Pierre Clastres

"The dance is both expression and social glue."

"Nature does not belong to us; we belong to it."

"Myth carries truth that facts alone cannot convey."

"A chief who commands is already on his way to being deposed."

"The written word separates thought from speaker and listener."

"Trade begins where trust ends."

"Society is either a conversation or a tyranny."

"The shaman's power lies in his ability to speak for the voiceless."

"Generosity is the price of peace in small societies."

"Memory without writing is memory without certainty, and thus without burden."

"The state begins when someone succeeds in being obeyed."

"In oral cultures, everyone is a keeper of meaning."

"War serves the state as much as the state serves war."

"The gift creates a bond stronger than any contract."

"Authority without accountability is merely organized violence."

"The primitive mind is not less developed, but differently organized."

"Silence can be a form of philosophical resistance."

"The invisible realm is not separate from the visible; it interpenetrates it."

"Accumulation is the enemy of equality."

"The body speaks truth that words often conceal."

"In refusing to specialize, the primitive retains freedom."

"Society reproduces itself through ritual, not through force."

"The chief's weakness is society's strength."

"Language creates categories that nature does not contain."

"The primitive shares what the civilized hoards."

"Debt is the invisible chain that binds the free."

"The shaman heals by reconnecting the individual to the community."

"In small societies, reputation is currency."

"The law exists to protect inequality."

"Beauty in nature requires no justification."