Decolonizing Anthropology : An Introduction

Decolonization has been a buzzword in anthropology for decades. This groundbreaking volume offers not only an anthropology of decolonization, but new ways of thinking about the relationship between anthropology and colonialism, and how we might move beyond colonialism’s troubling legacy, particularly in the metropole. Soumhya Venkatesan argues that the word ‘decolonization’ is simultaneously too broad and too narrow. In compelling prose, she describes the work already underway and the work still needed – in research, writing and teaching – to extend the horizons of the discipline. She explores a range of concepts including Achille Mbembe’s disenclosure, Cheryl Mattingly’s moral experiments, Miranda Fricker’s epistemic justice, and Gurminder Bhambra’s epistemological justice, and domestication. Throughout, she emphasises the potential of ethnography as a way of both knowing diverse worlds and of being with others in them. Rich with insights from a range of fields, ‘Decolonizing Anthropology’ is a go-to book for students and scholars.