and anthropologically. As they show, kings are symbols for more than just sovereignty: indeed, the study of kingship offers a unique window into fundamental dilemmas concerning the very nature of power, meaning, and the human condition. Reflecting on issues such as temporality, alterity, piracy, and utopia?not to mention the divine, the strange, the numinous, and the bestial?Graeber and Sahlins explore the role of kings as they have existed around the world, from the BaKongo to the Aztec to the Shilluk and beyond. Richly delivered with the wit and sharp analysis characteristic of Graeber and Sahlins, this book opens up new avenues for the anthropological study of this fascinating and ubiquitous political figure.

"In recent and ongoing uprisings all around the world, from Santiago to Hong Kong, many of the protesters' aims have been consistent: justice, an end to political corruption, and a return to principles of collective good. Yet there are also specific and diverse struggles such as demands for direct democracy (as in France), the rejection of ethnic or sectarian identities (Iraq and Lebanon), and the fate of the planet itself. Uprisings provides one way to find a common thread in all this by examining the similarities and differences among a full range of rebellions in the past, from slave revolts in ancient Egypt to the fall of the Berlin Wall to the the women's revolution in Rojava, northern Syria. Bridging historical analysis and relevant contemporary art, Uprisings offers tools for visualizing history that offer a vivid point of entry to the information. Whereas existing narratives of radical social change have debated the virtues and vices of individual heroes (Jesus, Mandela, Gandhi), Uprisings follows in the footsteps of Howard Zinn, viewing major events as the product of a confluence of efforts by multiple actors, usually from vastly different backgrounds that have tended to be marginalized, their perspectives written out of official history.In recent and ongoing uprisings all around the world, from Santiago to Hong Kong, many of the protesters' aims have been consistent: justice, an end to political corruption, and a return to principles of collective good. Yet there are also specific and diverse struggles such as demands for direct democracy (as in France), the rejection of ethnic or sectarian identities (Iraq and Lebanon), and the fate of the planet itself. Uprisings provides one way to find a common thread in all this by examining the similarities and differences among a full range of rebellions in the past, from slave revolts in ancient Egypt to the fall of the Berlin Wall to the the women's revolution in Rojava, northern Syria. Bridging historical analysis and relevant contemporary art, Uprisings offers tools for visualizing history that offer a vivid point of entry to the information. Whereas existing narratives of radical social change have debated the virtues and vices of individual heroes (Jesus, Mandela, Gandhi), Uprisings follows in the footsteps of Howard Zinn, viewing major events as the product of a confluence of efforts by multiple actors, usually from vastly different backgrounds that have tended to be marginalized, their perspectives written out of official history"--