Anyone read James C. Scott’s book, The Art of Not Being Governed: an Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia?
I found out about it from Patri Friedman’s blog here, and there is an article about it here, which I’m still looking over.
That was a cool article.
Such zones are the rules, rather than the exceptions, almost everywhere on earth. Only recently have they begun to disappear. Anthropologically, and especially economically, they represent a very, very interesting case. I myself have discussed a similar case in the sig. There’s a wealth of information for us in such places.
The first google result here has download links for the book. I haven’t checked it out because I am working on other stuff, but it is a compelling story.