Nightmare egalitarianism. Commensuration, autonomy and imagination

Abstract

Egalitarianism is often idealized, but many anthropologists have noted its potential for nightmare scenarios involving envy, mistrust, and violence. This introduction outlines a framework for understanding the negative emotions and violence associated with the forces of commensuration that are necessary to make people equal. The levelling effect of commensuration stands in tension with autonomy and mutuality; and may be contained through imaginative social practice. Drawing on ethnographic examples ranging from Neolithic architecture to contemporary state formation, we distinguish three fundamental modes of egalitarianism: ‘non-egalitarianism’, based on the incommensurability of beings; ‘segmentary egalitarianism’, which draws equivalences within defined groups and is based on partial commensuration; and ‘general egalitarianism’ based on universal and absolute commensuration. In non-egalitarianism, the nightmare is the emergence of a sovereign central perspective. The horrors of segmentary egalitarianism are located at the boundaries of well-established in-groups, and personified by non-equals above, below, and elsewhere. General egalitarianism produces subjects that are ‘more equal than others’ and forces new in-group/out-group divides. Throughout, the violent aspects of egalitarian world-making - such as enforcing measures, drawing boundaries, and suppressing incommensurabilities - are explored not just as constraints but also as generative social forces.