Colonialism and the History of Anthropological Thought

Learning Objectives

  • I. Identify and explain how capitalism and colonialism have transformed societies around the world.

  • II. Understand how anthropology emerged as a scholarly discipline within the colonial encounter.

  • III. Understand the difference between social and cultural anthropology and the development of Canadian anthropology.

  • IV. Compare and contrast the defining features of major schools of anthropological thought.

Capitalism, Colonialism, and the Emergence of Anthropology

  • During the 1700s and 1800s, Europe witnessed substantial transformations in various domains:

    • Social

    • Political

    • Economic

    • Philosophical

  • Key movements influencing these transformations:

    • The Age of Enlightenment

    • Modernity: A new form of selfhood emerged in Europe

    • Capitalism

    • Colonialism

Capitalism

  • Definition: An economic system dominated by a market characterized by supply and demand, designed to create capital and profit.

  • Key metaphor of capitalism (Eric Wolf, 1982):

    • Conversion of "land, labor, and wealth into commodities (i.e., goods produced not for use but for sale)."

  • Concept: The world is viewed as a market where everything has a price.

  • Eric Wolf's analysis in "Europe and the People without History":

    • Examined the interrelationship of capitalism and colonialism as global forces.

    • Noted that capitalism damaged traditional socioeconomic structures in colonized societies.

Colonialism

  • Definition: The oppressive cultural domination of a people by larger, wealthier powers.

  • Perspective: Colonialism should be interpreted as an enduring structure rather than merely a historical event.

  • Eric Wolf's observation:

    • Identified the "seeds" of anthropology found in colonial European encounters with other cultures during the era of colonial expansion.

  • Nineteenth-century focus for anthropology:

    • The "savage slot" referring to Indigenous inhabitants of places like North America.

Two Phases of Colonialism

  • First Phase:

    • Characters: Led by Spain, Portugal, and Holland.

    • Features:

    • Dominated by feudalism

    • Worldview heavily influenced by Christianity

  • Second Phase:

    • Characters: Dominated by England and France.

    • Features:

    • Marked by a shift towards capitalism focused on commodity production and extraction.

    • Economics aided by trade and conquest, treating colonies as "plantations."

    • Colonial expansion into North America resulted in seeking fresh resources.

    • Concept of terra regis (the King’s land) established.

    • Spurred the establishment of entities such as the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in 1670.

North America and Its Colonial Economies

  • Overview: Three distinct yet interrelated forms of colonial economy:

    • Fur Trade (Commodity Extraction):

    • Resulted in depletion of food sources for Indigenous peoples, necessitating new food strategies during the "fish and hare" period.

    • Decline of the beaver population impacted trade.

    • European profits soared due to trade dynamics.

    • Trade of Enslaved People (Commodity Production):

    • Highlighted by the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

    • Contributed to plantation economies, such as those producing cotton and sugar.

    • Had devastating implications for enslaved individuals, their descendants, and the impacted societies.

    • Settler Colonialism:

    • Involved seizing Indigenous land for food production and settlement purposes.

    • Motivated by three primary desires:

      • Establishing a secure colonial claim with a settler presence.

      • Increasing demand for raw resources.

      • Creating new economic opportunities for the European working class.

    • Considerations involving Indigenous sovereignty and treaties, including the Indian Act of 1876.

      • The impact of the Indian Act examined for differential effects on men, women, and groups.

      • Baule society example highlighted changes in division of labor and power relations.

Anthropology and Colonialism

  • Question: Was anthropology merely "applied colonialism"?

    • Early anthropology was rooted in the contrast between European modern selves and non-European "primitive Others."

    • Talal Asad’s argument: Disagrees with the notion for two key reasons:

    • Investigated relationships between anthropology and colonialism.

    • Highlighted that anthropological findings were often specialized, making them less relevant for colonial administrators, who prioritized governing with minimal disruptions.

  • Concept of Neocolonialism:

    • Defined as the continued existence of colonial ties despite political sovereignty.

    • New categories developed under neocolonialism such as "underdevelopment."

    • Discusses ongoing colonial impacts on Indigenous peoples in so-called "developed" nations, e.g., Canada.

Early Explanations of Human Diversity

  • Approaches: Early anthropologists used typologies based on positivism and objectivity.

    • Typology: A classification system organizing entities into types based on shared characteristics.

    • Aimed to study cultural similarities and differences through this classification.

  • Early classifications typically privileged European perspectives over non-European viewpoints.

  • The concept of human nature was often depicted as dualistic:

    • Defined between mind and body, culture and biology, spirit and flesh.

  • Dualism: Belief that reality is comprised of two radically different yet equal forces.

    • Explanations often favored one aspect of dualism over another (e.g., nature vs. culture).

Evolutionary Typologies

  • Emergence in the 19th century, influenced by biological theories of evolution.

  • The notion that human culture and society progressed predictably through developmental stages.

  • Unilineal Cultural Evolution:

    • 19th-century theory positing a sequential series of stages all societies must traverse to achieve civilization.

    • Viewed European capitalist industrial society as the pinnacle of development.

    • Non-Western individuals regarded as existing at earlier stages similar to imagined historical points in the West.

    • Foundations for scientific racism were built upon these ideas.

Different Typologies of Social Evolution

  • Various social evolutionary anthropologists proposed differing typologies, generally stemming from either idealist or materialist perspectives.

  • Tylor (Idealism):

    • Focused on the origins of culture and considered reasoning capacity and belief systems across different stages.

  • Morgan (Materialism):

    • Created a framework based on technological developments, detailing three ethnical stages of social evolution:

    1. Savagery

    2. Barbarism

    3. Civilization

Theoretical Inadequacies of Unilineal Cultural Evolution

  • By the early 20th century, shortcomings in unilineal evolutionary theory became evident, particularly its failure to acknowledge humanity's diversity.

  • Dominant theoretical approaches in the early 20th century were:

    1. British Social Anthropology

    2. American Cultural Anthropology

    • Included development of Canadian anthropology.

British Social Anthropology

  • Focus Areas: Society, structure, and function.

  • Innovation: Developed a classification method for human societies, exploring social structures, often with a focus on those under colonial authority.

  • Notable Work: "African Political Systems" by Mayer Fortes and Edward Evans-Pritchard (1940).

    • Differentiates state vs. stateless societies, identifying statelessness as lacking formal political structures.

  • Theory: Structural-functionalism articulated by A.R. Radcliffe-Brown.

    • Examined the daily functioning of social forms in reproducing their traditional structures.

    • Contrasts: Unilineal evolutionary (diachronic) vs. structural-functional theory (synchronic).

American Cultural Anthropology

  • Champion: Franz Boas and his disciples.

  • Concept: Societal evolution not uniform; two societies could share similar social organizations yet diverge in historical development.

  • Instead of evolution, Boas emphasized diffusion (the borrowing of cultural traits), noting the spread of cultural characteristics such as specific rituals or housing styles.

  • Approach: Historical particularism, analyzing cultures within their unique historical contexts, supporting relativistic and diachronic interpretations of human nature.

Canadian Anthropology

  • Deeply influenced by Boas and his legacy, as well as his research collaborators.

  • Boas's field activities primarily occurred in British Columbia and the Canadian Arctic.

  • Canadian anthropologists primarily employed by the Geographical Survey of Canada, focusing on geography and ecology as well as Indigenous peoples.

  • Foundational Figure: Thomas McIlwraith (1899-1964), who established the first Canadian department of anthropology.

  • Major schools influencing Canadian anthropology included American, British, and French frameworks.

Contemporary Approaches

Political Economy

  • Influences:

    • World Systems theory

    • Marxist perspectives on economic relationships and conditions.

  • Focus: Economic relations, models, and conditions over time (diachronic).

  • Framework: Social structures organized around material interests, safeguarded via power (politics), often manifesting as colonial orders.

    • Example: Silver mined in Spanish-American colonies (Wolf, 1982).

    • Suggests the development of wealthy nations led to the underdevelopment of poorer nations (Frank 1967; Rodney 1972).

Imperative Anthropology

  • Proposed by Clifford Geertz emphasizing that human interaction is a process of interpretation rather than mere observation.

  • Perspective: Anthropologists interpret culture as a text, conducting ethnographic research as a method of deciphering participant interpretations.

  • Associated Methodology: "Thick description."

Feminist Anthropology

  • Critiques: Addressed the male-centered bias prevalent in earlier ethnographies.

  • Concerns: Examined the patriarchal structure and its inequalities, focusing on how gender intersects with power dynamics.

  • Scope: Provided a critical analysis of gender in social and political contexts.

Postcolonialism

  • Focus: Studies the ongoing effects and structures built from colonial legacies.

    • Investigated the interactions between diverse groups during colonization.

    • Analyzed contemporary socio-economic and political conditions stemming from colonial histories.

    • Scrutinized Western definitions of health and wellness impacting non-Western societies.

Globalization

  • Concept: Envisions a world characterized by movement, mixture, connections, and perpetual cultural interactions.

    • Growth of transnational corporations and globalization's uneven effects.

    • Introduced terms like "deterritorialization" and "reterritorialization" reflecting fluid cultural processes.

    • Acknowledged the unpredictable and disordered nature of contemporary global processes (Appadurai 1990).

Science Studies

  • Expansion: Ethnographers have broadened their focus to include fields like computer engineering.

  • Notable Work: "A Cyborg Manifesto" by Donna Haraway (1984) introduces the concept of a cyborg—an organism-machine hybrid.