Kuklick, Henrika

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ScholarlyCommons@Penn

History of Anthropology NewsletterVolume 2Issue 2 Summer 1975 Article 91-1-1975The Social Context of Social Science: OfficalAnthropology in the British EmpireHenrika KuklickThis paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/han/vol2/iss2/9For more information, please contact repository@pobox.upenn.edu.14 Popkin, Richard, "The Philosophical Basis of Eighteenth-century Racism", pp. 245-262 in H. E. Pagliaro, ed., Racism in the Eighteenth Century (Cleveland: Western Reserve, 1973). Rowe, John H., "The Spelling of Anthropology Newsletter 16 (#6, 1975), 11-12. Speth, William, "Friedrich Ratzel and the Shaping of American Anthropology," Proceedings, Association of American Geographers (in press). Voget, Fred W., A History of Ethnology (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975). Weber, Gay, "Science and Society in Nineteenth Century Anthropology," History of Science 12(1974), 260-283. RESEARCH IN PROGRESS I. THE SOCIAL CON'I'E2IT OF SOCIAL SCIENCE: OFFICIAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE Henrika Kuklick University of Pennsylvania The social scientist castigating himself for the unconscionable application of his research has becane a frequent spectacle nowadays, and the anthropologist has been perhaps the most enthusiastic self-flagellant (cf. Talal Asad, ed., Ant..'h..ropology a.11d t..l-J.e Colo:ro.ial Dell Hymes, ed., Reinventing Anthropology; and in general, the colms of the New York Review of Books). rnm project is designed to question the received opinions about the relationship of anthropology and British colonialism during the inter-war period. This involves separating two questions which are usually treated as one: the effect of Colonial Office influence on the developrrent of academic anthropology; and the use of anthropological research by colonial governments. This separation is .irrpossible unless one avoids the mistake corrmon to much intellectual history: the tendency to ignore the actual content of ideas under study, and to presume that the proximity of bodies implies intellectual exchange between them. Many have argued that the coincidence of the daninance of functionalism in anthropology and Indirect Rule in administration is more than accidental. Malinowski indeed endorsed Indirect Rule and undertook an intensive campaign to convince colonial officials of the relevance of his work to theirs. The International African Institute, which embodied Malinowski's position, did in fact assume an .irrportant advisory role for the Colonial Office. By no later than 1929, the pe:rrnanent staff of the Colonial Office consulted Malinowski in outlining a training program for future colonial civil servants which stressed "the value and efficiency of customs and ideas rather than their history."'' Malinowski in fact made the c. 0. an ally in his battle for academic power; it repudiated the sort of work he deplored--historical evolutionary research. But despite spokesmen like Lord Lugard and Lord Hailey anthropology as mre useful than any used by administrators. Indeed, the social administrative officers who contributed t.o Africa and by by colonial gove:r:nm:mts to anthropological Meek, Rattray, and Cardinal!) was virtually It represents rather a condensed histo:cy anthropology. Du:!::'ing the inter-war period were still arguing whether the races of the separate species or a single and evolutionism, supplanted the old debate between mnogeni.sts and , was a working model. Insofar as colonial were affected by contemporary academic anthropology, it m.s mre by diffusioni.sm than by functionalism. Colonial research to be functionalist occasionally because functionalism at several points---such as notion of differentiation. Intellectually, the colonial consistent: their analyses mixed polygeni.st, diffusioni.st approaches haphazardly, even though these with each other. · Ghana does not conflict with with the Colonial Office had colonies. Administrators there large, centralized tribal states was both the of European culture contact, and Rattray research to uncover candidates for tribal took his practical anthropology District Commissioners to write essays. Superior officers periodically anthropological research projects. But directed the Gold Coast to adopt functionalism The restoration of the Ashanti Confederacy and political officers continued to even though they found that the resulting Not until the end of inte:rwar period that they were dramatically altering I propose to my research further in two ways. First, using the British archives, like to determine the degree to which the Colonial Office was eminence grise behind British anthropology. I e:xpect to demonstrate that government support was influential in British academia, but that connection did not lead to the use of academic research in colonial administration. Instead, colonial requirel"l.1!eTits fostered the creation an eclectic· anthropology. Secondly, I would like to do a detailed case-study of the country I kn<:M best (Ghana), and by systemically District Camnissioners 1 reports, to determine heM anthropology was applied in the field. 

The Social Context of Social Science: Offical Anthropology in the British Empire

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The Social Context of Social Science: Offical Anthropology in the British Empire

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