POST-ANTHROPOLOGY

Keynote address by Maximilian C. Forte delivered by video to the 8th Annual Public Anthropology Conference, "(Re)Defining Power: Paradigms of Praxis," American University, Washington, DC, 14-16 October, 2011.

To get to anthropology after empire, do we need an anti-imperialist anthropology? What does "decolonized anthropology" mean? Where do we find colonialism in contemporary anthropology?

"The critique of neocolonialism is about a vision of self-rule that is more like management of locals on behalf of foreign interests, with some locals of course benefiting immensely from such arrangements. Ultimately it is about the continuation of colonialism by other means, a force felt, observed, and spoken about worldwide."

"Immanuel Wallerstein's view of "culture" is especially attuned to its politicization, as an ideological construct, and as a weapon in contemporary civilizational debates in the capitalist world-system-culture as the ideological battlefield of the modern world system, as he says. It is a view of culture that I had adopted from before I entered anthropology for the first time, as a graduate student. One of Wallerstein's favourite quotes is this: "Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun""

The eighth post in the Zero Series, introducing the work of Vassos Argyrou.

The seventh post in the Zero Series

(The sixth post in the Zero Series) 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)

The fifth post in the Zero Series begins the process of locating the emergence of institutionalized anthropology, not so much in the "history of ideas," as much as in the history of the expanding capitalist world-system. Also, see the video prepared specially for this essay.

In this, the fourth post in the Zero Series, we consider some of the limitations of our main concepts and terms that link anthropology and imperialism. This post effectively ends the "introduction" of the Zero Series.

The third post in the Zero Series, a kind of extended footnote to expand on some of the statements made in the second post.

The second post in the Zero Series, this one dealing with problems and questions concerning the conceptualization of anthropology's relationship with imperialism and colonialism.

First post in the Zero Series

Introducing the "zero series" of essays toward a post-anthropology

Max Forte's List: Activist Anthropology - Materials on publicly engaged, radical, activist anthropology in institutional, applied, and public settings.

Max Forte's List: Twitter for Education - Uses of Twitter for teaching and educational purposes.

Max Forte's List: Militarized Academia, Imperial Anthropology - The many different ways in which anthropologists and academics more generally serve the military-information complex in counterinsurgency, intelligence, national security, and domestic propaganda.

Max Forte's List: Anthropology and "Islamic Radicalization" - Using anthropology as a weapon against Muslim minorities and to counter the perceived "threat" of "Islamic radicalization" - anthropology as an unethical tool used in the "war on terror."