Társadalom az állam ellen – Pierre Clastres etnoanarchista politikafilozófiája
Society against the State – Pierre Clastres’ Ethno-Anarchistic Political Philosophy

Summary/Abstract: Pierre Clastres is an interesting figure of the 20th-century humanities and social sciences. He was an ethnologist, cultural anthropologist, political philosopher and political activist. He investigated the life of the South-American Indians of Amazonia during long years as a disciple of Claude Lévi-Strauss. His empirical investigations verified his belief about the falsity of the fundamental dogma of European ethnocentric thought, namely that the establishment of statehood is the apex of social development. The ‘Savages’ of Amazonia vote for the ‘centrifugal forces’ by all their activities; it means that they prefer the dispersion and the atomistic existence against the union governed from a singular centre. The chief has just a symbolic and temporal rule; he acts as a spokesman of the community in particular situations. An important guarantee of maintaining the fragmented existence of the community is the war that prevents the establishment of a ‘central rule’ over the tribes. According to Clastres, the establishment of the state is a mysterium magnum, as is its disappearance, as he had hoped. Clastres believed his whole life that in a free society, the state would irrevocably become a museum object.

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