The headless state: aristocratic orders, kinship society, & misrepresentations of nomadic inner Asia

Introduction

The myth of the kinship society : evolutionism and the anthropological imagination

The imaginary tribe : colonial and imperial orders and the peripheral polity

The state construction of the clan : the unilineal descent group and the ordering of state subjects

The essentialized nomad : neocolonial and Soviet models

Creating peoples : nation-state history and the notion of identity

The headless state : aristocratic orders and the substrata of power.