Bronislaw Malinowski, “Indirect Rule,” and the Colonial Politics of Functionalist Anthropology, ca. 1925–1940
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Authors
Foks, William
Publication Date
2018-01Journal Title
Comparative Studies in Society and History
ISSN
0010-4175
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Volume
60
Issue
1
Pages
35-57
Language
English
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
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Foks, W. (2018). Bronislaw Malinowski, “Indirect Rule,” and the Colonial Politics of Functionalist Anthropology, ca. 1925–1940. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 60 (1), 35-57. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417517000408
Abstract
Functionalist anthropology has a contested legacy. Some scholars have praised functionalism as a contributor to the relativizing of civilizations and cultures while others have criticized it as a colonial science smoothing the interwar workings of indirect rule. This article argues that the colonial politics of functionalist anthropology can only be understood against the background of resurgent settler colonialism in British East Africa. Supporters of indirect rule increasingly relied on a language of scientific administration and welfarist policies associated with the League of Nations to bolster their position against the settlers in the 1920s and 1930s. Functionalism offered them some means of support on this count. The functionalists, meanwhile, co-opted the language of indirect rule to pursue their own intra-disciplinary ends. This combination of interests was pragmatic and flexible rather than ossified and ideological, marked more by what both opposed (settler colonialism) than a shared ideal towards which they aspired (indirect rule). Anthropologists and colonial administrators possessed very different ideas of indirect rule, with strikingly different implications for the future of Britain's African Empire.
Sponsorship
For financial support during the writing and researching of this article the author gratefully acknowledges the Rockefeller Archive Center, the trustees of the Henry Fund and the Jane Eliza Procter Fellowship, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership at Cambridge (grant 1506671).
Funder references
AHRC (1506671)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417517000408
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/264736
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