Colonialism

Few topics in the discipline of anthropology are as important, and controversial, as colonialism. The historical origins of anthropology are rooted in the colonial enterprise, thus forever linking colonialism and anthropology. As such, colonialism is one of the most widely explored and written about subjects in the history of anthropology. Colonialism can be understood as the establishment of foreign rule over a distant territory and the control of its people. Generally associated with European imperial powers, colonialism and the colonial project include political and legal domination over a subordinate people, the exploitation of human and natural resources and the redistribution of those resources to benefit imperial interests, and the construction of racial and cultural difference that privileged the colonial ruler over the populations they ruled. Colonialism, which started in the late 15th century, is one of the fundamental social, cultural, and political forces that shaped our contemporary world. It is one of the phenomena that have structured modernity with regard to racial and economic hierarchies, which continues to have profound effects on communities worldwide. Though the traditional period of colonialism has ended, anthropological research on colonialism has pointed to the fact that there are lasting impacts of the colonial project worldwide. While anthropologists initially participated in the colonial project and later reproduced colonial relationships in their research projects, contemporary anthropological literature that is critical of the discipline’s historical roots developed alongside decolonial and postcolonial responses and critiques of colonialism and its ongoing legacy. In addition to theoretical and historical contributions to colonialism, anthropological research on colonialism focuses on four main areas. First, anthropologists describe the cultural representation of non-European others and focus on the impacts of colonialism on the communities that were colonized. Second, anthropological research examines the culture of the colonial project itself, focusing on the production of hierarchies and the process of exploiting human and natural resources to serve colonial needs. Third, anthropologists articulate the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. Fourth, anthropology focuses on resistance to colonialism, highlighting the everyday acts of the colonized in the struggle to overcome colonial rule.