---
product_id: 66614613
title: "On Kings"
brand: "david graebermarshall sahlins"
price: "KD 16.81"
currency: KWD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.com.kw/products/66614613-on-kings
store_origin: KW
region: Kuwait
---

# On Kings

**Brand:** david graebermarshall sahlins
**Price:** KD 16.81
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** On Kings by david graebermarshall sahlins
- **How much does it cost?** KD 16.81 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.kw](https://www.desertcart.com.kw/products/66614613-on-kings)

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## Description

On Kings

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Sahlins and Graeber explain sovereign power. Enough said.
  

*by J***U on Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2018*

Sahlins and Graeber start with the premise that even the most egalitarian societies are in fact ruled by gods--meaning, more of less, that there are forces that are out of their control but which are able to control them, a state of affairs which is true even in modern societies, with modern science--and that kings imitate gods rather than the other way around. And in this way, kingship is always bound up with the sacred, always bound up in ritual. Then they build on this with one example after another from ethnographic sources, and paint a picture of what sovereignty is made of. For example,One important strand of reasoning is that kings are always, in an important sense, in a war with the people they rule. They can impose arbitrary violence on their subjects, and the subjects can (if pushed) repay the violence in kind. Another important lesson is that sovereignty is always made up of violence that can set the law aside: this is just as true where kings demonstrate their arbitrary power by shooting random strangers when first presented with a high-powered rifle, and the impunity of American police have when they kill citizens.This book explains so much. There is the way ritual and labor are intertwined, to how kings with actual power are given to pathologies having to do with overcoming their dead predecessors, the way sovereign power is always in some way a ridiculous ritual, and so on. In other words, if you want to understand how people react to the displacement from what was thought to be meaningful labor, or the clown in the white house, or how ritual kings are more similar to modern states than you might realize, you should read this book.The evolution of sovereignty in modern nation states is purposely excluded as outside the scope. As suggested in the closing pages, the topic may be the subject to a successor volume. I am looking forward to reading that book when it comes out.It is a bit long, but never a drag. Any previous experience with college level qualitative social science (Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmell, Agamben, etc.) is helpful, but not that necessary. The theory in this book follows from the examples, not the other way around. Highly recommended.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Awesome book!!
  

*by L***N on Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2018*

What defines sovereignity? How did culture evolve to stablish a rule of just one person over a country? Through lavish comparison of different ethnography perspectives, Sahlins and Graeber stablish a new effort to dig up the secret codes and culture identifications of “the ruler”. This book comprises 7 chapters with a broad sense of ethnographic theory, discussing from the old Kongo kingdom, the Mexica, central Madagascar and others. Dignitas non Morritur was a condition of kingship stablished by the west, but we see that in other cultures different conditions prevailed. The relation between the ruler and the ruled range from divine right, ruler as a father figure to its people, the people as nursemaids to the ruler and others. This book helps in the understanding of concepts of statehood between different cultures/civilizations and help to add a new non-eurocentric look in this matter.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Sr.
  

*by A***H on Reviewed in Mexico on July 30, 2023*

All of David Graeber's books offer a pathway into broader avenues of thinking about our presente through a deeper more careful look in to our history

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*Product available on Desertcart Kuwait*
*Store origin: KW*
*Last updated: 2026-02-02*