Europe's Indians

Seth Vanita Seth

Description

Europe's Indians forces a rethinking of key assumptions regarding difference-particularly racial difference-and its centrality to contemporary social and political theory. Tracing shifts in European representations of two different colonial spaces, the New World and India, from the late fifteenth century through the late nineteenth, Vanita Seth demonstrates that the classification of humans into racial categories or binaries of self-other is a product of modernity. Part historical, part philosophical, and part a history of science, her account exposes the epistemic conditions that enabled the thinking of difference at distinct historical junctures. Seth's examination of Renaissance, Classical Age, and nineteenth-century representations of difference reveals radically diverging forms of knowing, reasoning, organizing thought, and authorizing truth. It encompasses stories of monsters, new worlds, and ancient lands; the theories of individual agency expounded by Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau; and the physiological sciences of the nineteenth century. European knowledge, Seth argues, does not reflect a singular history of Reason, but rather multiple traditions of reasoning, of historically bounded and contingent forms of knowledge. Europe's Indians shows that a history of colonialism and racism must also be an investigation into the historical production of subjectivity, agency, epistemology, and the body.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Ethnic studies

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 03 août 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822392941
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Europe’s Indians

poli ti cs, hi story, and culture A series from the International Institute at the University of Michigan seri es edi tors Steinmetz and Julia Adams George seri es edi tori al advi sory board Fernando Coronil Nancy Rose Hunt Julie Skurski Mamadou Diouf Andreas Kalyvas Margaret Somers Michael Dutton Webb Keane Ann Laura Stoler Geoff Eley David Laitin Katherine Verdery Fatma Müge Göcek Lydia Liu Elizabeth Wingrove

Sponsored by the International Institute at the University of Michigan and published by Duke University Press, this series is centered around cultural and historical studies of power, politics and the state—a field that cuts across the disciplines of history, sociology, anthropol ogy, political science, and cultural studies. The focus on the relationship between state and culture refers both to a methodological approach—the study of politics and the state using culturalist methods—and a substantive one that treats signifying practices as an essential dimension of politics. The dialectic of politics, culture, and history figures prominently in all the books selected for the series.

Europe’s Indians p r o d u c i n g r a c i a l d i f f e r e n c e , 1 5 0 0 – 1 9 0 0 j Vanita Seth duke university press Durham & London2010

©2010Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acidfree paperb Designed by Jennifer Hill Typeset in Dante by Achorn International

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

Dedicated to my father, Sushil, and in loving memory of my mother, Vimal

c o n t e n t s

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 and Similitude Self 19 renaissance representations of the new world

2 Individuals and “Creating” History “Constructing” 61 subjectivity in hobbes, locke, and rousseau

3  Traditions of History 119 mapping india’s past

4 Monsters and Man Of 173 the peculiar history of r ace

Epilogue 227

Notes 233

Bibliography 259

Index 279

a c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

one of the heroic the modern age is that of themythical figures of Author, a solitary individual who, through research, contemplation, and angst, produces works of originality. Thankfully, the genre known as the “acknowledgments” puts any such selfdelusions to rest. This work is the product of institutional support, the generosity of colleagues and friends, and the patience and love of family. From its birth as a dissertation to its metamorphosis as a book, this proj ect has benefited from the support of a number of institutions. The Po litical Science Department at the University of Melbourne housed me as a graduate student, and it was there that I returned as an honorary visiting scholar in the summer of2002. The Government Department at the Uni versity of Sydney offered a similar invitation in2003. I am grateful to both institutions for their generous sharing of resources and the collegiality of both faculty and staff. At the University of California, Santa Cruz (ucsc), where the thesis slowly morphed into a manuscript, I thank the Commit tee on Research for funding my overseas research in2003 and2004. The staff at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and the India Office Li brary, London, made such research as painless as possible. A special thank you also to Patricia Sanders and Marianna Santana for their editorial and