2025-2026
KU LEUVEN
INTRODUCTION TO
ANTHROPOLOGY IN A
DECOLONIZING WORLD
Notes of the lectures from Philip De Boeck and Nadia Fadil
,Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
Filip De Boeck (Central-Africa, Congo, urban, visual arts) & Nadia Fadil (migration &
colonialism, Morocco)
Exam (closed book): internalising the course, writing about your own interpretation of
specific themes
- 3 open end questions (4 points each)
- Define 4 key terms (2 points each)
Inhoud
Anthropology introduction.................................................................................................. 4
Anthropology vs ethnography......................................................................................... 4
What is ethnography?..................................................................................................5
What is anthropology?.................................................................................................5
Postcoloniality................................................................................................................. 6
Decolonization................................................................................................................. 7
History and the Anthropological Narrative..........................................................................7
Joseph Conrad................................................................................................................. 7
Cultural Evolutionism...................................................................................................... 7
Franz Boas: Diffusionism................................................................................................. 8
Structural functionalism.................................................................................................. 9
Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (20th Ce).........................................................................9
Alfred Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955)...........................................................................10
Denial of coevalness...................................................................................................... 11
Johannes Fabian (20th Ce)........................................................................................... 11
Writing culture............................................................................................................... 13
La Pensée sauvage. Lévi-Strauss, French Structuralism and History.................................13
Lévi-Strauss: French Structuralism................................................................................13
‘Structural Anthropology’ (Lévi-Strauss, 1963)...........................................................14
Kinship structures...................................................................................................... 16
Warm and cold societies............................................................................................ 17
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 18
The re-introduction of ‘History’ in the Anthropological Discipline......................................18
Evans-Pritchard: Anthropology and history....................................................................18
Annales school........................................................................................................... 19
Marshall Sahlins: the making of ‘structural history’.......................................................19
Sacred or divine kingship.............................................................................................. 20
Lunda kingdom.......................................................................................................... 21
Jan Vansina: oral history................................................................................................ 21
The Stranger King...................................................................................................... 22
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 23
Africa and/in World History: Opening up the Time-Space of History and Transforming
Centre-Periphery Relations................................................................................................ 23
1
,Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
Mudimbe: the Invention of Africa...................................................................................24
Ethnic maps............................................................................................................... 25
Braudel: an African historiography................................................................................25
Slavery.......................................................................................................................... 25
Introduction Catholicism................................................................................................ 26
Colonial dislocatory presence........................................................................................27
The (post)colonial museum and the representation of self and other: who shapes the
museum of tomorrow?...................................................................................................... 28
Institutional inertia (passive museum) forms of collaboration......................................29
Decolonial action institutional provenance research & partnerships............................30
Orientalism....................................................................................................................... 32
Edward Saïd (1935-2003).............................................................................................. 33
Michel Foucault (1926-1984): notion of discourse.........................................................33
Discourse................................................................................................................... 34
Key arguments of orientalism........................................................................................36
Orientalism as a discourse............................................................................................ 37
Orientalism and Anthropology.......................................................................................39
Crisis of representation and ethnography.........................................................................40
Crisis of representation................................................................................................. 41
Crisis of ethnographic authority....................................................................................41
Partial truth................................................................................................................... 43
Discussion and conclusion............................................................................................. 44
Re-inventing ethnography................................................................................................. 46
Introduction................................................................................................................... 46
Reflexivity and positionality........................................................................................... 46
Dialogical model............................................................................................................ 47
Collaborative anthropology........................................................................................... 48
Ethnographic refusal and reserve..................................................................................49
Discussion and conclusion............................................................................................. 51
Feminism and anthropology.............................................................................................. 52
Introduction................................................................................................................... 52
Background: anthropology and the women’s question..................................................53
Moral/analytical dilemma’s posed by the intersection of feminism and social science. .54
Going beyond a liberal feminist agenda (Mahmud).......................................................58
Agency (Mahmood).................................................................................................... 59
Conclusion and discussion............................................................................................. 60
Emotions and Affect.......................................................................................................... 62
Introduction................................................................................................................... 62
Study of emotions within anthropology.........................................................................62
Cultural Relativism..................................................................................................... 62
Structural functionalism............................................................................................. 62
Political economy of emotions....................................................................................63
2
,Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
Emotions as discourse............................................................................................... 63
Affect as an anthropological object of study..................................................................63
Methodological challenges: how to study affect? (Jansen).............................................65
Discussion and conclusion............................................................................................. 65
The global emergence of the humanitarian subject..........................................................65
The emergence of the ‘refugee question’......................................................................66
Refugees as bare life..................................................................................................... 67
Refugee question in Europe/France...............................................................................69
Refugee question in Palestine........................................................................................ 70
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 71
-
3
,Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
Class 1 (25/09)
Anthropology introduction
Text 1: Interview Achille Mbembe (2013)
Critically examines the pervasive assumption that difference is inherently a
problem that needs to be solved, rather than a natural state of fact
Problem: difference is used to construct hierarchies, justify prejudice, and enforce
an arbitrary ‘norm’ against which others are deemed deviant, often stemming
from colonialism and racism
Aim: cosmopolitan ethos & deepening of democracy to allow for
the pluralism of human expression and an ethics of care that extends
beyond humanity itself, while rejecting the dangerous concept of a single
culture and warning against the re-emergence of cultural justifications for racism
and exclusion
Text 2: ‘Small Places, Large Issues’ (Thomas Hylland Eriksen, 1995)
= a foundational introduction to social and cultural anthropology, bridging the gap
between localized ethnographic studies and universal human questions
Outlines the discipline’s unique empirical and comparative methodology,
emphasizing fieldwork as a means to understand how social life is enacted
across diverse global contexts
Eriksen explores essential themes such as kinship, social stratification, and
political power, while navigating the tension between individual agency and
the structural preconditions of society. Ultimately, the work seeks to
demonstrate the continued relevance of classic anthropological theory in
making sense of modern global phenomena, including ethnic violence,
nationalism, and the digital landscape
Herodotus = ancient Greek historian, founding father of history
Offered reflections on the life around the world and mankind
19th Ce.: Edward Burnett Tylor & James Frazer = pioneers in anthropology as a
modern science
- Revolved around questions about origin of mankind
- Understand where we come from and learn about the differences and common
history
- Made theories on the vision on humanity, in context of a colonized world
superiority and minority views, anthropology departs from this evolutionary
lens with inferior views
Anthropologists in the Victorian era (2nd half 19th Ce) spent their time observing other
cultures from ‘within’ by learning their language and trying to understand their way of life
compared to the Western lifestyle
Critique on this method: causes some civilisation to put on show
Michel-Rolph Trouillot: ‘savage slots’ = tendency to regard some people as
primitive and others as civilized
Some cultures are ‘untouched’ by the logics of industrialisation, modern-thinking
Anthropology vs ethnography
What is anthropology?
4
,Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
Study of the human, of the origins of mankind, of the diversity of mankind, of non-
Western customs and cultures, of everyday life
A practice of education
Learning from others, not only about others
Another view: anthropology = study of cultural difference and differences between people
and groups
Trying to understand otherness
Commitments of modern anthropology: you go far away to study cultures different
from you and look for those differences there are a lot of modernisations and
differences change over time
What makes anthropology anthropology?
- The method, not the geographical focus (not just Non-Western, bc the west is also
included now)
- About living together, what ties us together
What is ethnography?
- Practice of fieldwork (= talk and spend time in foreign contexts)
- Study of everyday life
- Participant observation as its hallmark
>< Ingold: reductivist account of what the discipline stands for by narrowing it down to
documentary aspects
Anthropology should not be reduced to simply using ethnography as a means to
an end
Ingold: “ethnography is a overused term within anthropology and therefore lost it’s
meaning”
Anthropology = studying with and learning from (practice of education)
Ethnography = a study of, and a learning about
What is anthropology?
Different answers, different perspectives reality never settles, there always
different ways to approach the same question
A shared commitment to studying the potentiality of human life
A critical awareness on the historical and cultural specificity of everyday practices
and events
A shared commitment to your research interlocutors makes research liable for
critique on being bias
An embodied construction of knowledge
Double movements of anthropologists
Opening up, exploring possibilities of human condition: not only ‘what’ does it
mean to be human, but also ‘how’ are certain aspects being performed, lived
and experienced (e.g. gender, poverty, religion)
Recording the everyday lives and practices of our interlocutors: writing about it,
documenting it
Making lives ‘legible’ (= leesbaar)
Recording realities is a contradictory movement of opening and closing: inherent
paradox
o Accounting for patterns/structure and complexity
5
,Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
o Experiencing realities in their complexity and writing about them
imperfectly (cf. other media than writing, audio, video, performance etc..)
Anthropology as a practiced relationship between self & other; an exercise in
understanding & translation
EMIC ETIC
Insiders perspective (not a member per se) Outsiders perspective
Intrinsic cultural distinctions that are Data gathering by outsiders that yield
meaningful to the members of a society questions posed by outsiders
Participating/placing themselves within the Not integrating themselves into the culture
culture of intended study they’re observing
More in-depth, detailed and culturally rich Avoiding altering the culture by direct
interaction
Anthropology as an academic discipline does not exist in a political or societal void
Anthropology not only as a specific way of knowing about Anthropos, the way in
which we, as human beings, form a ‘living together’, and inhabit our social worlds
This knowledge is never innocent but was/ is constructed in the historical contexts
of colonialism
To understand the birth and evolution of anthropology as an academic discipline,
we will therefore also contextualize and scrutinize the knowledge it generates
through the critical theoretical perspective of post-colonial theory and reflections
on the need for decolonial vocabularies.
Reading tip: Joseph Conrad ‘Heart of Darkness’
Postcoloniality
The colonial world ended around 1980, but the ideas left its mark and still influence the
way we think & talk about race
Postcolonial world = (a 3rd, shared) space between the extremes of tradition and
modernity
Space of marginalisation? Mudimbe Hybridity (botanical metaphor)
o Within the marginalized spaces, there exists a complex interplay of cultural
influences and identities a hybridity
o Botanical metaphor suggests that this hybridity is not a simplistic blending
but a nuanced and intricate process, much like the intricate interweaving of
characteristics in a hybrid plant
Space of cultural creativity? Bhadba Creolisation (linguistic metaphor)
o Within spaces of cultural creativity, there is a process of creolization
o Involves the dynamic blending of cultural elements, resulting in the
creation of something new, vibrant, and distinctly creative
o Linguistic metaphor emphasizes the transformative nature of this process,
akin to the development of a creole language with its own unique
characteristics.
Translation
Negotiation
Palimpsest (= manuscript (e.g. parchment or vellum) that has been reused or
recycled, with traces of the original (overwritten) text still visible underneath the
new text
Postcolonial theory
"Post" in postcolonial: a break with the past (post as something subsequent,
clearly distinct from the colonial past)?
6
, Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
“Post” as continuity, as a period grown out of a reworking of the past in the
present, something that incorporates the previous moments?
Postcoloniality vs. decoloniality: a tense relationship?
Decolonization
Historical moment
Political & epistemological movement (decolonizing the mind)
Critically challenging the hegemony of the West and/or modernity as main horizon
of possibility
Exploring alternative trajectories and complex engagements with modernity (also
within the West)
Opening up the horizon of possibilities of what it means to be human (pluriverse)
Anthropology in a decolonizing world
How has anthropology renewed itself and shifted and engaged with the coloniality?
Decolonization as an ethnographic moment (studying decoloniality)
How does the movement of decolonization reshape anthropology?
o What to study?, in what language?, representational authority?, reciprocity?
Etc.
How does anthropology participate in enlarging the possibilities of being human?
Class 2 (2/10)
History and the Anthropological Narrative
Key words: Evolutionism, diffusionism, structural functionalism, Malinowski, Radcliffe-
Brown, “denial of coevalness”, “Writing Culture”
History and the Anthropological Discourse. The Gradual Marginalisation of the Historical
Narrative
Joseph Conrad
= Polish-English writer, ‘The Heart of Darkness’ (1902, about dynamics of colonization)
Trip to Africa, along Congo River
Search for the ‘other’ (in Africa) becomes a meeting with our dark inner self
Illustration of evolutionist notions of time, ‘traveling through time by moving
space’
Cultural Evolutionism
= human cultures change over time through a process similar to biological evolution,
progressing through stages from simple to complex
Influenced by Darwinism (concepts like variation, inheritance, and selection to
study how cultural traits, such as beliefs, languages, and customs, spread and
change across populations through social learning and transmission)
Monocultural rationale
Lewis Henry Morgan (American ethnographer, studied Native Americans: Iroquois) &
Edward Burnett Tylor (English anthropologist, focuses on Darwinism)
Tylor’s unilinear evolution: human societies develop over time and follow three
stages of evolution: savagery, barbarism, and civilization
7
KU LEUVEN
INTRODUCTION TO
ANTHROPOLOGY IN A
DECOLONIZING WORLD
Notes of the lectures from Philip De Boeck and Nadia Fadil
,Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
Filip De Boeck (Central-Africa, Congo, urban, visual arts) & Nadia Fadil (migration &
colonialism, Morocco)
Exam (closed book): internalising the course, writing about your own interpretation of
specific themes
- 3 open end questions (4 points each)
- Define 4 key terms (2 points each)
Inhoud
Anthropology introduction.................................................................................................. 4
Anthropology vs ethnography......................................................................................... 4
What is ethnography?..................................................................................................5
What is anthropology?.................................................................................................5
Postcoloniality................................................................................................................. 6
Decolonization................................................................................................................. 7
History and the Anthropological Narrative..........................................................................7
Joseph Conrad................................................................................................................. 7
Cultural Evolutionism...................................................................................................... 7
Franz Boas: Diffusionism................................................................................................. 8
Structural functionalism.................................................................................................. 9
Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (20th Ce).........................................................................9
Alfred Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955)...........................................................................10
Denial of coevalness...................................................................................................... 11
Johannes Fabian (20th Ce)........................................................................................... 11
Writing culture............................................................................................................... 13
La Pensée sauvage. Lévi-Strauss, French Structuralism and History.................................13
Lévi-Strauss: French Structuralism................................................................................13
‘Structural Anthropology’ (Lévi-Strauss, 1963)...........................................................14
Kinship structures...................................................................................................... 16
Warm and cold societies............................................................................................ 17
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 18
The re-introduction of ‘History’ in the Anthropological Discipline......................................18
Evans-Pritchard: Anthropology and history....................................................................18
Annales school........................................................................................................... 19
Marshall Sahlins: the making of ‘structural history’.......................................................19
Sacred or divine kingship.............................................................................................. 20
Lunda kingdom.......................................................................................................... 21
Jan Vansina: oral history................................................................................................ 21
The Stranger King...................................................................................................... 22
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 23
Africa and/in World History: Opening up the Time-Space of History and Transforming
Centre-Periphery Relations................................................................................................ 23
1
,Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
Mudimbe: the Invention of Africa...................................................................................24
Ethnic maps............................................................................................................... 25
Braudel: an African historiography................................................................................25
Slavery.......................................................................................................................... 25
Introduction Catholicism................................................................................................ 26
Colonial dislocatory presence........................................................................................27
The (post)colonial museum and the representation of self and other: who shapes the
museum of tomorrow?...................................................................................................... 28
Institutional inertia (passive museum) forms of collaboration......................................29
Decolonial action institutional provenance research & partnerships............................30
Orientalism....................................................................................................................... 32
Edward Saïd (1935-2003).............................................................................................. 33
Michel Foucault (1926-1984): notion of discourse.........................................................33
Discourse................................................................................................................... 34
Key arguments of orientalism........................................................................................36
Orientalism as a discourse............................................................................................ 37
Orientalism and Anthropology.......................................................................................39
Crisis of representation and ethnography.........................................................................40
Crisis of representation................................................................................................. 41
Crisis of ethnographic authority....................................................................................41
Partial truth................................................................................................................... 43
Discussion and conclusion............................................................................................. 44
Re-inventing ethnography................................................................................................. 46
Introduction................................................................................................................... 46
Reflexivity and positionality........................................................................................... 46
Dialogical model............................................................................................................ 47
Collaborative anthropology........................................................................................... 48
Ethnographic refusal and reserve..................................................................................49
Discussion and conclusion............................................................................................. 51
Feminism and anthropology.............................................................................................. 52
Introduction................................................................................................................... 52
Background: anthropology and the women’s question..................................................53
Moral/analytical dilemma’s posed by the intersection of feminism and social science. .54
Going beyond a liberal feminist agenda (Mahmud).......................................................58
Agency (Mahmood).................................................................................................... 59
Conclusion and discussion............................................................................................. 60
Emotions and Affect.......................................................................................................... 62
Introduction................................................................................................................... 62
Study of emotions within anthropology.........................................................................62
Cultural Relativism..................................................................................................... 62
Structural functionalism............................................................................................. 62
Political economy of emotions....................................................................................63
2
,Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
Emotions as discourse............................................................................................... 63
Affect as an anthropological object of study..................................................................63
Methodological challenges: how to study affect? (Jansen).............................................65
Discussion and conclusion............................................................................................. 65
The global emergence of the humanitarian subject..........................................................65
The emergence of the ‘refugee question’......................................................................66
Refugees as bare life..................................................................................................... 67
Refugee question in Europe/France...............................................................................69
Refugee question in Palestine........................................................................................ 70
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 71
-
3
,Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
Class 1 (25/09)
Anthropology introduction
Text 1: Interview Achille Mbembe (2013)
Critically examines the pervasive assumption that difference is inherently a
problem that needs to be solved, rather than a natural state of fact
Problem: difference is used to construct hierarchies, justify prejudice, and enforce
an arbitrary ‘norm’ against which others are deemed deviant, often stemming
from colonialism and racism
Aim: cosmopolitan ethos & deepening of democracy to allow for
the pluralism of human expression and an ethics of care that extends
beyond humanity itself, while rejecting the dangerous concept of a single
culture and warning against the re-emergence of cultural justifications for racism
and exclusion
Text 2: ‘Small Places, Large Issues’ (Thomas Hylland Eriksen, 1995)
= a foundational introduction to social and cultural anthropology, bridging the gap
between localized ethnographic studies and universal human questions
Outlines the discipline’s unique empirical and comparative methodology,
emphasizing fieldwork as a means to understand how social life is enacted
across diverse global contexts
Eriksen explores essential themes such as kinship, social stratification, and
political power, while navigating the tension between individual agency and
the structural preconditions of society. Ultimately, the work seeks to
demonstrate the continued relevance of classic anthropological theory in
making sense of modern global phenomena, including ethnic violence,
nationalism, and the digital landscape
Herodotus = ancient Greek historian, founding father of history
Offered reflections on the life around the world and mankind
19th Ce.: Edward Burnett Tylor & James Frazer = pioneers in anthropology as a
modern science
- Revolved around questions about origin of mankind
- Understand where we come from and learn about the differences and common
history
- Made theories on the vision on humanity, in context of a colonized world
superiority and minority views, anthropology departs from this evolutionary
lens with inferior views
Anthropologists in the Victorian era (2nd half 19th Ce) spent their time observing other
cultures from ‘within’ by learning their language and trying to understand their way of life
compared to the Western lifestyle
Critique on this method: causes some civilisation to put on show
Michel-Rolph Trouillot: ‘savage slots’ = tendency to regard some people as
primitive and others as civilized
Some cultures are ‘untouched’ by the logics of industrialisation, modern-thinking
Anthropology vs ethnography
What is anthropology?
4
,Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
Study of the human, of the origins of mankind, of the diversity of mankind, of non-
Western customs and cultures, of everyday life
A practice of education
Learning from others, not only about others
Another view: anthropology = study of cultural difference and differences between people
and groups
Trying to understand otherness
Commitments of modern anthropology: you go far away to study cultures different
from you and look for those differences there are a lot of modernisations and
differences change over time
What makes anthropology anthropology?
- The method, not the geographical focus (not just Non-Western, bc the west is also
included now)
- About living together, what ties us together
What is ethnography?
- Practice of fieldwork (= talk and spend time in foreign contexts)
- Study of everyday life
- Participant observation as its hallmark
>< Ingold: reductivist account of what the discipline stands for by narrowing it down to
documentary aspects
Anthropology should not be reduced to simply using ethnography as a means to
an end
Ingold: “ethnography is a overused term within anthropology and therefore lost it’s
meaning”
Anthropology = studying with and learning from (practice of education)
Ethnography = a study of, and a learning about
What is anthropology?
Different answers, different perspectives reality never settles, there always
different ways to approach the same question
A shared commitment to studying the potentiality of human life
A critical awareness on the historical and cultural specificity of everyday practices
and events
A shared commitment to your research interlocutors makes research liable for
critique on being bias
An embodied construction of knowledge
Double movements of anthropologists
Opening up, exploring possibilities of human condition: not only ‘what’ does it
mean to be human, but also ‘how’ are certain aspects being performed, lived
and experienced (e.g. gender, poverty, religion)
Recording the everyday lives and practices of our interlocutors: writing about it,
documenting it
Making lives ‘legible’ (= leesbaar)
Recording realities is a contradictory movement of opening and closing: inherent
paradox
o Accounting for patterns/structure and complexity
5
,Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
o Experiencing realities in their complexity and writing about them
imperfectly (cf. other media than writing, audio, video, performance etc..)
Anthropology as a practiced relationship between self & other; an exercise in
understanding & translation
EMIC ETIC
Insiders perspective (not a member per se) Outsiders perspective
Intrinsic cultural distinctions that are Data gathering by outsiders that yield
meaningful to the members of a society questions posed by outsiders
Participating/placing themselves within the Not integrating themselves into the culture
culture of intended study they’re observing
More in-depth, detailed and culturally rich Avoiding altering the culture by direct
interaction
Anthropology as an academic discipline does not exist in a political or societal void
Anthropology not only as a specific way of knowing about Anthropos, the way in
which we, as human beings, form a ‘living together’, and inhabit our social worlds
This knowledge is never innocent but was/ is constructed in the historical contexts
of colonialism
To understand the birth and evolution of anthropology as an academic discipline,
we will therefore also contextualize and scrutinize the knowledge it generates
through the critical theoretical perspective of post-colonial theory and reflections
on the need for decolonial vocabularies.
Reading tip: Joseph Conrad ‘Heart of Darkness’
Postcoloniality
The colonial world ended around 1980, but the ideas left its mark and still influence the
way we think & talk about race
Postcolonial world = (a 3rd, shared) space between the extremes of tradition and
modernity
Space of marginalisation? Mudimbe Hybridity (botanical metaphor)
o Within the marginalized spaces, there exists a complex interplay of cultural
influences and identities a hybridity
o Botanical metaphor suggests that this hybridity is not a simplistic blending
but a nuanced and intricate process, much like the intricate interweaving of
characteristics in a hybrid plant
Space of cultural creativity? Bhadba Creolisation (linguistic metaphor)
o Within spaces of cultural creativity, there is a process of creolization
o Involves the dynamic blending of cultural elements, resulting in the
creation of something new, vibrant, and distinctly creative
o Linguistic metaphor emphasizes the transformative nature of this process,
akin to the development of a creole language with its own unique
characteristics.
Translation
Negotiation
Palimpsest (= manuscript (e.g. parchment or vellum) that has been reused or
recycled, with traces of the original (overwritten) text still visible underneath the
new text
Postcolonial theory
"Post" in postcolonial: a break with the past (post as something subsequent,
clearly distinct from the colonial past)?
6
, Introduction to Anthropology in a Decolonizing World
[S0J98a]
“Post” as continuity, as a period grown out of a reworking of the past in the
present, something that incorporates the previous moments?
Postcoloniality vs. decoloniality: a tense relationship?
Decolonization
Historical moment
Political & epistemological movement (decolonizing the mind)
Critically challenging the hegemony of the West and/or modernity as main horizon
of possibility
Exploring alternative trajectories and complex engagements with modernity (also
within the West)
Opening up the horizon of possibilities of what it means to be human (pluriverse)
Anthropology in a decolonizing world
How has anthropology renewed itself and shifted and engaged with the coloniality?
Decolonization as an ethnographic moment (studying decoloniality)
How does the movement of decolonization reshape anthropology?
o What to study?, in what language?, representational authority?, reciprocity?
Etc.
How does anthropology participate in enlarging the possibilities of being human?
Class 2 (2/10)
History and the Anthropological Narrative
Key words: Evolutionism, diffusionism, structural functionalism, Malinowski, Radcliffe-
Brown, “denial of coevalness”, “Writing Culture”
History and the Anthropological Discourse. The Gradual Marginalisation of the Historical
Narrative
Joseph Conrad
= Polish-English writer, ‘The Heart of Darkness’ (1902, about dynamics of colonization)
Trip to Africa, along Congo River
Search for the ‘other’ (in Africa) becomes a meeting with our dark inner self
Illustration of evolutionist notions of time, ‘traveling through time by moving
space’
Cultural Evolutionism
= human cultures change over time through a process similar to biological evolution,
progressing through stages from simple to complex
Influenced by Darwinism (concepts like variation, inheritance, and selection to
study how cultural traits, such as beliefs, languages, and customs, spread and
change across populations through social learning and transmission)
Monocultural rationale
Lewis Henry Morgan (American ethnographer, studied Native Americans: Iroquois) &
Edward Burnett Tylor (English anthropologist, focuses on Darwinism)
Tylor’s unilinear evolution: human societies develop over time and follow three
stages of evolution: savagery, barbarism, and civilization
7
