Sovereignty and Freedom in W est P apua and Beyond

Abstract

In contemporary anthropological writing about the attitudes of people towards state sovereignty, two contrasting positions are often advanced. One stresses the desire to live outside state sovereignty that has become familiar since Scott argued that it was a central aim of so many people living on the periphery of nation states. By contrast other accounts stress the desire for any kind of sovereign, even a despotic or criminal one that might save the people from violence and chaos. This latter desire can be found in a number ethnographic discussions over the past decade. The West Papuans described in these two accomplished accounts neither reject state sovereignty (indeed many of them risk torture and death to achieve their own vision of it) but neither do they want any kind of sovereignty at any cost. Both authors are keen to stress that neither freedom nor the sovereign power that simultaneously constrains and enables it is ever absolute.