N.W. Thomas and colonial anthropology in British West Africa
Reappraising a cautionary tale
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9284751 |
|---|---|
| Authors | P Basu (0000-0002-4536-9528, School of Oriental and African Studies Department of Anthropology and Sociology, School of Oriental and Africa Studies, University of London Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square London WC1H 0XG UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 84-107 |
| Publication date | 2015-12-09 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1359-0987 • E-ISSN: 1467-9655 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9655.12335 |
| OpenAlex | W2191330384 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 29 |
As the first government anthropologist to be appointed by the British Colonial Office, Northcote Whitridge Thomas (1868‐1936) has earned a place in the footnotes of anthropological history. Historians of the discipline have discussed his career in West Africa in their wider explorations of the relationship between anthropology and colonial administration in the early twentieth century. Through this work, an orthodox account of Thomas has emerged as an eccentric dilettante who damaged the reputation of the discipline, setting back its adoption as a practical science of value to colonial governance by a generation or more. Adopting a micro‐historical approach, closer scrutiny of the archival evidence challenges this orthodoxy, and places Thomas more centrally within the professional networks and practices of British anthropology in the period 1900 to 1915. As well as correcting the record concerning Thomas's professional reputation, a more complex picture emerges regarding the colonial authorities’ attitudes towards anthropology and the reason why this early experiment in colonial anthropology failed
Applied anthropology · Archaeology · Colonialism · Government (linguistics · History of anthropology · Orthodoxy · Political science · Scrutiny · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Law · Philosophy
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Voicing silences in the colonial photographic archive
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Difficult Folk?
The Ethnography of cannibalism
A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term
Kinship Organisations and Group Marriage in Australia
Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter
Preface to Osiris XI
Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge
Establishing the Facts
Before Social Anthropology
Emil Torday and the Art of the Congo, 1900-1909
The Building of British Social Anthropology
Colonial Subjects
Secret Societies in West Africa
On the limits of 'presentism' and 'historicism' in the historiography of the behavioral sciences
The Expansive Moment
The Rationalization of Anthropology and Administration
Practical Anthropology
Beyond Presentism and Historicism
Global 'experts' and 'African' minds
Photographic Uncertainties
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2025 (9) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |