Week 1 Science & Colonialism – NS 115 Lecture Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards summarizing key terms and concepts from the NS 115 lecture on science, colonialism, and Indigenous studies.

Terminology (Political & Situated)

Words used for Indigenous peoples are always political, context-dependent, and change across time and place.

Insider vs. Outsider Usage

Some words (e.g., “Indian”) may be used within communities yet be inappropriate for outsiders.

Politically Appropriate Language

Choosing respectful terms suited to the specific context rather than relying on a fixed idea of “political correctness.”

Nation/People-Specific Terms

Referring to Indigenous groups by their own nation names and pronunciations, regarded as most respectful.

Indigenous (TallBear 2013)

Identity rooted in biological, cultural, and political relations with specific living landscapes and ancestors, not merely genetic ancestry.

UN Working Definition of Indigenous Peoples

Peoples with pre-colonial presence in a territory, continuous cultural distinctiveness, and self-identification or recognition as Indigenous.

Science (Schiebinger)

Systematic knowledge of nature; in this course, includes natural and sometimes social sciences.

Colonial Science

Science produced in Europe or its colonies that relied on colonial resources—historically and in ongoing forms.

Settler-Colonialism

Ongoing system that normalizes settler occupation, exploits Indigenous lands, and assumes Eurocentric superiority.

Londa Schiebinger

Stanford historian analyzing how European colonial science exploited colonial resources; her feminist lens aligns with Indigenous critiques.

Feminist & Indigenous Science Studies

Interconnected fields critiquing how science has historically studied women, nature, and marginalized populations through colonial perspectives.

Rohan Deb Roy’s Argument

Highlights colonial origins of science and urges more symmetrical collaborations, yet downplays ongoing U.S. empire and settler colonialism.

NS 115 Critique of Deb Roy

Maintains that true decolonization requires returning land, life, and specimens—not just achieving equality within existing structures.

Repatriation (in Science)

Returning stolen specimens, ancestral remains, and cultural patrimony to Indigenous peoples and nations.

Objectivating the Intersubjective

European scientific tendency to turn relational activities into objects, abstracting them into categories and losing ethical relationality.

Intersubjective Relations

Dynamic, ethical interactions among persons and other-than-human beings that constitute social reality.

Objectivity (as Abstraction)

A stance that reifies relationships into categories and structures to satisfy scientific detachment.

Sexuality (as Example)

A relational activity that science, the state, and church treat as a fixed object to study and regulate.

Indigenization

Conceptual move to broaden academic knowledge by integrating Indigenous perspectives in transformative ways.

Indigenous Inclusion

Efforts to raise Indigenous student numbers and help them adapt to existing academic structures without changing those structures.

Reconciliation Indigenization

Alters university structures and educates non-Indigenous people to foster respectful knowledge exchange and common ground.

Truth & Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Definition

Reconciliation as an ongoing process of respectful relationships through apologies, reparations, and revitalizing Indigenous law.

Decolonial Indigenization

Envisions overhauling the academy to balance power between Indigenous peoples and settlers, creating fundamentally new knowledge systems.

Decolonization (Tuck & Yang)

Material repatriation of Indigenous land and life; not a metaphor for general social reform.