THE ZERO SERIES – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Less Than Zero Anthropology

“Sometimes,” remarked a wise colleague of mine many years ago, “It seems all I know how to do is critique.” We were postgraduate students, I in anthropology, she in sociology, but our paths crossed several times in the classes of a VFM whose task it was to bathe us in the critical light of dialectics. […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Colonial and Anti-Imperial Anthropology

The following quotes come from John Gledhill’s Power and its Disguises: Anthropological Perspectives on Politics, 2nd ed. (London: Pluto, 2000). page 1: Half a century ago, the subject matter and relevance of political anthropology still seemed relatively easy to define. Under Western colonial regimes, one of the most valuable kinds of knowledge which anthropologists could […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

0.171: Anthropology and the Will to Meaning: Vassos Argyrou

This interlude in the series is to finally introduce the work of Dr. Vassos Argyrou (Reader in Social Anthropology at the University of Hull), specifically his book, Anthropology and the Will to Meaning: A Postcolonial Critique (London: Pluto Press, 2002) which I have referred to in the past on several occasions (a condensed version of […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

0.178: The Social Production of Science and Anthropology as Knowledge for Domination

The intellectual heritage of European expansion that we inherit as anthropologists – certainly not without modification and criticism – is again the subject in this series. If Immanuel Wallerstein explained which agendas became dominant with the institutionalization of the social sciences, with some notes on why they became dominant, Pierre Bourdieu provides some explanation as […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

0.179: Imperialism, Americanization, and the Social Sciences

Cultural imperialism rests on the power to universalize particularisms linked to a singular historical tradition by causing them to be misrecognized as such. (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1999, p. 41) If the social sciences are Eurocentric, does this also mean that they are imperialist? Where Immanuel Wallerstein finds liberalism as the underpinning of the geoculture of […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

0.18: Anthropology and the Rise of the Social Sciences within the Structures of Knowledge – Immanuel Wallerstein

Professional Knowledge Creation in the World-System Building an anti-imperialist “anthropology,” plus an anthropology that studies imperialism, and that studies itself as a received invention of imperialism, means much more than just analyzing and questioning how anthropologists served this or that colonial venture. It means totally unthinking anthropology as a social science; more than that, it […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

0.185: Terms of Incorporation, Concepts of Domination

Phrases such as “decolonizing anthropology”* and “anthropology and the colonial encounter” have become salient in anthropology especially since they are the titles of two of the better known, most widely quoted books on the subject. What subject? That is what is lacking clarity, because presumably the phrases above are meant to mean something, and if […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Claude Lévi-Strauss: à la prochaine fois

Almost one year ago we celebrated the remarkable 100th birthday of Claude Lévi-Strauss. Today we learn that his body has died. In the meantime, we continue to work with what he has left us, as can be seen in the latest posts on this blog concerning his vision of a future anthropology, as seen back […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

0.189: Stanley Diamond & Claude Lévi-Strauss on the Nature and Future of Anthropology

Two relatively short articles from the 1960s that I found useful, especially in connection with the previous post, provide a number of insights that exceeded the scope of that post. I want to share some of my “notes and quotes” from those two articles, with limited commentary aside from my headings — think of it […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

0.19: Questions about Colonialism and Anthropology: Epistemology, Methodology, and Politics

Two Sides of the Same Coin Anthropology might look it came to us with a dual consciousness. On one side, a consciousness influenced by ideals of science and objectivity, driven to developing a commanding knowledge about human others. On the other side, a consciousness of itself as a creature of imperialism, guided by a scientific […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

0.20: “Potentially Dangerous Implications for the Practice of Anthropology Today”

[This is the first in a descending series of articles that will bring this blog to a close.] Circle the Wagons! If the “nativism” that Adam Kuper alleges was spawned by the marriage of American post-modernism and radical political engagement means that only the native can speak for the native, then Kuper will have none […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Welcome to ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY: The End of the Beginning of the End

Today this blog marks its second year of existence, with so many unanticipated outcomes that I think a post-mortem will possibly take years (or hours) of reflection and will likely not appear on this site. Today also marks the start of the final phase of this blog, which I hope to conclude before the year […]