The Mirror of the State. Power, Chiefdom, and Exchange in Pierre Clastres

This essay starts with a review of Clastres’ first article Exchange et pouvoir: philosophie de la philosophie indienne, analyzing both the original version published in L’Homme and the version reprinted as the second chapter in La Société contre l’État, and aims to show that this text was a milestone in Clastres’ work. Second, the article examines the logic of chieftainship and Clastres’ relation to structuralism and the Lévi-Straussian model based on exchange. Lastly, a critique of Clastres’ conception of power is advanced, investigating in particular his use of the concept of the State and the “epistemological obstacle” that it entails, and by problematizing the Clastrian thesis with respect to the mechanisms of delegation and authorization underlying the modern definition of the State.