In the Museum of Man

Race, Anthropology, and Empire in France, 1850–1950

Nonfiction, History, France
Cover of the book In the Museum of Man by Alice L. Conklin, Cornell University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Alice L. Conklin ISBN: 9780801469039
Publisher: Cornell University Press Publication: December 15, 2009
Imprint: Cornell University Press Language: English
Author: Alice L. Conklin
ISBN: 9780801469039
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication: December 15, 2009
Imprint: Cornell University Press
Language: English

In the Museum of Man offers new insight into the thorny relationship between science, society, and empire at the high-water mark of French imperialism and European racism. Alice L. Conklin takes us into the formative years of French anthropology and social theory between 1850 and 1900; then deep into the practice of anthropology, under the name of ethnology, both in Paris and in the empire before and especially after World War I; and finally, into the fate of the discipline and its practitioners under the German Occupation and its immediate aftermath.Conklin addresses the influence exerted by academic networks, museum collections, and imperial connections in defining human diversity socioculturally rather than biologically, especially in the wake of resurgent anti-Semitism at the time of the Dreyfus Affair and in the 1930s and 1940s. Students of the progressive social scientist Marcel Mauss were exposed to the ravages of imperialism in the French colonies where they did fieldwork; as a result, they began to challenge both colonialism and the scientific racism that provided its intellectual justification. Indeed, a number of them were killed in the Resistance, fighting for the humanist values they had learned from their teachers and in the field. A riveting story of a close-knit community of scholars who came to see all societies as equally complex, In the Museum of Man serves as a reminder that if scientific expertise once authorized racism, anthropologists also learned to rethink their paradigms and mobilize against racial prejudice—a lesson well worth remembering today.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In the Museum of Man offers new insight into the thorny relationship between science, society, and empire at the high-water mark of French imperialism and European racism. Alice L. Conklin takes us into the formative years of French anthropology and social theory between 1850 and 1900; then deep into the practice of anthropology, under the name of ethnology, both in Paris and in the empire before and especially after World War I; and finally, into the fate of the discipline and its practitioners under the German Occupation and its immediate aftermath.Conklin addresses the influence exerted by academic networks, museum collections, and imperial connections in defining human diversity socioculturally rather than biologically, especially in the wake of resurgent anti-Semitism at the time of the Dreyfus Affair and in the 1930s and 1940s. Students of the progressive social scientist Marcel Mauss were exposed to the ravages of imperialism in the French colonies where they did fieldwork; as a result, they began to challenge both colonialism and the scientific racism that provided its intellectual justification. Indeed, a number of them were killed in the Resistance, fighting for the humanist values they had learned from their teachers and in the field. A riveting story of a close-knit community of scholars who came to see all societies as equally complex, In the Museum of Man serves as a reminder that if scientific expertise once authorized racism, anthropologists also learned to rethink their paradigms and mobilize against racial prejudice—a lesson well worth remembering today.

More books from Cornell University Press

Cover of the book Antifundamentalism in Modern America by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book Damned Women by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book Banished to the Great Northern Wilderness by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book Faithful Narratives by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book War and Shadows by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book Creating Cistercian Nuns by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book Joyce by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book Landscapes of the Jihad by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book Unfinished Business by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book Women's Work and Chicano Families by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book Vico and Naples by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book Demanding Devaluation by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book Disability and Employer Practices by Alice L. Conklin
Cover of the book Buoyancy on the Bayou by Alice L. Conklin
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy