Decolonizing Anthropology

Moving Further Toward an Anthropology for Liberation

Edited by

Faye V. Harrison
LIBRA

Association of Black Anthropologists

American Anthropological Association
Washington, D.C.
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TABLE of CONTENTS

Acknowledgments and Dedication iv

Contributors v

Anthropology as an Agent of Transformation:

Introductory Comments and Queries 1
Faye V. Harrison

Man and Nature, White and Other 15

Michael L. Blakey

Colonized Anthropology: Cargo-Cult Discourse 24

Pem Davidson Buck

On Ethnography in an Intertextual Situation:

Copyright © 1991 by the American A tl I' Reading Nurrativcs or Dcconstructing Discourse? 42
All rights reserved c n nopo ogleal Association
Glenn H. Jordan
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 0-913167-45-2
Undoing Fieldwork: Personal, Political, Theoretical
and Methodological Implications 68
. Deborah D'Amico-Samuels

Ethnography as Politics 88
Faye V. Harrison

Confronting the Ethics of Ethnography: Lessons from

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 110
Fieldwork in Central America
Decolonizing anthropology' mavin f 1
I I d b' .
V
liberation I edited by Faye H _g urt ler toward an anthropology for
. arnson, p. em
Philippe Bourgois
ne u es IbhographicaI references ' "They Exploited Us But We Didn't Feel It": Hegemony,
ISBN 0-913167-45-2 . 127
Ethnic Militancy, and the Miskitu-Sandinista Conflict
1. Ethnology-Philosoph 2 M .
anthropology. 4. Anthro ol~' ic~1 e a~xlst anthr?pology. 3. Applied Charles R. Hale
Association of Black Anrhro~ologi~~lCSiIr AHarn~on, Faye Venetia. II.
Association. s, . mencan Anthropological Anthropology and Lihe1'8tion 149
GN345.D43 1991 Edmund T. Gordon
301'.01-dc20
91-27659 Militarism and Accumulation as Cargo Cult 168
CIP
Angela Gilliam
 Edmund ~'. Gordon received his Ph.D. from Stanford'
fIeldwork In Belize ,and Nicaragua and is interest d' In 1981 .. He has conducted extensive
class, counter-hegemonic struggle H h d e III ~conomlc development, ethnicity and
with Nicaragua's Center for Rese~rch :nda~ one apph~d research and development work ANTHROPOLOGY AS AN AGENT OF TRANSFORMATION:
He has published in numerous Cent ?cu~entatlDn on the Atlantic Coast (CIDCA) INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS AND QUERIES
D~velopment Study Unit pUblicati~:1 ~,~;:~a~ Journal;,:;n~ in a 1~87 CIDCA-Stockhol~ Faye V. Harrison
Nlcaragua. Since 1989 he has been ' . t roups a . t Je Natwn-State: The Case of
of Texas, Austin. an aSSlS ant professor In anthropology at the University
Moving Further Toward an Anthropology for Liberation:
Charles R. Hale earned a Ph D .
extensive applied research in N·· . m anthropology from Stanford in 1989. He has don An Agenda from the Periphery behind the Veill
D .' Icaragua under the auspic f tb C e
ocumentatlDn on the Atlantic Co t d' . .es 0 e enter for Research and
1;
published on ethnic consdousness a~n~nU a~socJation ,:ith OXF.AM-Ameri,ca. He has
With the turn of the century rapidly approaching, anthropologists committed to
structure, and ethnicity and the stat . S, d".
ege~ony, ll1terethmc relations and class
applying knowledge to action and struggle must re-assess the state of the discipline. Since
and the Nation-State. He also ha~ In {Can hlltlSta. Nicaragua, Mosquitia, and Ethnic Grounr..o the late 1960s, critiques of anthropology's collusion with and complicity in colonial and
con ' , a lort c01mng book th M' . Y" imperialist domination and proposals for more socially and politically responsible
SClOusness. He IS an assistant prof f on e IskItU's contradictory
Davis. essor 0 anthropology at the University of California disciplinary ag<;nda have been numerous (e.g., Go~gh1968, Hymes 1969, Lewis 1973, Asad
. ,
1975, and Huizer and Mannheim 1979). In spite of varying attempts at revision and reform,-
anthropology remains overwhelmingly a Western intellectual-- and id,,-ological-- project that
FllY~ V. Harrison is the current president of the As ',' is embedded in relations of power which favor- class sections and historical blocs belonging
~ceIVed a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1982 s~~at~on of Black Anthropologists. She
to or with allegiances to the world's White minority. While these global relations no longer
, reat Bntam and Jamaica on grassroots " . ~ ~s done ethnographic research in
International-level factors H k hPOhtIcs and Its lllterplay with the state and w'th adhere to classical colQnial principles or-forms;-{ll-e-fretain, nonetheless, theJ?~sic substance
A h . er wor as been bl' h d . . I of colonial control. Hence, the contemporary world system i~·I!~Q~o.19I).Jal-i'n its structure and-
III ropology, TransAfrica Forum, Social I< I' pu . IS e III such journals as Urban
Indian Guide; and in the anthologl'e P us Ice: and NIeuwe West-Indische Gids/New Wiest dynamic. When anthropologists fail to recognize anthropologlc,ll inquiry as an historically-
mUm s, erspectlve! in U.S M. . specific set of discourses "which the West deploys in order to make sense of, define, and
"O"u "omen and the Polilics 0" ~.. S' .. arxlSt Amhropolopv and Third
I't· I d . ,remllllsm. he has b " <V figure out and render intelligible how a world ordered by [Western] capitalism works"
po Ilca e ucatlOn and in building cO'I't' een actIve III community-based
.t " allOns among worn ' , (Magubane and Faris 1985:93, 101), their contributions are all the more vulnerable to heing
~acls organtzatlOns. She experiments 'th ' , en s, peace, sohdarity, and anti-
complicit if not in fact collusive with the prevailing forces of neocolonial domination.
Ill,formed drama. She is currently an asso~~t wn~mg and performing anthropologically
ot Tennessee-Knoxville. e pro essor of anthropology at the University Magubane and Faris (1985) take the strong position that l'!lthr~p()logy._a"_,,urrently
constituted must cease to exist. For cross-cultural knowledge to advance 1i"uman -- --
emancil)'aiTCm,--~fctivist--iiiteneciualsmiist move beyond what many Marxists and other
Glenn H. JO~dan holds a master's de ree from "
doctoral candIdate in anthropology at th~ Universit Stanf~rd . UlllvefSlty, and is currently a
progressives have contributed (see Gordon in this volume). It is not enough to rethink
years, he has been engaged in col1aborativ I I ' Yof IllInOIs-Urbana. For the past several .anthropological insights in light of an historicized political economy (e.g., Wolf 1982).
Cardiff Butetown neighborhood where the ~~t~l;,;ersed authoriti' oriented fieldwork in the J De.sPite good intentions, radical anthropology "remains part of what people in the Third
m the 1940s. He is a founder and director of the ClaIr Drak~ dId hIS dissertation research
B l World consider suspect-- as an invention of their enemy" (Magubane and Faris 1985:92).
-Whereas most of anthropology's critics have sought a reinvention by expunging the most
p~st he served as editor and secreta -treasure utetown HIStory and Arts Project. In the
HIS SchOlarly interests include intell~tual histor of th~ ~ssoc~atlDn of Black Anthropologists.
obvious bourgeois and colonial elements, and then rethinking and reordering what remains,
dommatlOn and resistance, and social tr 7'cntI,ca SOCIal theory, discourse and power
Magubane and Faris argue that a genuine science of humankind based upon premises of
freedom and equality cannot emerge unj?ilt~_antllr()p<:lIQgy__l,-orR QLtI1~_ !~li(l!!alistand
m0!10graph on St. Clair Drake's intellectu~n~oor~atl~n. He has written articles and ~
senes of occasional and working pa d ntnbutlOlls to anthropology and edited two JiiJeral intyllectual tr-"<li!ignJo..del!.t(9Y"d. j
SOciology and cultural studies at the l~~~ec~:~~e:f ~a~~:, Black experience. He teaches
-Can an aiitlientic anthropology emerge from the critical intellectual traditions and
counter-hegemonic struggles of Third World peoples? Can -a genuine study of humankind
\ arise from dialogues, debates, arid recondl1ations amongst various non-Western and Western
.Ifl intellectuals-- both those with formal credentials and those with other socially meaningful
\, II and appreciated qualifications? Is genuine dialogue and reconciliation' possible, and, if so,

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under, what, co.ndition.s? How can anthropological knowledge advance the interests of the Race, Gender, and Class Inequalities at the Heart of the World System
~or1d S ,maJonty dunng this ,Period of ongoing crisis and uncertainty, marked, on the
mternatIOnal level, by the coolIng of th~ Cold War, serious dilemmas and setbacks in sociaHst The contemporary sociocultural terrain of the world system is one that is shaped,
development,,, the eSC,a,lati?ll of conflict in the Persian Gulf and the emergence of a "New colored, and violently distorted by what Haviland (1990) designates as a for~ of gl~bal
World. ?rder led mlh.t~nly by the U.s., growing ecological/environmental problems, the apartheid. He targets this internati~nalized Whit.e su~re~acy as one of the world s pn.nclpal
~,mpOSltI~n~! de~umamzmg and,recolonizing structural adjustment policies upon debt-ridden problems. Arguing that South Mnca and the sltua~lo~ m the world at large are stnkmgly
developmg natIons, and the heIghtening of North-South contradictions; and, on the national
similar, he explains that on the glob"Ul1y"l_aparthmd IS
le~el, by backlash and threats t? civil rights, hostile reactions to multiculturalism, ~-

demdustnalIzat~on a~d ec?nomlc displacement, a widening gap between the rich and the a de facto structure...which combines socioeconomic and racial antagonsims
rest, ~nd the intensIfIcatIon of state repression in ghetto and barrio communities? and in which (1) a minority of whites occupies the pole of aftluence, while a
QuestIons such as these should be taken to heart by anthropologists preparing themselves majority composed of other races occupies the pole .of poverty; (2). social
for the global challenges ~nd ~ris~s of the 21st century.
integration of the two groups is made extremely difficult by barners of
On,e of this v~Iume s objectIves is to reassess and, hopefully, transcend the limitations complexion, economic position, political boundaries, and other factors; (3)
of the radical and c~ltical anth~opology th.".t has emerged from the debates and experiments economic development of the two groups is interdependent; and (4) the
of the past two decades. CntIques of cntIques and provocative syntheses will provide the affluent white minority possesses a disproportionately large share of the world
gro~nd.for ~appI~g a path or pat~s to an anthropo~ogy designed to promote equality- and society's polticial, economic, and military power (1990:457-458).
JustIce~mductng ~o.cJal transformatIOn. The perspectIves expressed in the following chapters
are tho~e of activISt anthr?pol.ogists. com~itted to. and engaged in struggles against racist Whether in South Africa, Papua New Guinea (see Buck's chapter), or on the global level,
o~press1On, gender mequahty, clas. s. ..dlspantIes, and mternatiojl patterns of exploitation and under conditions of apartheid racial exploitation is inextricably interwined with patterns of
!ldlfference" rQotedJargely ilL cflpitalist _worId development. '.
class formation that arise in situations and contexts of colonial/imperialist expansion and
.. According ,~o Ulin (1991), pOlitlcafeconomyimd postmodernism along with "the domination-- where land alienation, coerced labor exaction, and repressive state power are
feml~lst traJe~tory a~e currently competing to define lithe critical anthropological project." key features of the social formation (cf. Mag~bane 1979). ':Iavil~nd.insists th~,t the world
An aim ~f thIS book I~ to place a~other claim onto the site of anthropological debate and system of apartheid engenders structural VIOlence which IS bUilt mto and. exerted by
COl!~_estatIon. The, traJe~tory that l~ .advanced here is informed in considerable measure by situations" such as world hunger, over~population, pollution, and cultures of dIscontent. In
tful'lfltelkctyal, eXlstenlI"l, and poht",al experiences of Third World,peQples and theicallies. other words, he traces the source of humanity's major contemporary problems back to
In, ~ther words, thl~ volume seeks to challenge anthropologists to take m~~e seri~~sly the enduring race/class ine~a.l(jies.,--.-.--..,_ . . . ...
cnt~ques, ~onstructIons, and theoretical deliberations of scholars belonging to neglected, "~~--Paradnxicany;-despite the pervasiveness of racIahzed structures of mequa,h~, neIther
penpher~llzed, or erased traditions that have long confronted and challenged colonial and mainstream nor radical/critical anthropology has contributed a wealth of Illslght and
neoco]omaI, structures of ~~wer and economic relations. The major impetus for
\"1 knowledge to our '\ll)dersta~.~Lng "f _.racism'!n? .the so~io£.'!lturaL"Qlj,!tnKti.Q1Ulf rad~L
trarsformatlOn and for theo~zzng about it must come out of the experiences and struggles of vJ and mature from feminist th~ories of kinship (e.g., Collier and YanaglSako 1987), the state
i d~ences Jru:e D'Amico-Samuels' chapter). W.hile ant~ropology IS m the pOSItIon to benefit
Third World peoples m Afnca, ASIa and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and
t~e beast,'! n~mely the lIin!~rnaI colonies" within the so-cal1ed First World,
!
"the belly of ! (e.g., Sacks 1974, Silverbl~tt 1987, Gailey 1987), politics (e.~., Bookm~n and Morg~n 1988),
. The trajectory ou.t1~ned here is a synthetic one that draws upon four major streams: economic life (e.g., Bossen 1989; Lamphere 1987), and SOCIal mequahty (e.g., Collier 1988,
(1) a neo~MafXIst polItIcal economy, (2) experiments in interpretive and reflexi e Caulfield 1981), tQ<: anthropology ofrace is a relatively underdeveloped and sore.lY neglected
ethnographiC analysis, (3) a feminism which underscores the impact race and class have up~n ,dom~i_n. Anthropology's preoccupati?n ,with redressing eth~oce~t!ism does not .exoner~te
gender, and (4) traditions of radical Black and (other) Third World scholarship which it from' neglecting to confront, both III Illtellectual and sOCiopolitical terms, r~clsm/Wblte
acknowledge the interplay between race and other forms of invidious difference, notably ,supremacy as a major ideological and institutionalized ~or~e, in today's r ~orld~ ..... The
clas~ a~d gen~er, For anth:opology to be able lito theorize the sociocultural terrain" of late connotations of a racialized Other --its most extreme and mVldlOus form bemg the Black
cap,It,ahsm, It must, as Ulm and others argue, reconciJe the tensions between Marxist
Other -- have been and, unfortunately, still remain underpinnings of many anthropological
polItICal econo~y and interpretive/te~t.ualist approaches. An authentic study of humankind assumptions and perspectives (Pandian 1985; Blakey's chapter). .
must also recon":!.le te~slons benveen cntlcal Western and Third World intellectual traditions (cf. The emphasis within the discipline on cultu~aldIffer~nces h~~ diverted neede,d,
Joh~son 1988). This collectIOn results from a project with its beginnings in an invited attention away from differenCe.• constructed ultlffiately from the polItICal and economic
seSSIOn that, orgam~ed and ,encoura~ed such reconciliations among female and male "processes that have given rise to the dominant pattern of II world de:elo~m:nt. C~ass,
anthropologIsts of dIverse raetal, ethmc, class, and national backgrounds,
gender, racial, and ethnic differences cannot be reduced to cultural dIverSIty, espeCIally

2 3
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when the latter is often a smokescreen behind which power disparities and economic
intellectual response largely by Western White males to the challenges to W~stem ~ege~ony
polarizations lie unaddressed or inadequately treated. As Rollwagen (1988:153-154) and
and White supremacy in a world marked by the ascendanc~ of postcololllal natIonah~~s.,
Wolf (1982:387) note in their treatments of the world system, the very concept of culture,
Japanese capitalism and feminism (ef, West 1988 and Hardlllg 1987). There are femlmst
which has been so central to sociocultural anthropology, must be reconstructed, and culture
critics who go so fa; as to argue that postmodernism is "fundamentally a sexist [and, one
theory must "take account of larger [contexts and wider fields of force]" (Wolf 1982:387).
could add racisl] response that attempts to preserve the legitimacy of androcentric [am:!
Moreover, a critical theory of culture must be freed from the Social Darwinist implications
of many evolutionist postulates concerning human cultural variation. Eurocent:ic] claims in the face of contrary evid~nce" (Masci~-Lees et aJ. 1989:15), Ironically,
postmodernist literary experiments that essenttally undermme the ?ntologlcal status of the
The centrality of race is finally being recognized by some feminist scholars (e.g., Sacks
1989, Morgen 1988, Moore 1988) who, over the past two decades, have matured from three subject have risen in academic popularity when WOl!!eJ1 and Third ~orl? thLons~s are
hallenging the universality and hegemony ofWest~m aml.androce?tflc vt~w~, ThIS. h~s
. :,~,virave implications for the legitima~ a~thonty of counter-hegemOnIc contnbu Ions WIthIn
i'i phases of feminist anthropology (Moore 1988). The third phase (following one devoted to
the study of women and. ano~her focused on gender) is concerned with ~fop_S_~~~~!~.!lJL
11 ~amenes_s_and_ understandmg_d_]fferef!.ces~- understanding, for .example-, -how- race and_.class---
~he domain of established academIa.
,I
.
'/1
:; I
':1
, :i shape ~nd divide gender identity and experii;mce (see D'Amico-Samuels' and Harrison's \ Although the postmodernist turn's critique of positivism and realist writing is certamly
:! ,chapters), Recent studies point to the integral parts both genderization and racialization a significant contribution, its other features are seriously p~oblematic. Jo~~an (n,d.) ~oints
out a number of serious 1imitations: the extreme relatiVism and skep~Icism (cf. FIscher
play in the consolidation of ruling class hegemony in state societies (e.g" Silverblatt 1987 and
1988, Greenberg 1980) and in the international division of labor (Nash and Fernandez-Kelly 1986:194) which invalidate radical critique from the ranks of the poh:lcally, engaged (~f.
1983; Leacock, Safa et al. 1986). Anthropologists have reached a point where they can
Mascia-Lees et aJ. 1989); the reaction against scientific do£?,atism that ~ves flse to a demal
, ,- potentially formulate theoretical explanations that place the race/gender/class intersection of the validity and reliability of theoretical explanaMn, (ef. Ffledman 1987~; the
I,/ at the very center of such phenomena as economic development, social change, and the appropriation and neutralization of the conc~pts ~f cont~adlct~on, power, and aut~oflty (cf.
di Leonardo 1989); the conceptualization of dIalogIC relat~onshlps as text~alstr~tegles rather
\ politics of domination, resistance, and contestation.3
than as concrete collaborations (e.g., co-authorshIp and co-edItorship) between
If anthropologists are to contribute to the study of race and its intersections with
gender, class, and ethnicity, then they would benefit from revisiting and critically building ethnographers and informants; IIdispersal of authority!! as .a narr~tive techmque or ~~le
upon a body of knowledge produced by anthropologists who were generally forced to work rather than as a means of empowering informants (e.~., by Impa~mg. rese.arch and ~f1tmg
and struggle in an intellectual periphery (see Harrison 1988). The results of Allison Davis' skills to them); the privileging of the force of rhetonc over mstItutlo~ahzed ~el~tlons ~f
collaborative scholarship, e,g" Children of Bondage (1940) and Deep South (1941), SI. Clair power (di Leonardo 1989); the absence of attention to racism and class m~quahty III po~ttc
treatments of authority and power; and a notion of cultural critique that IS largely hmited
Drake and Horace Cayton's classic Black Metropolis (1945), and Drake's two volume tour
de force, Black Folk Here and There (1987, 1991) are just examples of classic works that have to giving privileged Americans the benefits of c.r?ss-cultu!al kn?~le?ge. Jordan con~ludes
yet to receive their deserved attention and appreciation within anthropology. (See Harrison
that postmodernism privileges poetics over pohttcs, and Its pohttcs IS ~hat of academta and
not of the world at large. (See his chapter in this volume.) As Fabl~n (1983), notes, the
[1988] for further discussion on the peripheralization of Davis' and Drake's activist
scholarship and critique of racism.) dilemmas postmodernism poses cannot be resolved by te~tual a~d, eplstet;J0logtcal means;
they can only be resolved through political struggle. A genumely cnttc~l/r~dlcal anthropolo~
What's 'Postmodernism' Gotla Do With It? must "go beyond the relativizing of narratives to chalknge the explOltattv~ and h~g~~on~c
social practices and social formations among our co-subjects of anthropologtcal tnqutry (Uhn
According to its enthusiasts, postmodernism has moved onto anthropology's "cutting 1991:81). , b f' f
edge" and has the potential to liberate the discipline from its dysfunctional A decolonizing and <lecolonized anthropology can tndeed ene It. rom.an
tlexperimental moment,!! but one directed toward the empowerment of Its studIed
modernist/positivist/realist legacy (Turner 1987:72), In the social sciences modernism is
characterized by the positivist/realist model of science, which in anthropology legitimates the populations. Jordan's fieldwork (see his chapter here) demons~ates how, cOl.tcrete
authority of the outsider/Western researcher in the study of non-Western cultures. collaborative relationships can serve to disperse ethnographic authonty III the dIrectIOn of
According to this model, the production of knowledge takes place outside the realm of the traditional "objects" of study. Jordan's research (as well as the analyses that all the, other
values and politics and under conditions of unbiased objectivity (Jordan n,d,). This posture contributors present) demonstrates how cultural critiq~e .~s politicized deconstruction of
various hegemonic ideologies and discourses can be a sIgmfI~ant. an~ necessary compon~nt
Serves to mask and authenticate the underlying logic, value orientation, and ideology of a
Eurocentric intellectual supremacy (see Joseph et aJ. 1990 and Amin 1989). of broader struggles for equality, social and economIC JustIce, and far-reachmg
Postmodernism is a general epistemological orientation influenced by post- democratization. . .
structuralism, hermeneutics, and neo-Marxism. It can be argued that it represents an
Also at issue is the dissemination of ethnographic representations to WIder audIences
that include the ordinary folk anthropologists typically study. Experimental ethnographies

4
5
 "add and stir" electives. Institutionalized anthropology is not untouched by these. s~n~im~nts.
are generally geared to the cultural and intellectual tastes of educated Western readers.
Anthropologists need to experiment with a wider repertoire of communicative strategies,
i~A socially responsible and genuinely critical anthropology sh?uld challeng? thl~ ImqUlto~s
techniques, and media in order to address more --but not necessari1y all-- of their work to -reaction, and; furthermore, ~et a positive example by promotmg cu1tural diverSIty where It
lay readers. It also must be recognized that the published text is not the most accessible, -counts, at its very core, , .
tl
Jon~s has pointed out how "native anthropologists have hIstOrically been relegated
appealing, and effective mediim for communicating with some, if not many, of the audiences
to the ranks of overqualified fieldwork a~sista!1ts. He has stated that
that anthropologists need to reach. Ethnography can also be presented through such media ef(""-·-""·'" __"' __ o.o.o_oo. - ~

as video, film, and drama (se.e Harrison 1990a and D'Arnico-Samuels' chapter). When
the native anthropologist is seen ... not as a professional who wil1 con?u~t
ethnography is in written form, it must be straight-forward and clear if a broad cross-section
research and develop theories and generalizations, but a~ a person ;thO IS m
of readers is to be engaged. Bettylou Valentine's approach to ethnographic writing entailed
a position to collect information in his own cu1ture to which an outSIder does
extensive inputs and co-editing insights from her African-American inner-city informants.
The resultant ethnography on ghetto life styles (1978) did not, however, compromise its not have access (1970 [1988]:31).
intellectual contribution.
It is important to recognize that artistry, creative experimentation, and discipJinary A decolonize.d. an. t.h. r.o. po.logy/equires the c:le'yJ'lQI'.m~nt()C'th~~~~.o~!~do;n."non,w.,estern",.
rece ts and ~~~u.mptj,Q!1[: (Ibid.); however, tlthere is as. yet no.~et of theoretIc~1 ~pnclu$l.onR
boundary blurring, which are so very prominent in postmodernist anthropology are not
pe~uJiarly "postmodern.1I Zora Neale Hurston and Katherine Dunham are just two ~xamples ~enerliiea from the point~f view of native anthropologl~ts" (~bld.:30). ~ questIon that m~st
?f ~ntellectuals who, through ~he use of literary art and dance theatre, took anthropological
be raised is this: when natives of the various cultures den~ed hIStOry and mtellectual aut~onty
mSlghts and knowledge to WIder audiences beginning more than five decades ago-- long do indeed theorize, are those theori"!'.J!igi!im~led? Are they even acknQwle~ged ashlgh.er- o
before postmodernism,postcoloniaIism,postindustrialism, or post- anything was in vogue. (See order explanation~?;';utz' analysis cog~ntly demons~rates t~at ~ven when a .slz~ble quantity
of women adhere to the publish or pensh rules, theu contnbutlons to the .lIterature ca~ be
Aschenbrenner [1989] and Mikell [1989] for intellectual biographies of these peripheralized
anthropologists.) and, in effect} ~r~ b.eJJ1g._!?ra~c~~" In her:;::i erasures, ~esult when contrlbutI?~s are not CIted
nor included in literature overviews An addItional means of partIal era~ure or
The Politics of Canon Setting peripheralization occurs, however, wh n works ~re cited for rea~ons other .than thel~ actual
tlleoretical import. This tltracking" process dlve~ts an~, restncts attentIon. to mmor.~!
secondary points concerning "interesting ethnographic data or n?rrow geogr.aphlcally-spec~flc
Harrison (1988) and Lutz (1990) have exposed trends within anthropology which have
topics. While the latter are not at all insignificant, :he authonty to explam and generalIze
effectively peripheralized or erased significant contributions made by peoples of color and
beyond the specificity of limited field data (and, m the ~ase. of Bla~k scholars, ~eyond
women from the canon. These trends have served to reproduce andro- and Buro-centric
biases in the assumptions, concepts, and theories at the core of the discipline. Although knowledge/mastery of the "Black condition':I."~IS the bottom lIne m effectIvely mfluencmg the
anth,ropology i~ preoccupied with human cultural diversity, multiple cultural perspectives-- direction and scope of inquiry)."....s there a 'gla~s c~ilinglt .in a~ademia comparable to what
partICularly ThIrd World/non-Westernt'minority" perspectives-- have been distanced from women and people of color have encountered In big ~us.me~s ..~'-. .
sites of cross-cultural theory-validation (cf. Blakey 1988:4; cf. Hsu 1973; see D'Arnico- Ul.t.im.7.ly<canonSettiriiriS a process em?edded In m..ilil!!J!2!!~l!ze<!.rel!lij9!1s. Q[power
Samuels' ch~pter). The underlying assumption seems to be that cultural, epistemological, ,El!,Jcj."m.!!hQtit): Research and scholarship Itd~s]g.ne~ to contnbute to the empower~ent of
and theoretIcal perspectives outside of the Eurocentric canon are less adequate, less disempowere groups [require] appropnate Insltt."tlOnal b~ses, a~d these can be bUIlt only
in part [if even that much] from existing foundations WIthIn, for mstance, such establIshe.d
"universal," and less "scientific" --in other words, inferior; and both modernist and
postmodernist approaches have placed "native" theorizing on tenuous ground. institutions as schools, colleges and universities" (Harrison 1990b: 10). Count~r-hegemomc
These hidden but deeply ingrained presuppositions are not unrelated to the analysts must be concerned with '~~iftil!g.!!1~",£en~er of authorlty.oo~.!'_(L!~lltll1Jl.JlfYc'Mfmm
conservative biases reflected in the multiculturalism/cultural diversity debates being waged \those .. .institutions which our people do not contr?l tomore ~emo~rat~cally.st~l1ct~re.d bas,es
which embody the interests and prioritie,s of ordmary.. .folk m theIr dIverSIty (Ibld .. ll).
throughout the U.S. Conservatives are inclined to believe that cultural literacy is necessarily
based on aSSimilating the IIfacts and truths" associated with the Western intellectual tradition,
l~~ Native anthropologies (Jones 1970) and meaningful reconciliations between Western
Consequently, when universities and school systems "accommodate" multiculturalist curricular and non-Western theories and epistemologie,s/(Johnson 1988) are contmgent upon a
changes, academic "standards" are lowered and the "politically correct" "propagandal1 of sociopolitical climate and institutional alignment~ that ~Ilow f?r and suppo~t. the
speci~l interest ~roups is "forced" upon the majority (cf. Moses 1990). The historical democratization of intellectual and theoretical a~thonty/ Outs~d~ of thiS context of polItlca.lly
expenences and mtellectual contributions of "minorities" and women are relegated to the engaged authority dispersal, radical anthropological scholarship IS vulner~ble to the v~ganes
of trends and vogues which influence the ways that critical and potentIally emanclpatory
status of ~pedal interes!.tr~~~,.~n~llre not viewed as deserving of scholarly validation outside
of the establlSlretIl!fUdyof social problems" or the authorized curricular menu of expendable knowledge is neutralized and appropriat~d (see Gordon's chapter).

7
6
 r

Perspectives on DecoJoJiizing Anthropology whvther:(l;I1~hropology can continue to be preoccupied with constructions and. re~resentations
of Othernes's'if the discipline is to undergo a thorough process of decolomzatIOn.
From the Contributors ~ -Contrary to the extreme versions of the "ethnography as fiction" approach, the
This volume explores the epistemological, methodological, political, and ethical analyses presented here do not exp~ess th.e "epistemic skepti~is~ ... and e~l.~natory
parameters of~mde of anthropological inquiry ge~r-"d toward social. t[an~forma!!QlL'mcJ_ _ agnosticism or nihilism" (West 1991:XXI) that IS strongly refle~ted In dec~nstructIVe trends
hurna!} Ii~tu h Building upon earlier critiques,fthis collection offers critical perspectives ' today. Among the anthropologists represented here, theoretIcal explanatIons are sought to
O'ini:fiT11i=Opo]o ·as colonial discourse (Buck), the invidious biodeterministic implications of be acted upon in creative, socially responsible, human-centered ways.
hegemonic ·museological categories and representations (Blakey), cultural critique and
politicizei:l discourse deconstruction (Jordan), ethical hierarchies and tensions between The Intended Significance of this Colleclion ..
professionalism and higher moral and political values (Bourgois), reflexivity and ethnographic This collection aims to go beyond antecedent cntIques, proposals, and agenda by
politics (Harrison), the constraints of hegemony upon popular consciousness and struggle dvancing an analytical comprehensiveness generally lacking in most of the earlier
(Hale an~ G~rdon), and mille~arian underpinnings of U.S. militarism (Gilliam). ~ontributions. Analyses presented here confront the major sources of Itdiffere.nce,", i~equal~ty,
D An1Jco~SamueIs, Harnson, BourgOis and Gordon offer perspectives on various ways nd structural and symbolic violence in the world today. Race and class dIspantIes, WhICh
tha~ . anthro~ologists-- as "organic intell~~tuals" or othelWise-- ~~L£ngage th~m~~y~~__ :nthropologists are too prone to neglect Of ignore, are j~jned w~th ge?der to assume their
._p-()IItIcally wIth_Jb~ pe~ples and commumtIeS that host ethnog!~pl:!i.cjllves.!iglltlo/l£. __The - rightful place at the center of political as well as theore~l~al delIberatlO~.
Importance of demystIf'ying hegemonic ideOlogies Ifnd- priiducinglco-producing forms of This book amplifies the central role of polItIcally responSIble Third World
knowledge. th~t c~n be ?seful and potentially liberating for the world's dispossessed and intellectuals. While earlier critiques have dealt with "native anthropologists ~nd. the
ll

oppressed IS hIghlIghted m several chapters, particularly in those by Buck Jordan Harrison significance of their prospective contributions, thi~ volum~ attempts to pr~ss thIS l~s~e
Gord.on, Hale, and Gi1liam. Bourgoi.s, Gordon, and Hale offer insightful ~nalyses of further. In a world in which de facto apartheId prevaIls, and where blOdetermmIst
conflIcts and st~uggles around ~~__ ~lghts ,violatio.ns, militant ethnic self-determination, presuppositions are extant in popular beliefs and in. ttscient~fictt research on race. an?
F?urthW~rld Ideology, k1gl()-I1<;llemo~y, and revolutioriiiry-poIil!cs--iif-Nicaragua and intelligence, the disciplinary role and potentialleader~hlp o~ :hUd World anthropologIsts IS
elsewhere III Central Amenca. I/' - - - ---
a thorny but imperative issue. The varieties of Marxist pohtlcal. economy! ~ostmodermsm,
Blak~y and D'~ico-Samuels underscore the racist underpinnings of many and feminism that Ulin (1991) identifies as the major contenders In determ~mng the contours
anthropologtcal perspectIves and concerns, from the conventions associated with exhibiting and content of lithe critical anthropological project" are overly Eurocentnc and, except for
the peopl~s and ~ultures of Sub-Saharan Africa in museums to 'postmodernism's feminist anthropology, androcentric. How can an authentically ~ritical anthropology
preoccupatIons ~nd mtertextual biases. The insidiousness of racism is especially underscored equipped to identify and help solve the world's problet;ts b.e d?mmated by. eve.n well·
when Bl~key dlscus~es the problem of the racially oppressed consenting to biological intentioned and truly radical representatives of the world s mmonty? Authonty. dIsp~r~al
de~ermmlst assumptlOns about "race," and when D~Amico-Samuels briefly mentions her cannot be limited to textualist experiments in representing Others when the prevaIlmg
pam~ul estrangement .from her family because of ber commitment to racial equality. political climate and epistemological tenor calls into question the very legitimacy of the
Hamson. ~xplores th.e Impact race combined with gender and class have upon self-identity explanations and resolutions that historically defined Oth~rs offer. .. .
and _~oht1cal conSCIOusness, and how the latter: inform and influence ethnographic The papers here also suggest that for meanIngful dmlogue and reconCIlIatIOn to take
expenence.
place across boundaries of culture and nationality, race, ~lass, and gender, m~~h more than
Gilliam's crit~q~e of U.S. militarism is premised upon a "parallelH analysis that logically-sounding talk is required. The political.autho~Ity structure and polItIcal econ~my
employs concepts ongmally constructed for studying the exoticized Other. Drawing in part of profeSSional anthropology must be seriously dealt WIth and changed before condItIons
upon Buck's compe11ing deconstruction of the "cargo-cult" construct Gilliam elucidates the can exist for the kinds of principled debates and syntheses that can generate human-~entered
re~~vance o~ this "mi11en~rian!l notion for understanding the logi~ and workings of the inquiry. Only on such an altered terrain can Western. an? n~n-W~stern anthropologIsts truly
ffilh!ar;-capltal accum~lat1on complex. She connects global racism, capital accumulation, work together as partners with equalized access to mstltutIOnahzed resources and power.,
Ch~IstI~n. fundamentalIsm, and the hegemonic definition of masculinity with the U.S.'s Finally, this book underscores anthropologists' responsibi!i~. to ~truggle n.ot only for
mlht~rtstIc responses to geopolitical conflicts and struggles for egalitarianism in Grenada, the the enhancement of Third World intellectuals and the poiItICIzatlOn of FIrst World
PersIan Gulf, and elsewhere.
researchers but also for the empowerment of those most alienated from and dispossessed
The reification of Otherness is problematized by a number of chapters, but D'Amico- of their rights to democratized power and the material benefits of economic jU,stice. The
Samuels, Harnson, and Gordon are especially forthright in their assertions concerning the perspectives offered here challenge the received dichotomy between "pure" and "applied"
concept of "the field" and the relations of affinity, kinship, and solidarity that anthropologists science or that between social science and advocacy which the proponents of nvalue~freen
may have WIth the peoples among whom they work. On a whole, these chapters question researJh assume. Knowledge-production and praxis are inseparable. T?e conceptual
.-~"--.-- ..

8 9
 s~paration built into the received tradition has seIVed to shroud the role Western research Nations-- for "non-aligned" Third World scholarship (personal communication from Angela
and scholarship have actually played in rationalizing and providing useful information or Gilliam; Gilliam 1985).
tlintelligence!l for sociopolitical control and economic development-- at national and
international levels.
References Cited
The views expressed in this volume do not exhaust the ideas which can contribute to
the subversion, decolonization, and transformation of anthropological inquiry. However, the Amin, Samir
papers included here effectively contribute to the book's principal goal: to encourage more 1989 Eurocentrism. New York: Monthly Review Press.
anthropologists to accept the challenge of working to free the study of humankind from the A,ad, Talal, ed.
prevailing forces of global inequality and dehumanization and to locate it firmly in the 1975 Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter. London: Ithaca Press.
complex struggle for genuine transformation.
Aschenbrenner, Joyce . , .
1989 Katherine Dunham. In Women Anthropologists: Selected BIOgraphies.
Notes Ute Gacs et aI., eds. pp. 80-87. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Blakey, Michael
Acknowledgments. Many thanks are due to Willie Baber, Angela Gilliam, and Arthur Spears 1988 A Comment on Representation. Notes from the ABA 14(2):2-4.
for theIr generous and helpful comments on an earlier version of this essay, and to Pem Bookman, Ann and Sandra Morgen, eds. ., ..
Buck, Deborah D'Amico-Samuels, Edmund ItTed ti Gordon, Yvonne Jones, Glenn Jordan, 1988 Womena and the Politics of Empowerment. PhdadelphIa: Temple Umverslty
Yolanda Moses, Donald Nonini, Hehln Page, and others for the insightful conversations that Press.
stimulated my thinking about anthropology's possibilities for making a real difference. This Bossen, Laurel .
essay is dedicated to the legacy of Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, the founder and first 1989 Women and Economic Institutions. In Economic Anthropology. Stuart Plattner,
pr~side~t of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO). A sociologist also ed. pp. 318-350.
tramed m anthropology, Mondlane was on the faculty of Syracuse University's anthropology Caulfield, Mina Davis . , .
department during the 1960s. His activism and scholarShip (e.g., 1969) reflected his concern 1981 Equality, Sex, and Mode of Production. In SOCIal Inequabty: Comparatlve and .
with racial and national' oppressions, the liberation struggle, and education's role in Development Approaches. Gerald D. Berreman, ed. pp. 201-219. New York: AcademiC
reproducing colonial orders. In 1969 Mondlane was assassinated in Dar es Salaam.
Press.
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1. This is an allusion to W.E.B. Du Bois' prolific contributions on lithe color linell and the 1988 Marriage and Inequality in Classless Societies. Stanford: Stanford University
"veil" of separation (Harrison 1990c).
Press.
Collier Jane F. and Sylvia J. Yanagisako, ed.
2. This emphasis on the critical traditions within both Western and Third World intellectual 1987' Gender and Kinship: Essays Toward a Unified Analysis. Stanford: Stanford
trajectories is made in recognition that neither Western nor any non-Western scholarship is University Press.
~omogene~us or monolithic. There are oppositional paradigms within Western Davis, Allison and John Dollard .
mtellectuahsm that can potentially make an important contribution to an authentically 1940 Children of Bondage: The Personality of Negro Youth m the Urban South.
transformative anthropology.
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Davis, Allison, Burleigh B. Gardner, and Mary R. Gardner
3. Ih her role as a discussant for the 1990 AAA session entitled, "Other Appropriations: 1941 Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class. Chicago:
Whe? Symbolic Violence Becomes Symbolic Capital," Brackette Williams pointed out that University of Chicago Press.
dommatIon and resIstance are not opposite processes or phenomena, as is often implied. di Leonardo, Micaela .
The problem of contestation has been neglected.
1989 Malinowski's Nephews. The Nation, March 13, pp. 350-351.
Drake, St. Clair
4. Before the U.S. withdrew its support in 1985, UNESCO represented an important site 1987 Black Folk Here and There: An Essay in History and Anthropology, Volume I.
for the production of innovative and internationalist knowledge. That scholarship challenged Los Angeles: Center for Mro-American Studies, University of California-Los
the unequal distribution of the world's material and ideological resources as wen as the Angeles.
theo~e.tical justifications for global. disparities. The U.S. withdrawal --under the Reagan 1990 Black Folk Here and There: An Essay in History and Anthropology, Volume II.
admmlstratIon-- sabotaged a major mternatlOnal source of institutional support --the United Los Angeles: CAAS, UCLA.

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Dr~ke, St. Clair and Horace Cayton Huizer, Gerrit and Bruce Mannheim, eds.
1945 Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City New York: Harcourt 1979 The Politics of Anthropology: From Colonialism and Sexism Toward a View from
Brace & World, Inc. " Below. The Hague: Mouton Publishers.
Fabian, Johannes Hymes, Dell, ed.
1983 Ti'."e and the Other: How Anthropology Makes its Object. New York: Columb,'a 1979 Reinventing Anthropology. New York: Vintage Books.
Umverslty Press. Johnson, Norris Brock
Fischer, Michael M. J. 198£ Image and Archetype: Male and Female as Metaphor in the Thought of Carl G.
1986 Ethnicity and the Post· Modern Arts of Memo Ii W" ntmg Jung and Ogotmmeli of the Dogon. Dialectical Anthropology 13:45-62.
and Politics of Ethnography. James Clifford and Gry. n E Culture: The Poetics
Berkeley: University of California Press eorge . Marcus, eds. pp. 194-233. Jones, Delmas
1970 Towards a Native Anthropology. Human Organization 29(4):251-259. Reprinted in
Friedman, Jonathan . Anthropology for the Nineties. Johnetta B. Cole, ed. pp. 30-41. New York: The Free
1987 Be~o~d Otherness: The Spectacularization of Anthrop I Press.
Galley, Chnstme W. oogy. Telos 71:161-170.
Jordan, Glenn
1987 From Kinship to Kingship' Gend H' h n.d. Beyond the New Cultural Anthropology: Subjects, Objects and the Politics of
. Islands. Austin: University of T~xas p;;ss.lerarc y and State Formation in the Tongan
Representation. Unpublished manuscript.
GIlham, Angela Joseph, George Gheverghese et a!.
1985 The Reagan Administration Confronts the Third World 1990 Eurocentrism in the Social Sciences. Race & Class 31(4):1-26.
Quarter:90-94. . Freedomways, Second
Lamphere, Louise
Gough, Kathleen 1987 From Working Daughters to Working Mothers: Immigrant Women in a New
1968 Anthropology: Child of Imperialism. Monthly Review 19(11):12-27. England Industrial Community. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Greenberg, Stanley Leacock, Eleanor, Helen I. Safa, and Contributors
1980 Race and State in Capitalist De I C 1986 Women's Work: Development and the Division of Labor by Gender. South Hadley,
Yale University Press. ve opment: omparative Perspectives. New Haven:
MA: Bergin & Garvey Publishers, Inc.
Harding, Sandra
Lewis, Diane K.
1987 Introduction: Is There a Feminist Method? l F .. 1973 Anthropology and Colonialism. Current Anthropology 14(5):581-597.
H.arding, ed. pp. 1-14. Bloomington: Indiana un7ver~~tym;m and Methodology. Sandra
Harnson, Faye V. ress. Lutz, Catherine
1990 The Erasure of Women's Writing in Sociocultural Anthropology. American
1988 Introduction' An African D' P .
Folks in Cities He;e and There: C~::;~~a erspecnve for Urb?n Anthropology. Black Ethnologist 17(4):611-627.
issue of Urban Anthropology and St~di~.r~:t~~~ of DommatlOn and Response. Special Magubane, Bernard M.
1979 The Political Economy of Race and Class in South Africa. New York: Monthly
Development 17(2-3):111-141. u ural Systems and World Economic
Review Press.
1990a "Three Women One Struggle'" Anthr I
Transforming Anthro~ology 1(1)'1-9' opo ogy, Performance, and Pedagogy. Magubane, Bernard M. and James C. Faris
1985 On the Political Relevance of Anthropology. Dialectical Anthropology 9:91-104.
1990b From the Pr 'd t T . '.
1990 Th D . eSl en. ransformmg Anthropology 1(1):10-11 Mascia-Lees, Frances et a1.
c e u BOlsJan Legacy in Anth
Meeting of the American Anthropolo;~!a~
New Orleans, Louisiana.
I
':1' .
P .
aper prNesented at the 89th Annual
SOclatlOTI. ovember 27-December 2.
1989 The Postmodernist Turn in Anthropology: Cautions from a Feminist Perspective.
Signs 15(1):7-33.
Mikell, Gwendolyn
Haviland, William A. 1989 Zora Neale Hurston. In Women' Anthropologists: Selected Biographies. Ute Gacs
1~~~. Cultural Anthropology. Sixth Edition. Fort Worth, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, et a!., eds. pp. 160-166. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Mondlane, Eduardo
Hsu, Francis 1969 The Struggle for Mozambique. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, Ltd.
1973 Prejudice and its Intellectual Effects in American Anth I Am' Reprinted in 1983 by Zed Press (London).
Anthropologist 75:1-19. ropo ogy. encan
Moore, Henrietta
1988 Feminism and Anthropology. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

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Morgen, Sandra
1988 The Dream of Diversity, the Dilemma of Difference: Race and Class Contradictions
in a Feminist Health Clinic. In Anthropology for the Nineties. Johnnetta B. Cole, ed.
pp.370-380. New York: The Free Press.
Moses, Yolanda T.
1990 The Challenge of Diversity: Anthropological Perspectives on University Culture. MAN AND NATURE, WIllTE AND OTHER
Education and Urban Society 22(4):402-412.
Nash, June and Maria Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, ed.
1983 Women, Men, and the International Division of Labor. Albany: State University Michael L. Blakey
of New York Press.
Pandian, Jacob
1985 Anthropology and the Western Tradition: Toward an Authentic Anthropology.
Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.
Rollwagen, Jack There are few concepts in Western thought more vital than that of nature.
Considering the "natural" from the perspective of theology, as lithe state of man unredeemed
1988 New Directions in Urban Anthropology. In Urban Life: Readings in Urban
by grace,'1 it represents a large chunk of our universe. Yet nat~re .ref~rs to the underlying
Anthropology. George Gmelch and Walter P. Zenner, eds. pp. 149-160.
Sacks, Karen drive of behavior' that which is normal and acceptable; and whIch IS gIven to govern much
of our behavior ~s natural law. In realistic art it is the essence of empirical fact; the real
1974 Engels Revisited: Women, the Organization of Production, and Private Property.
world. We define the natural as the real, objective universe, lias distinguished from the
In Women, Culture, and Society. Michelle Z. Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere, eds. pp.
207-222. Stanford: Stanford University Press. spiritual, intellectual, or imaginary world." I believe that Ales Hrdlick.a (n.d.), the principal
founder of physical anthropology in the United States, was refemng to the presumed
1989 Towards a Unified Theory of Class, Race, and Gender. American Ethnologist association between nature and objective reality early in this century, when he wrote that. ..
16(3):534-550. .
Silverblatt, Irene
Pure impersonal science... has nothing to do either with safeguarding the
1987 Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peru. human society, or with the directing of human progress. It is, however, next
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
to nature and in some respects even above nature ...
1988 Women in States. In Annual Review of Anthropology 17:427.460.
Turner, Victor
Cartesian reductionism in scientific theory makes of nature the most fundamental and
1987 The Anthropology of Performance. New York: PN Publications, Performing
Arts Journal, Inc. comprehensive cause of our secular motivatio~s. David Hume i? A Treat~e Of. Human
Ulin, Robert C. Nature (1739) had already set the epistemologIcal sta~e for red~cmg the bastc dnves and
logic of humankind to a set of underlying natural prmclples. UltImately: however, the ~dea
1991 Critical Anthropology Twenty Years Later: Modernism and Postmodernism in
that nature is the objective universe seems to have been confounded, III that nature ztseif
Anthropology. Critique of Anthropology 11(1):63-89.
Valentine, Betty Lou (which mayor may not be "objective") and natur~l science theory (that is .intended to
discover natural relationships) have been confused With one another. Natural SCIence theory
1978 Hustling and Other Hard Work: Life Styles in the Ghetto. New York: The Free
Press. is cultural, thereby having no greater claim to objectivity than any other body of theory.
West, Cornel There are other connotations of the natural in the Anglophone West. Nature denotes
the pre-cultural, primitive, uncultivated or uncivilized in. humankind. It is defined as
1988 Postmodernism and Black America. Z Magazine, June, pp.27-29.
independent of social law. As it is used to.~refer to th~ subjects of the natu~al sClen~es and
1991 The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Wolf, Eric natural history, nature is emphatically sub-human; amma~ plant, and phySIcal. It IS what
remains when the peculiar qualities of sapiens the sentient, cultural, and technological are
1982 Europe and the People Without History. Berkeley: University of California
Press. omitted. . .
In its most pejorative, "naturall1 describes the fool and idiot. At its most pleaslllg It
denotes the normal, acceptable, or unpretentious. The white keys on the piano; the removal
of sharps and flats.

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