The Production of Legal Identities Proper to States: The Case of the Permanent Family Surname

@article{Scott2002ThePO,
  title={The Production of Legal Identities Proper to States: The Case of the Permanent Family Surname},
  author={James C. Scott and John Tehranian and Jeremy Mathias},
  journal={Comparative Studies in Society and History},
  year={2002},
  volume={44},
  pages={4 - 44}
}
State naming practices and local, customary naming practices are strikingly different. Each set of practices is designed to make the human and physical landscape legible, by sharply identifying a unique individual, a household, or a singular geographic feature. Yet they are each devised by very distinct agents for whom the purposes of identification are radically different. Purely local, customary practices, as we shall see, achieve a level of precision and clarity--often with impressive… 
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