Call for papers
Convenor
Subhadra Channa
University of Delhi
Abstract
Anthropology has long been recognized as a discipline rooted in colonial history and having a Eurocentric origin. If we look into the archives of the discipline it is easy to recognize the dominance of white men in the initial chapter of growth and to see that ideas of both evolution and structural-functionalism were more product of European fantasies about ‘self’ and ‘other’, than the scientific ‘facts’ they were projected as. As anthropology became a discipline that was taught in the colonies (through the medium of European languages), new generations of anthropologists came up who were taught in the British, American and European universities and who followed largely their teachers in developing the discipline , yet since they were rooted in their native cultures, were able to discern and identify nuances of their culture that could not be apprehended by the outside anthropologists. At least several generations of native anthropologists have now appeared and many of them have left a mark on the subject by their keen insights and fresh approach to the subject.
In the post -colonial and post-modern era, the contribution of non-European scholars has made significant impact on the theoretical developments of the discipline especially highlighting the role of reflexivity and subjectivity in the process of both fieldwork and theory making. Significant in this regard has been the interrogation of the division between sociology and anthropology; since the latter was the study of ‘other cultures’ from the point of view of the white, male euro-Americans but not so from the point of view of those studying their own cultures. In this panel we invite contributions that would focus on one or more native scholars of the discipline and his/her or their contribution to the discipline. Contributors are encouraged to consider really ‘native’ scholars, preferably those who have been educated and are working from their own countries of origin. An assessment of the contribution of scholars who have helped develop the discipline in their own regions would be especially welcome. The contributors may be from any part of the world and not necessarily evaluating their ‘own’ country or region.