Formations of Trust and Power

Abstract

Non-state actors are playing increasingly important roles in the societies and economies of Central Eurasia, sometimes offering services to local communities that states are expected to provide. These actors are often patrons able to organize considerable resources through relations of mutual obligation and trust, yet they may not be fully recognized by scholars as a consequential trend concerning the forms that power takes in the region today. The essay reviews several examples of these local formations of trust and power, and considers them as postcolonial, anthropological problems to investigate.