6 There is No Means by Which I Live: Livelihood and Power at the Margins of the State

Abstract

The social and political power of marginal highland dwellers is examined through comparison of historical and archaeological data in early Sweden and modern Lesotho, southern Africa. Upland dwellers negotiated political and environmental challenges while struggling to establish community in the face of high taxation, uprooting, and violence. Current understandings of the medical and psychosocial impacts of such challenges indicate that individuals experience severe stress, but also intense attachment to their environment, even when living in highly marginal places with tenuous livelihoods. This nexus may help clarify similar archaeological cases.