[jonathanyc]

If you think understanding power structures isn’t novel or interesting, it’s surprising that you think discussions like this “remove all human agency.” Agency doesn’t mean you have the freedom to do whatever, it means you are acting in your own self-interest according to the limitations of your environment and your knowledge. When we acknowledge the agency of people in early states, for example, we are saying that they are taking part in the process of state formation, often to their own benefit, and that it isn’t just one person magically creating a state. We are not saying that they aren’t to blame when they get burned at the stake by that same state because they had the “agency” to just say no.