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Intro -- Contents -- Introduction: Meanings and Mass Executions -- 1: Institutions as Cultural Systems -- 2: The Transformations of Empire -- 3: Vagueness and Violence on the Maritime Periphery -- 4: The Classification of Pirates -- 5: Guns, Gallows, and Interpretive Infrastructures -- 6: "Hung Up in Irons, to be a Spectacle, and So a Warning to Others" -- 7: Ambiguity Lost: Temporality and Fatalism on the Edge of Empire -- Conclusion: Pirates, Adverbs, and Institutions -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- References -- Index.

Abstract The strong program in cultural sociology is distinctive in contemporary U.S. sociology. At a time when middle-range theory dominates, the strong program in some respects follow an older model of theorizing through the development of a self-consciously programmatic theoretical endeavor. The article traces this quality of the strong program to its relationship to older theoretical traditions that inspire its ambitions (though it differs from these in important ways). Another aspect of the strong program that exerts an important influence is its institutional identification with the Yale Center for Cultural Sociology. The article focuses on the Center's weekly culture workshop as a nexus that allows for it to both pursue a distinctive theoretical program that nonetheless remains closely connected to developments in U.S. cultural sociology more generally.

AbstractThe article systematically assesses U.S.-Native relations today and their historical foundations in light of a narrow, empirical definition of colonial empire. Examining three core elements of colonial empire—the formal impairment of sovereignty, the intensive practical impairment of sovereignty through practices of governance and administration, and the continuing otherness of the dominated and dominant groups—we compare contemporary U.S.-Native political relations to canonical instances of formal colonial indirect rule empires. Based on this analysis, we argue that the United States today is a paradigmatic case of formal colonial empire in the narrow, traditional sense, one that should be better integrated into the comparative, historical, and sociological study of such formal empires. Furthermore, this prominent contemporary case stands against the idea that the era of formal colonial empire is over.

"Meaning is everywhere and everybody must interpret. Nobody argued this more persuasively than Clifford Geertz. From Balinese cock fights to sheep raids to theater states, Geertz showed that there is no escape from the sticky webs of meaning that capture our lives. But what exactly is Geertz saying, and should we still listen to him? After all, many argue that his ideas have run out of steam. This book confronts Geertz and his critics, offering surprising answers from various disciplines and identifying for the first time the contours of "the Geertz Effect.""--

"Meaning is everywhere and everybody must interpret. Nobody argued this more persuasively than Clifford Geertz. From Balinese cock fights to sheep raids to theater states, Geertz showed that there is no escape from the sticky webs of meaning that capture our lives. But what exactly is Geertz saying, and should we still listen to him? After all, many argue that his ideas have run out of steam. This book confronts Geertz and his critics, offering surprising answers from various disciplines and identifying for the first time the contours of "the Geertz Effect.""--

"Meaning is everywhere and everybody must interpret. Nobody argued this more persuasively than Clifford Geertz. From Balinese cock fights to sheep raids to theater states, Geertz showed that there is no escape from the sticky webs of meaning that capture our lives. But what exactly is Geertz saying, and should we still listen to him? After all, many argue that his ideas have run out of steam. This book confronts Geertz and his critics, offering surprising answers from various disciplines and identifying for the first time the contours of 'the Geertz Effect.'"--