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intervention.
Begin? How Did Anthropology
In fall 2015, I adopted the
Begin? – Colonial Origins
Robert Welsch and Luis Vivanco
The colonial origins of
textbook Cultural Anthropology.
anthropology are hardly in
The first chapter discusses “How
dispute. In fact this should be the
Did Anthropology Begin?” Welsch
very first of the three key
and Vivanco detail three key
concerns. But perhaps even more
concerns: “(1) the disruptions of
important is the need to discuss
industrialization in Europe and
the beginnings of the global
America, (2) the rise of
system. This should start with a
evolutionary theories, and (3) the
discussion of the Reconquista of
growing importance of Europe’s
the Iberian peninsula, the
far-flung colonies” (2015:5).
seafaring voyages from what is
Although it was difficult reading, I
now Portugal and Spain, and the
immediately missed my previous
subsequent Conquista of the
book by Michel-Rolph
Americas.
Trouillot, Global
The 15th and 16th centuries were
Transformations (2003). I re-
crucial for how Europe became
assigned Trouillot for the fall
“The West,” how others would be
2016 version of Cultural
portrayed as savage, and the
Anthropology, pairing it with
establishment of transoceanic
the concise version of Welsch &
global flows that would predate
Vivanco.
academic anthropology by more
It’s not so much that Welsch and
than three centuries. Welsch and
Vivanco are completely wrong. It’s
Vivanco discuss how “overseas the
that the order of prioritization
colonial period flourished from the
should be reversed and the
1870s until the 1970s.” But this
historical timeframe adjusted.
refers only to the flourishing of
Otherwise, their depiction
North Atlantic colonialism, which
validates contemporary US-centric
was by that time following well-
ideas, limiting the scope of
worn routes and templates
established centuries earlier (see and legacy, see The Discovery of
the discussion of Europe and the Sidney Mintz: Anthropology’s
People Without Unfinished Revolution.)
History and Myths of the Spanish How Did Anthropology
Conquest). Begin? – Darwin in the
How Did Anthropology Tierra del Fuego
Begin? – Plantation Slavery Darwin’s ideas about evolution
& Industrialization were undoubtedly important to
By not beginning their colonial the emergence of anthropology.
account earlier, Welsch and But they were not solely ideas
Vivanco then re-tell a standard about non-human biological
story-line about industrialization. variation. Darwin’s Voyage of the
The standard line is that Beagle followed the routes of
industrialization occurs in Europe Iberian colonialism. Darwin’s
and in the United States in the observations of natives in Tierra
nineteenth century and then from del Fuego could now be wrapped
there “affected peoples in in a narrative of savagery as
European colonies” (2015:5). “absence” and negation:
Such a story ignores decades of The language of these people,
anthropological and historical according to our notions, scarcely
research that shows how crucial deserves to be called articulate. .
the colonies always were in the . . We have no reason to believe
genesis of European that they perform any sort of
industrialization. Specifically in the religious worship. . . . The
classic Sweetness and Power: The different tribes have no
Place of Sugar in Modern History, government or chief. . . . They
Sidney Mintz details the factory- cannot know the feeling of having
like aspects of Caribbean slave a home, and still less that of
plantations. Mintz demonstrated domestic affection. . . . Their skill
how sugar production “fueled” the in some respects may be
later rise of the working class and compared to the instinct of
factory production in Europe. animals, for it is not improved by
(For an update on Mintz’s work experience. (The Voyage of the
Beagle 1831-1836, [2001:183, condition of human society and
191-2]) culture. All of them who got
Darwin’s misrecognition of native themselves involved in the
societies that had by that time comparative study of preliterate
been thoroughly affected by prior societies and cultures at that
conquests fit well within a similar time, with the intention of
erasure of the colonial studying origin and evolution
contribution to European preferred the term ethnologists
industrialization and dominance. for them. It deals with man in
This dominance would then be the context of society and
further justified by evolutionary culture. While society�s
ideas. presence is attested at sub-human
level, culture is exclusively a