19th century: Race and

Colonialism
Tags Anthropology

Date @10 de abril de 2024

Tipo 🎓Clase
French Enlightment Ethnology

Armand de Lom d’Arce de Lahontan (1666-1716) soldier, exporer, escritor,

anti-clerical

soldier stationed in Nevv France

Nevv Voyages to North America 1702

Learned Algonkian language and recorded vas vocabulary

Ridiculed European authorities and praised native people for their

courage and love of freedom

Emphasized the highly developed debating skills of native peoples

Joseph-François Lafitau - Jesuit Father, ethnologist and naturalist

missionary to Nevv France among the Huron and Iroquois

Customs of American Savages Compared ith those of Earliest Times

Concluded that native people vvvere rational indiv vvith soscieties that
had admirable ethical principles and capable of excellent self-gov

Strikingly non-ethnocentric, analytical social observer, respectful of his

hosts

Study the native’s kinship system, anticipating futura anthropological

concern

FRENCH ENLIGHTMENT PHILOSOPHY

Baron de Montesquieu - french historian and phil

In Spirit of the Lavvs he explores forms of gov, temperaments, and

influence of climate on society utilizing ethno examples around the

19th century: Race and Colonialism 1

 vvorls

Pictures the legal system of a culture as an aspect of a vvider social

system, intimate vvith other aspercts (pol, econom, demo, religion)

Polygamy, cannibalism, paganism, slavery and other barbarous

customs could be explained by the functions they fullfilled in society as
a vvhole

Radcliffe-Brovvn vvould argue that he vvas the founder of the social

sciences - empiricism of structural functionalism

Rousseau -

Discource on the Origins of Inequality he suggests social hierarchy is

unnatural

Vievvs societies as unified intelligible systems, foundation of Modern

French sociocult analysis

Idealization of simple and egalitarian forms of society on accounts of

non-european peoples

Early application of comparative method

Rosseau’s “natural man” vvas healthy, happy and free, unlike in unequal
vvestern society

On the Social Contract he concludes that humanity vvas thus happier in

the past and noble savagery’s disappearance should be lamented

In the social contract the individual group gives up his natural rights in
return for rights as a citizen of society, greater and longer lasting
freedom

The Rise of Darvvinism and Cultural Evolution

Darvvinian era in the ESL

Mankind

Cultural evolution (not to confuse ith social darvvinism)

Edvvard Burnett Tylor

theory of cultural survivals: traits (actions) that loose their fuction but still
are used. human evolution - tied vvith darvvins theory

19th century: Race and Colonialism 2

 religion as continum of evolution, theologically the end goal of the evolution
of religion vvould be monoteism

first solid definition of culture: culture = civilization (?)

complex of aspects - as members of society

Bastian’s psychic unity, German roots

Ethnocentric vievv since thought that VVest vvas the center of civilized vvorld
and primitives needed help in attaining civilization
Be careful vvith concepts as colonialism, etc vvhen talking about
ethnocentrism. There vvere a lot of dif. colonies, colonial forms, etc. its a
broad aspect. It took place all around history vvith almost every society

James Frazer

student of Tylor, 19th-20th century

the last of the called armchair anthropologists - it has many faces, not only
the negative one. It also gives a broader vievv, takes more things into
consideration (history, demo, etc) - for example, historians can’t go back
and see vvho and vvhat they study, so they use other sources.

if the informant, the text, vvas vvell done, by a professional, the

anthropologists analyse vvhat those texts mean, so vve should not disregard
that

Levvis Henry Morgan, senator, naturalist, lavveyrs

one of the fievv to conduct field vvork

he vvas different in his respect to the societies he studied

importance of Kinship (family??), different of the european concept, more

primitive system

Urgent Anthropology - precursor to applied anthro

his ideas, background of lavvyer - native land rights

“primitive” societies to study possible human past

later his ideas vvere taken by others such Marx and Engels - the human is
not made to classes and hierarchy - communal

The Scramble for Africa

colonial racing and division

19th century: Race and Colonialism 3

 british dont rule directly, not a total complete ocupation - do much cost,
resistance, too much land - rule by local chiefs, in most cases forced.

social complexity can be calissified in: state (bigger system) > chiefdom
(ppl vv some povver, vvealth)> tribe (community) > bands (no hierarchy,
basic)

the B. applied chiefdom - social engeniering

anthropology’s place in this - superficial understanding, not interested,

to take note on difference betvven academic anthropology and anthro

theories applied on their hovv they vvant

administrators DID NOT rely on anthropologistic studies

evolutionist anthro used as justification

British Functional Anthro and Colonialism

move from armchair to the field, more “empirical” knovledge

many academic anthropologist begin to realise the interests taken

administrators vvere sus/afraid of the anthropologists “going native” so

supporting them, integrating, - functionalist relativism (buscar que es)

19th century: Race and Colonialism 4