Time's Arrow

Violence and Ethnohistorical Surrealism in the Lost Colony

Bibliographic Data

ID18970684
AuthorsMichael E Harkin (University of Wyoming, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume34
Issue1
Pages11-20
Publication date2009-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology & Humanism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1548-1409 • E-ISSN: 1559-9167
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1548-1409.2009.01019.x
OpenAlexW1690658335
LanguageEN
References cited16

Standard ethnohistorical accounts of colonial encounters downplay violence and genocide in the interest of holistic ethnographic accounts. In particular, “upstreaming” is a technique that attempts to sublimate violence into interpretations of ethnological understanding. An argument is made for “ethnohistorical surrealism” as a methodology for preserving the ruptures of colonial contact. The principle of incommensurability is an important driver for the transformation of contact zone exchange systems into structures of violence. Drawing on Bataille's reading of the potlatch, exchange systems based on unreturnable gifts produce abjection in the recipient, which results in cycles of violence and ultimately subjection

Archaeology · Argument (complex analysis) · Arrow · Colonialism · Ethnography · Genocide · Political science · Reading (process) · Sociology · African Studies and Ethnography · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Computer Science · Cultural Identity and Heritage · History · Law

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