Colonialism's Culture: Anthropology, Travel, and Government / Edition 1

by Nicholas Thomas

Overview

In a wide-ranging account of the development of ideas about human difference, Nicholas Thomas challenges reigning theories that portray colonialism as monolithic in character, purpose, and efficacy throughout the world. Taking issue with such writers as Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri Spivak, Thomas describes colonialism not so much as a discourse but a project—a project in which the interactions among colonizing and colonized people are far more variable and reveal greater ambivalence than generally imagined. In addition to his review of current literature in cultural studies, the author provides extended reflections on photographs, colonial novels, exhibits of indigenous art, ethnographic films, and recent Hollywood films in order to reveal how deep and pervasive is colonialism's culture for colonizer and colonized.


Thomas proposes that historicized, ethnographic explorations of the colonial experience are the most fruitful approaches to understanding colonialism's continued effects. He draws on travel, anthropology, and government as vehicles that gave nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Europeans exposure to colonized populations and provided a language through which to discuss them. The author reveals colonialism to be a complex ongoing cultural process—one in which dominated populations are represented in ways that play upon and legitimize racial and cultural differences. A provocative book for specialists, Colonialism's Culture can also serve as a stimulating introduction for students across the social sciences and humanities interested in this multifaceted field of inquiry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691037318
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/22/1994
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Nicholas Thomas is an Australian Research Council senior research fellow affiliated with the Australian National University.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations

Preface

Introduction

1. From Present to Past: the Politics of Colonial Studies 11

2. Culture and Rule: Theories of Colonial Discourse 33

3. From Past to Present: Colonial Epochs, Agents, and Locations 66

4. Colonial Governmentality and Colonial Conversion 105

5. Imperial Triumph, Settler Failure 143

6. The Primitivist and the Postcolonial 170

Notes 196

Notes to Plates 231

Index 235

What People are Saying About This

David Hanlon

An exciting, highly unsettling book that attempts to challenge reigning theories and theorists on the matter of colonialism.
— David Hanlon, University of Hawaii

From the Publisher

"An exciting, highly unsettling book that attempts to challenge reigning theories and theorists on the matter of colonialism."—David Hanlon, University of Hawaii

Editorial Reviews

"An exciting, highly unsettling book that attempts to challenge reigning theories and theorists on the matter of colonialism."—David Hanlon, University of Hawaii

From the Publisher