Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy

Copyright......Page 8
Contents......Page 9
0. Introduction......Page 15
1.1. Privateers, Buccaneers, Pirates: Matters Of Terminology......Page 21
1.2. What “Golden Age?” A Little History......Page 24
2. “Enemy of His Own Civilization” An Ethnography of Golden Age Piracy......Page 37
2.1. “From the Sea”: Maritime Nomads......Page 38
2.2. “Smooth” vs. “Striated”: The Question of Space......Page 41
2.3. Pirate Captains and Indian Chiefs: Remembering Pierre Clastres......Page 44
2.4. Potlatches, Zero-Production, and Parasitism: Pirate Economy......Page 48
2.5. No State, No Accumulation, No History: Pirates as “Primitives”?......Page 57
2.6. “Cultural Contact”: Pirates and the Non-European People of the Caribbean......Page 60
3. “Social Origins,” or The European Legacy Golden Age Piracy and Cultural Studies......Page 65
3.1. Fashion, Food, Fun, Lingo: Circumscribing the Pirate Subculture......Page 66
3.2. “Villains of all Nations?”: Piracy and (Trans)Nationality......Page 71
3.3. Satanists and Sabbatarians: Piracy and Religion......Page 75
3.4. A Colorful Atlantic? Piracy and Race......Page 78
3.5. Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and a Co-opted Myth: Piracy and Gender......Page 85
3.6. On Sodomites and Prostitutes: Piracy and Sexuality......Page 88
3.7. Escaping Discipline and “Biopolitics”: The Pirate Body......Page 91
3.8. Eye Patches, Hook Hands, and Wooden Legs: Piracy and Disability......Page 94
4.1. From “Brethren of the Coast” to a “Commonwealth of Outlaws”: Pirate Organization......Page 97
4.2. Flying the Black Flag: The Jolly Roger......Page 108
4.3. Is This Anarchy? Matters of Definition I......Page 109
4.4. The War Machine: Reading Piracy with Deleuze and Guattari......Page 110
4.5. Tactics: Pirates and Guerrilla Warfare......Page 115
4.6. Revolutionary, Radical, and Proletarian Pirates? Matters of Definition II......Page 124
4.7. Pirates as Social Bandits: Homage to E. J. Hobsbawm......Page 132
4.8. Libertalia: Another Reading......Page 142
4.9. Safe Havens, Onshore Settlements, Pirate Utopias: Pirates on Land......Page 150
4.10. “Piratical Imperialism,” Hypocrisy, and the Merchants’ Wrath: Piracy and Capitalism......Page 161
4.11. Victims of Circumstance or Bloodthirsty Sadists? Piracy and Violence......Page 167
4.12. Vengeance as Justice: Pirate Ethics......Page 172
4.13. Dionysus in the West Indies: A Nietzschean Look at Golden Age Piracy......Page 176
5. Conclusion: The Golden Age Pirates’ Political Legacy......Page 187
6. Notes on Pirate Literature......Page 197
7. Bibliography......Page 201
Notes......Page 215
Index......Page 263