I found this lecture illuminating. It is about the cultural and political differences between the stateless peoples and ways of life of the hills and the state centred 'civilisations' in the valleys of South-East Asia. The speaker is Professor James Scott, Sterling Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at Yale University.
http://uc.princeton.edu/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3378&Itemid=
playwrite27
Hmmm--interesting concept. I wonder where that puts me? I grew up on a hill, in the Upper Hudson Valley.