Savaging civilization

Michel-Rolph Trouillot and the anthropology of the West

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3877594
AutoresHarvey R Neptune (Temple University), Harvey Neptune (0009-0005-3574-3175, Temple University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2014
Volumen26
Número2
Páginas219-234
Fecha de publicación2014-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCultural Dynamics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0921-3740 • E-ISSN: 1461-7048
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0921374014526026
OpenAlexW2312429452
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas27

Given the risk of a diminishing interpretation of the accomplishment and ambition of Michel-Rolph Trouillot, his scholarly project can be profitably framed as a subversively ironic "Anthropology of the West." Formal affiliation with Caribbean studies aside, Trouillot increasingly directed his versatile and formidable intellectual talents toward challenging the universal conceits of the "North Atlantic." Especially in the publications that appeared in the wake of the Cold War (namely, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, and Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World), he undertook a knowing interrogation of the narratives, concepts, and knowledge-making procedures that have legitimated the worldly power of this geopolitical province. A potently witty and learned critic of the tales that the West has told the world (and itself) about itself, Trouillot undertook the near "unthinkable": conceiving of North Atlantic centers of "civilization" as fields-however powerful-inhabited by "natives" of a kind, he intellectually savaged Western "civilization

American studies · Aside · Geopolitics · Interrogation · Michel foucault · Western culture · Caribbean and African Literature and Culture · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade