Economies of Abandonment

Elizabeth A. Povinelli is Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies at Columbia University. She is the author of The Empire of Love: Toward a Theory of Intimacy, Genealogy, and Carnality and The Cunning of Recognition: Indigenous Alterities and the Making of Australian Multiculturalism, both also published by Duke University Press, as well as Labor's Lot: The Power, History, and Culture of Aboriginal Action.

Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction. The Child in the Broom Closet 1 1. The Part That Has No Part 47 2. The Brackets of Recognition 75 3. Road Kill: Ethical Substance, Exhaustion, Endurance 101 4. Events of Abandonment 131 5. After Good and Evil, Whither Sacrificial Love? 163 Conclusion. Negative Critique, Positive Sociographies 187 Notes 193 Bibliography 211 Index 225

"Economies of Abandonment is an erudite book that unravels crucial linkages between the transformed character of liberal policies in our present and the shattered lives of those who live under its ever-expanding shadow. It will be widely read and appreciated for its thoughtful and provocative arguments." Saba Mahmood, University of California, Berkeley "Elizabeth A. Povinelli's book is ambitious and original. It reflects her extraordinary ability to move from high theoretical discussions of philosophical concepts, to broad perspectives on late liberalism, to precise accounts of political and legal controversies, as well as public conversations on sex, drugs, religion, ecology, and other matters. Her argument in Economies of Abandonment is impressive in its breadth and depth. The book will provide an important contribution to future critical discussions, not only in anthropology but much more broadly. " Eric Fassin, Ecole Normale Superieure "Povinelli approaches liberal imaginary visions of tense, eventfulness, and ethics through an inspiring study of current social and political theory. Economies of Abandonment makes a profound statement on the dynamics of the concept of belonging within a world of social difference plagued by the irregularities of liberal policy. The reader of this book is taken on an unexpected journey of different case studies (real, imagined, and textual) and theoretical and philosophical frameworks which set the scene for a thought provoking discussion of social difference, alternate social worlds and liberal politics." - Marco Ceccarelli, Limina "Economies of Abandonment impresses, to be sure, because of Povinelli's penetrating analyses and intellectual sweep, but even more so because of her conscience, political passion and willingness to persevere." - Kenneth M. George, Interventions "Situated between the 'eventful' tenses of settler governance and anthropological imaginaries, Povinelli continues to trace out how we might produce positive sociographies of those whom settler states encounter, scrutinize and abandon." - Timothy Neale, Postcolonial Studies