people govern themselves in local and traditional ways.
There the "chief" is there as a figurehead, and doesn't hold any power over others. Saying "traditional and local" doesn't mean anything, everything is "local" and traditional afaic.
people govern themselves in local and traditional ways.
There the "chief" is there as a figurehead, and doesn't hold any power over others. Saying "traditional and local" doesn't mean anything, everything is "local" and traditional afaic.
Not everything is local or traditional in the sense of "not modern".
But back to this "Zomia". What happens if I steal somebody's property? Or physically harm somebody?
These things happen. The question is how any given social structure deals with them.
According to whom?
What people?
What if I'm a lot stronger than the person I'm stealing from?
There are very large differences in capacity for violence between individuals or families. If there is no structure in place to maintain order and justice, then the strong rule the weak with nothing impeding them. There is always some sort of a system of tribal justice in place, laws and customs that tradition has shaped. The tribe delegates resolving cases where the tribal laws have been violated to the tribal elders who are respected individuals considered authorities. The carrying out of the decisions of the elders who may represent different tribes negotiating a solution if the transgression involved a member of one tribe violating a right of a member of another tribe is done in an agreed upon way by an individual or a group powerful enough to do so - against the will of the transgressor.
This how it works everywhere where there is no larger organized society whose size exceeds the number of people one can know personally. The difference is one of scale. Not everything is up for negotiation from scratch. There has to be a set of rules known by everyone as well as people whose task it is to interpret the rules as well as someone powerful enough to carry out the decisions.