This article critically evaluates P. Clastres's contribution to our understanding of power, with particular emphasis on his notion of "society against the State". It demonstrates that Clastres's critique of Lévi-Strauss does not exclude a particular understanding of what he calls 'reciprocal exchange' and also indicates the extent to which the author's reflections are based on an understanding of the notion of reciprocity which mistakes it simultaneously for symmetry, equivalence and equality. The article likewise shows that the notion of "society against the State" depends on a specific kind of exchange relationship between 'society' and 'the State'. The existence of this exchange - explicitly denied by Clastres - is at once implicitly and unconsciously presumed by him.
Pierre Clastres; State; Reciprocity; Claude Lévi-Strauss