Decolonization

Decolonizing Anthropology: Comprehensive Exam Practice

Describe what is meant when anthropology is labeled “colonial.” Anthropology has aided colonization by dehumanizing and stereotyping Natives, by causing an erasure of Native history and identity, by helping the colonial authorities manage native peoples, and by appropriating Native culture and knowledge. This essay will serve as a definition of the colonial effects of anthropology and provides an articulated Native theory of “Native Studies” called for by Warrior (1994). In the absence of an articulated theory and accompanying body of literature, Native and non-native scholars have sought to be critical and at times decolonizing in their reviews of anthropology and other social sciences.  Sherry Ortner (2001) offers a view of anthropology from the Sixties and describes the Seventies as a time when everything that was part of the existing order came into question. Before establishing the need for decolonization of anthropology we need to outline the colonial nature of anthropology. As a science, a part of the canon of Western

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Contrasting Colonization in Grand Ronde and Belgium: Reverend Croquet and Cardinal Mercier

The story of the tribes of the United States is one of colonization and disenfranchisement. For hundreds of years, the tribes were subject to pressures from newcomers to their lands. Explorers, missionaries, traders, settlers, all manner of other people seeking to claim land, and take resources from the tribes. This story is well written in hundreds of volumes. The story of the missionaries to the tribes is part of that story of colonization. Christians, Catholics, Protestants, Calvinists, Jesuits, and Black Robes, to name a few, all came to the tribes and worked in many ways to save them from themselves, by destroying their cultures. The American Catholic church was in competition with the Protestants for converts from the tribes. In the Northwest, the Catholics counted the converted and their success by how many they baptized. At the same time, reports suggested that the Christian religions were not taking hold and Natives continued their cultures. In the late 1850s, the United

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Kalapuyans: Seasonal Lifeways, TEK, Anthropocene

Kalapuyan History (summary) From original 25,000 Kalapuyan people (estimated) in 19 tribes and bands, they were reduced to about 800 by 1850 through diseases like malaria. The loss of population caused cultural collapse and the confederation of many different villages to a very few. This left the land open to settlement from other tribes and American settlers. Americans encountered a park-like setting, a vast flat clear prairie with a mild climate and plenty of water, perfect for agriculture. The collapse of Native culture caused the collapse of most maintenance of the environment. The Tribes were removed to the Reservations in 1856, after signing treaties, the tribes of Western Oregon signed away 19 million acres for 1.16 million acres for reservations for collectively .02 an acre. Labeled as Hunter-Gatherers by Anthropologists; under examination, the Kalapuyans appear to be more complex than that simple definition. Kalapuyan Seasonal Round All tribes in Oregon had the practice of the seasonal round. This is a complex

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Are We Now Colonizing Ourselves!?

Native peoples are quick to note how colonization of tribal lands and societies has caused numerous problems. Colonization removed the agency of the original peoples and places it with the colonizers. The Colonizers, normally people of European origin, but really any expansionist nation, take control of vast areas of land and enslave Native peoples, commit genocide to the point that they are kept under control and afraid to revolt, and then The colonizers replace the society and culture with that of the Colonizers. Colonization occurs in physical and psychological levels. People become physically constrained in what they can do and accomplish, and colonizing practices, like assimilation, work to create cultural change and cultural modification in the children of the native peoples. The next generation are culturally much more integrated with the colonizing society around them.and at some point the descendants become culturally the same as their colonizers. In Oregon, this change happened over the course of 5 or 6 generations.

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