Colonialism

SOCY 122 - Decolonial, anti-orientalist and anti-imperialist perspectives

Linda smith 

  • Researcher and educator 

  • Professor at University in New Zealand

  • Book; decolonizing methodologies (foundational to qualitative research)  


Her book argues 

  • Western knowledge is produced through a “cultural archive” which has relied on colonialism and imperialism 

  • (What we know is directly dependant on colonialism)

  • Cultural archive: storehouse of histories, ideas, texts and image which are preserved and represented back to the west 

  • Relies on rules which enabled knowledge to be recognized 


Colonialism 

  •  The physical practice of acquiring or occupying land in another country (physically settling there) 


Imperialism 

  • Policy of extending a country's power and influence on another country (militaries, policies theory)


Western knowledge production has material consequences for indigenous people (research=-trauma) 


Positivism 

  • An approach which suggests that phenomena can be objectively and that research should not be subjective

  • Beliefs only events can be experienced directly should be studies 

  • Smith says research for indigenous people should be antiposivist


3 examples western knowledge

  • Race and gender 

  • Individual and society 

  • Time and space


Race and Gender

  • Racialized discourse and practices were justified through ideas about human reason, morality and science 

  • Ideas about gender - desired qualities of women as mothers, daughters and wives - were produced by greek texts and paintings

  • Descriptions of indigenous women by european settlers still have marginalized effects


Individual and society 

  • Social scientific assumption that social relationships are causal and observable have harmed Indigenous people - true social structure 

  • Philosophical notions of the individual mind/body are purely western 

  • Rousseau's notion of the human nature has led to colonist practice 


Time and space

  • Indigenous languages don’t make distinctions between time and space 

  • Western knowledge about time and space positions them as distinct, relational and measurable 

  • Western knowledge production has created colonial practices in efforts to measure time and space

  1. Renaming land

  2. Performing stories about indigenous lives

  3. Appropriating indigenous space then “re-gifting” as preservation 


3 concepts around which a specific colonial vocabulary is built 

The line 

  • Maps

  • Charts

  • Roads

  • Boundaries 

The center

  • Systems of power 

  • Prissions

  • Church 

  • Parliament 

The empty 

  • Empty land

  • Unoccupied

  • Uncharted

  • Burial grounds 

Any of the words in the 3 chart have violent history but are seen as scientific 


Anne McClintok 

  • Writes on colonialism imperialism and how they are shaped by the intersections of race, gender and sexuality 


Panoptical Time 

  • Image of global history consumed at a glance from a point for privilege 

  • Birds eye view that history erases peoples experiences and looks at history in a linear way 


Anachronistic space

  • Space which prehistoric, atavist and irrational inherently out of place in the historical time of modernity 

two concepts are used to divide the world into modern and architect

  • When they go places they think of backwards they use as justification to build empires in places that are “backwards”

  • as imperialist logic as you move forward you're moving into the global north or west

  • if you go to global east you are going backwards

  • “If you aren’t up to speed, we will build an empire on your land and call it progress” 

  • Global north and global west (north america + europe goes to africa)

Other points 

  • Colonist ideas and practices rested on interplay between race, gender and class (lots of feminist theories, racialized notions) 

  • Colonialist ideas and practices were exported back to europe 

  • Colonialism and imperialism are about fear and anxiety (fear of losing power, violence and control are really about anxiety, control and empowerment) 

Edward Said 

  • Palestine author 

  • Prof at columbia 

  • Cultural critic, famous for “Orientalism” 

Orientalism

  • The orient is countries of the east (asia), Occident west (europe and america) 

  •  A way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient's special place in the European western experience” 

  • Global east v global west 

Relationship between orient and occident

  • Relationship of power 

global east v global

project or orientalism is more about west than east itself - it was about structural power in the east, European power over the “orient” 

Orientalism is not 

  • A political subject matter that is reflected by culture scholarship or institutions 

  • Large and diffuse collection of texts about the orient 

Orientalism is 

  • Distribution of awareness into aesthetic, scholarly, economical, sociological and historical tests 

  • Not only the geographical distinction but a whole series of interests

Main points 

  • Western knowledge production is based on a history of imperialism and colonialism 

  • “Producing knowledge” has harmed marginalized indigenous populations 

  • We should think critically about taken for granted concepts like time and space

  • Power, violence and control are ultimately about fear, anxiety and entitlement