Power is a craving that has been consistently desired and sought after since the

advent of group settlements. The pursuit of power has always led to destruction, division
and marginalization of people, and yet this phenomenon governs every aspect of daily
life. Even in primitive stateless societies, there was a chief that was given title and
responsibility but yet he held no real power (Clastres 2010). The idea of power in a state
holds the exact same form; power is not physically present in weapons or army, but rather
an invisible establishment that seeks to control and maintain order. The state only carries
power if the population abides by its rule of law and leaders only retain legitimacy
through the support of the citizens. Whether democratic or autocratic, modern society is
similar to stateless societies as the people govern the chief and all decisions
conducted, and power always remains with the people. Civil rights movements are
evidence that violence and fear are not the chief origins of power for the state, rather
segregation attributes political strength and influence to certain? marginalized groups.
The following essay will analyze Begona Aretxagas ethnography entitled Shattering
Silence and Clemencia Ramirezs ethnography, Between the Guerrillas and the State in
relation to the modes (modalities?) of control and cohesion in the state. Following an
exploration of capitalism and colonialism on state, critical analysis will be conducted on
symbolic politics and gendered nationalism, in the light of both ethnographies. The essay
will conclude with a comparison of the impact of violence in Belfast and Putumayo, in an
attempt to reveal that the state does not hold complete power and that state itself is the
problem towards maintaining social order. The root of many problems that lead to the
need for civil rights movement was the spread of capitalism. This is a random
sentence.
Capitalism is an ideology with various definitions. However, consensus states that
it is an economic system based on private ownership, profit and meanings of production.
As a dominant system, the state used colonialism to secure resources in ventures of greed
and profit seeking. Even in primitive society such as Swat demonstrated that people
wanted their leader to expand territory and increase security, which was only obtainable
through establishing an army (Asad 1972). The army that was intended to provide
security from the state now acts as a source of oppression in colonies. As violence
reinforces the states power through fear and anxiety (Clasters), it is evident that the
opposite is quite possible. Sublimation of identity and the attempted elimination of
agency have lead to civil rights movements that challenge state authority.beautiful.
In her ethnography, through the analysis of Belfast, Aretxaga reveals that
colonialism aimed to suppress opposition by removing any sense of dignity for human
rights. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) was a rebellion group that opposed the power of
the state. Women at this time played a significant role as they were deemed invisible in
the political world (Aretxaga). Women used this stigma to aid the IRA by transferring
messages into and out of prisons (Aretxaga). This form of rebellion demonstrates that the
state holds no true power and even with the power of a physical army, home inspections
(Aretxaga), prisons and modes of oppression, retaliation can still occur in many forms.
People begin to be neglected by the state and rebellion occurs in hopes of political
inclusion.
This is evident in Ramirezs ethnography Between the Guerrillas and the State.
The ethnography depicts various marginalized groups of people who are segregated and
forgotten by the state. Acts of rebellion show unity in civil groups that begin social
movements, promoting change and equality. This occurs in Putumayo, as various groups
form to defend a segment of the population. The FARC, which is the revolutionary armed
forces of Columbia, oppose the state, as promises by the state to the Cocalero were not
kept (Rameriez). The state promised the Campensino, who are Coca plant growers,
certain compensation after the fumigation of the coca crops(Ramirez ???? ). The forces
of capitalism are quite present in Putamayo as people struggle to make money, even if
resorting to illegal methods. Bending the rule of law is acceptable as long as it is in the
pursuit of economic expansion. In a society where money is power, the Campensino only
obtained political standing through the growth and distribution of the Coca plant. The
irony of this situation lies in the fact that, while the state creates negative stigma towards
the Campensino, labeling them as criminals who act outside the realm of state law, the
Campensino want nothing more than to be integrated into society. Since the state does
not want to give them political power, they attempt to maintain power through
oppression.
The State maintains power through violence as Foucault states wars are no
longer waged in the name of sovereign who must be defended; they are waged on behalf
of the existence of everyone (Focault 1???). National ventures forget to serve the entire
As the Campensino were becoming wealthy and self-sustaining, the state again tried to
take it away through fumigation (Rameriez). The state relies on impoverished
populations, like Putumayo, to reaffirm their own significance, reestablishing the need for
the state in the eyes of the civilian population.
The Cocalero Movement began with a simple idea, and this idea was that the
state did not own the land that belonged to peasant farmers, growers and harvesters. State
policies were aimed to destroy the plantation that had developed in the Amazon region,
and control resources in the region (Ramirez). The famous march that included over 200
000 people was a civil movement that was used to shift political favor towards the
Cocalero. Demonstrating unity and faith allowed them to achieve political favor. The
state retaliated with their paramilitary, which at first were stationed in Putumayo in
attempts to contain the influence and political power of the guerillas (Rameriez). This led
to mass armed conflict and need in the rise of civil and non-violent poltical presence
(huh). Armed authoritarian actors that disputed over cocoa growing areas were a distinct
political symbol of the lack of power in the state. The idea of power over life and death
(Foucault) creates a symbolic notion of power that is solidified through military action,
weapons, patrols, searches and arrests. Guerillas showed that anyone could obtain this
type of power, a power gained through fear and authoritarian action. In contrast, the
Cocalero movement showed that real power is achieved through strong civil action and
that a civil society can achieve strength through unity under a universal goal, and that this
was the type of power needed to unify a country. The state can not govern those who do
not want to be governed and as Cocalero became the unnoticed and invisible, they
showed that power true power is held by the people.

This notion of power in the hands of the civil populace is also made evident in the
feminist movement of Northern Ireland. Aretxaga(1996) begins by establishing the role
of women in Northern Ireland as homemakers and nurturers. Although there was a huge
population of working-class women, the area remained male-dominant. Political attacks
on women were not physical but rather attacked the very meaning of being female;
preventing women from buying milk, curfews, arrests of women, and the separation of
women from the rest of the population (Aretxaga). Attacking the stereotypes of women
was meant to obtain control over the population. By controlling the fundamental aspects
of the woman, the state attempted to show that they have power over the individual.
Aretxagas () study in Belfast revealed that the state attempted to eliminate civilian
identity to sublimate power back to the state.
Eliminating personal identity through uniforms and shaved heads was a type of
political reformation of Belfast. Armaghs dirty protest (Aretxaga, 2000) was a sign of
true feminine protest again the state, as menstrual blood was a symbol of rebellion
against the unseen oppression and repression of women in politics. This movement
showed that not even women wanted to be considered the stereotypical and stigmatized
women of Belfast. Barber (2009) writes about reproductive labor and the stigmatization
of labor. There is a problem even within the name itself as reproduction is typically
associated with females, and although there has been a shift towards equality between
genders, the negative notions around females still remain. The division of labor
establishes a symbolic representation of the soldier who is masculinized. In turn, those
performing the outsourced reproductive labor, the migrant workers, are now symbolized
as lesser, since they are performing the reproductive or feminine work. Low-wage
workers allow for luxuries for the higher classes that were previously not readily
available or plausible. Living comfortably at the expense of others has been a theme that
has been present in the marginalization of populations; people are able to get ahead if
some people are forced to stay behind.
As stated earlier in the essay, capitalistic ideals and colonialism were created so
that Westerners could enjoy a higher standard of living. The impacts of colonialism and
republican capitalism are evident in all societies. Modern day has been shaped by early
ideas of expansion and exploitation of weaker groups. When the civilian population of a
state arrives at the point where they are deemed invisible, everything is taken away from
them, and they exert lesser and lesser influence on a national scale, they are awakened to
the realization that the true power of the state lies outside of symbolic politics.
A symbol only holds meaning when there are people to believe in its significance.
As populations are oppressed, they lose reverence of the state and are made conscious of
the shift they themselves could create in political structure, through united civil
movement.

Work Cited

Aretxaga, B. (1997). Shattering Silence: Women, Nationalism, and Political
Subjectivity in Northern Ireland. Princeton University Press.

Asad, Talal. 2002 [1972]. Market Model, Class Structure, and Consent: A
Reconsideration of Swat Political Organization, in The Anthropology of Politics: A
Reader in Ethnography, Theory, and Critique (Joan Vincent, ed.). Blackwell: 65-81.

Barker, Isabelle V. 2009. (Re)Producing American Soldiers in an Age of Empire.
Politics and Gender 5: 211-235.

Clastres, Pierre. 2010 [1980]. Power in Primitive Society, in Archaeology of Violence.
Semiotext(e):163-170.

Foucault, Michel. 2004 [1978]. The Right of Death and the Power over Life, in
Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology (Nancy Scheper- Hughes and Philippe
Bourgois, eds.). Blackwell: 79-82.







Ramirez, M. C. (2011). Between the Guerrillas and the State: The Cocalero Movement,
Citizenship, and Identity in the Colombian Amazon. Duke University Press.


Tilly, Charles. 1985. War Making and State Making as Organized Crime in Bringing
the State Back In (Peter Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol, eds).
Cambridge: 169-191.



it is about the gender structure of politics and the political structuring of gender its
central question is about the possibilities and limits of feminist change within the
constraints of social and political relations of power (150 aretxaga)

The political effects of the Armagh dirty protest were triggered by the symbolism of
menstrual blood that tapped on an experience of femininity excluded from public
discourse (122). (aretxaga)

This globalized division of reproductive

labor is a site of symbolic politics that reinforces the gendered dimensions of the national

identity of the American soldier. (Barler 2009)




The presence of migrant workers in service occupations suggests that the

division of labor on twenty-first-century U.S. military bases has taken on a

set of characteristics representing an underexplored axis in the global

division of reproductive labor (barber 2009)

reorganized division of labor

reinforces the devaluation and disavowal of social reproduction and, in

the process, serves as a site of symbolic politics underwriting the

gendered dimensions of the national identity of the American soldier. (barber 2009)