"Surviving the State considers the everyday, land-based practices of mostly women farmers in Myanmar, as they endure the violence and neglect of the authoritarian state. The book is built on Hilary Faxons ethnographic fieldwork in Myanmars Kalay Valley near the Indian border, a rice-growing region where farmers have been subject to land grabs and displacement so that profitable oil palm plantations could be built on what was once subsistence farming land. Faxon observes how Myanmar small-holders treat land not only as a source of food, a place of kinship, and a source of identity but as a living thing entwined with the families it supports. She considers the centrality of land politics, both to the states efforts to control the area and the Burmese inhabitants efforts to survive and support their families. Faxon looks at how farmers and local officials blur, evade, and obfuscate legal boundaries to hold on to their land in the face of land seizures and redistribution. Providing a rare view into post-coup Myanmar, Surviving the State illuminates the countrys land politics through a feminist lens that questions what it means to live a meaningful life beyond mere survival"-- Provided by publisher.