EDWARD SAID AND ANTHROPOLOGY

Since the publication of Orientalism in 1978, it has been virtually impossible to study the colonial world without explicit or implicit reference to Edward Said's charge that the sources, basic categories, & assumptions of anthropologists, historians of the colonial world, & area studie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Palestine studies 2004-04, Vol.33 (3), p.38-54
Main Author: Dirks, Nicholas B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic profession
Anthropological research
Anthropologists
Anthropology
Area studies
Biographies
Colonialism
Cultural instruction
East and West
Experts
Graphs
Historians
Inheritance and succession
Intellectual History
Intellectuals
Postcolonialism
Regional studies
Research trends
Said, Edward
Said, Edward W
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Summary:Since the publication of Orientalism in 1978, it has been virtually impossible to study the colonial world without explicit or implicit reference to Edward Said's charge that the sources, basic categories, & assumptions of anthropologists, historians of the colonial world, & area studies experts (among others) have been shaped by colonial rule. This article charts Said's influence on anthropology, tracing both anthropology's engagement with colonialism & the frequently ambivalent (& sometimes defensive) responses within the field to Said's critique. The article also considers the larger terrain of Said's engagement with the field, from his concern about its "literary" turn of the 1980s to his call for US anthropology explicitly to confront the imperial conditions not only of its epistemological inheritance but also of its present position. Though Said's direct writings on the discipline have been limited, the article concludes that anthropology has not only learned a great deal from Said's critique, but has become one of the most important sites for the productive elaboration & exploration of his ideas. Adapted from the source document.
ISSN:0377-919X
1533-8614
DOI:10.1525/jps.2004.33.3.038