行动者网络中的早期国家形态——评詹姆斯·斯科特的《反抗谷物:早期国家的深度历史》

The Earliest States in the Actor Network:Review of Against the Grain:A Deep History of the Earliest States by James C.Scott

早期国家的历史一直以来受到一套包括农耕、文字、阶级在内的“文明”话语的支配,从而与“野蛮”的采集一渔猎社会分属于两种性质各异的实体。借助拉图尔的行动者网络理论,可以将早期国家置于一张由人与物共同编织而成的网络中予以考察。在这一网络所形成的关系场域中,早期国家与环伺四周的野蛮社会作为并列的行动者,共同对谷物及其意义加以输送和转译,并在物质、信息和能量的交往互动中,彼此留下可以追溯的轨迹。重新审视谷物的能动性,有助于揭示早期国家这一组合异质杂糅的特性。

The history of the earliest states has long been dominated by a civilizational discourse of agriculture,hieroglyph and social classes right in opposition to the savage society of gathering and hunting.With the aid of Latour’s actornetwork-theory,the earliest states can be perceived in a network intertwined both by human and nonhuman actors.In this relational field,the earliest states together with their savage neighbors as coordinated actors both actively transport and translate the grain as well as its meanings,leaving a traceable trajectory of conduit of material,information and energy.A new perspective from the agency of the grain will undoubtedly shed a light on the hybridity of the earliest states assembled by too many human and nonhuman actors.