In a wide-ranging account of the development of ideas about human
difference, Nicholas Thomas challenges reigning theories that portray
colonialism as monolithic in character, purpose, and efficacy throughout
the world. Taking issue with such writers as Edward Said, Homi Bhabha,
and Gayatri Spivak, Thomas describes colonialism not so much as a
discourse but a project--a project in which the interactions among
colonizing and colonized people are far more variable and reveal greater
ambivalence than generally imagined. In addition to his review of
current literature in cultural studies, the author provides extended
reflections on photographs, colonial novels, exhibits of indigenous art,
ethnographic films, and recent Hollywood films in order to reveal how
deep and pervasive is colonialism's culture for colonizer and
colonized.Thomas proposes that historicized, ethnographic explorations
of the colonial experience are the most fruitful approaches to
understanding colonialism's continued effects. He draws on travel,
anthropology, and government as vehicles that gave nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century Europeans exposure to colonized populations and
provided a language through which to discuss them. The author reveals
colonialism to be a complex ongoing cultural process--one in which
dominated populations are represented in ways that play upon and
legitimize racial and cultural differences. A provocative book for
specialists, Colonialism's Culture can also serve as a stimulating
introduction for students across the social sciences and humanities
interested in this multifaceted field of inquiry.
