Cover Page -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction: Global Savage -- PART I Returning to a Theory of Social Formation -- 2 Social Relations in Tension -- Globalism and localism -- Relating polity and community -- Defining globalism, nationalism and tribalism -- From Rwanda to Kosovo and Iraq -- Notes -- 3 Contending Approaches in Outline -- Problems of understanding -- Epochs of order: Ernest Gellner -- Tracks of social power: Michael Mann -- Patterns of practice: Pierre Bourdieu -- Structures of agency: Anthony Giddens -- Unstable patterns of meaning: Michel Foucault -- Notes -- 4 Theory in the Shadow of Terror -- Figures of abstraction, tableaux of life -- Mapping an alternative method -- Levels of analytical abstraction -- Levels of integration -- Conclusion -- Notes -- PART II Rethinking Formations of Practice and Being -- 5 Constituting Customary Community -- Reciprocity as a dominant mode of exchange -- Analogy as a dominant mode of enquiry -- Genealogical placement as a dominant mode of organization -- Notes -- 6 Communication and Exchange, Money and Writing -- Forms of value: means of exchange -- Forms of interchange: means of communication -- Consequences for tribalism, nationalism and globalism -- Notes -- 7 Time and Space, Calendars and Maps -- The abstraction of time -- The abstraction of space -- Notes -- 8 Bodies and Symbols, Blood and Milk -- From natural symbols to techno-machines -- Tribal bodies, traditional bodies, modern bodies -- To the body as an individualized postmodern project -- Conclusion -- Notes -- PART III Rewriting the History of the Present -- 9 State Formation: From Kingdoms and Empires to Nation-States -- Bringing the state back in - as social form -- Empires, kingdoms and monarchical states -- Nation-states -- Notes.

10 Nation Formation: From the Medieval to the Postmodern -- Across the traditional-modern divide -- In the context of empire -- The (dis)continuities of tribalism in a postcolonial nation-state -- From traditionalism to postmodernism in a modern nation -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 11 Global Formation: From the Oecumene to Planet Exploitation -- Arguing about globalization -- Structures of globalization -- Globalism, empire and the politics of structured subjection -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 12 Conclusion: Principles for a Postnational World -- Liberation movements and the politics of modern nationalism -- The misplaced faith in postnationalism and cosmopolitanism -- An alternative approach to solidarity and community -- Elaborating ethical complications -- Glossary -- Select Bibliography -- Index.