The internal other: economic and social differences as signs of primitiveness in late nineteenth century Europe.

Summary

In current research on the history of archaeological and anthropological representations it is still common to impose a neat boundary between studies of colonial and metropolitan areas. However, this separation is contradictory, with frequent cultural analogies and methodological transferences established between these two areas during the nineteenth century. In this paper it will be argued that there was a common ideological foundation that has determined the direction of research in both areas. The description of lower classes and marginal groups in terms of degeneration and the primitive, and their comparisons with societies in colonial regions will be considered. It will be suggested that this should be interpreted as a process of internal colonization in which anthropology and archaeology played an active role. The final aim is to recall the importance of economic and social issues for the study of domination, and the necessity to overcome strict cultural definitions which usually reproduce colonial categories.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Late Empires: the archaeology of recent colonialism and imperialism - 1860s to the present   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 722