Crossing Colonial Historiographies

This book offers an innovative engagement with the diverse histories of colonial and indigenous medicines. Engagement with different kinds of colonialism and varied indigenous socio-political cultures has led to a wide range of approaches and increasingly distinct traditions of historical writing about colonial and indigenous modes of healing have emerged in the various regions formerly ruled by different colonial powers. The volume offers a much-needed opportunity to explore new conceptual perspectives and encourages critical reflection on how scholars’ research specialisms have influenced their approaches to the history of medicine and healing. The book includes contributions on different geographical regions in Asia, Africa and the Americas and within the varied contexts of Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch and British colonialisms. It deals with issues such as internal colonialism, the plural history of objects, transregional circulation and entanglement, and the historicisation of medical historiography. The chapters in the volume explore the scope for conceptual interaction between authors from diverse disciplines and different regions, highlighting the synergies and thematic commonalities as well as differences and divergences.

Since the 1950s historians of the colonial era in North, South and Central America have extended the frontiers of basic general knowledge enormously; this rich historiographical tradition has generated robust methodological discussions about how to study the European encounter in the light of the experience of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. By bringing together major research reviews by a series of leading scholars, this volume makes it possible to compare directly approaches relating to colonial North America, Brazil, the Spanish borderlands, and the Caribbean.

"This book examines the evolving representations of the colonial past from the mid-19th century up to decolonisation in the 1960s and 70s - the so-called era of Modern Imperialism - in post-war history textbooks from across the world. The aim of the book is to examine the evolving outlook of colonial representations in history education and the underpinning explanations for the specific outlook in different - former colonizer and colonised - countries (to be found in collective memory, popular historical culture, social representations, identity-building processes, and the state of historical knowledge within academia). The approach of the book is novel and innovative in different ways. First of all, given the complexity of the research, an original interdisciplinary approach has been implemented, which brings together historians, history educators and social psychologists to examine representations of colonialism in history education in different countries around the world while drawing on different theoretical frameworks. Secondly, given the interest in the interplay between collective memory, popular historical culture, social representations, and the state of historical knowledge within academia, a diachronic approach is implemented, examining the evolving representations of the colonial past, and connecting them to developments within society at large and academia"--

The key question for many anthropologists and historians today is not whether to cross the boundary between their disciplines, but whether the idea of a disciplinary boundary should be sustained. Reinterpreting the dynamic interplay between archive and field, these essays propose a method for mutually productive crossings between historical and ethnographic research. It engages critically with the colonial pasts of indigenous societies and examines how fieldwork and archival studies together lead to fruitful insights into the making of different colonial historicities. Timor-Leste's unusually long and in some ways unique colonial history is explored as a compelling case for these crossings.

Sources and Methods in Histories of Colonialism encourages readers to think more critically and analytically about the archives in which they work as well as about their research methods, their sources and their conceptual approaches. This volume provides an in-depth and critical survey of the now substantial and influential scholarly literatures on the functions and scope of the 'imperial archive' and on the relationships between the archive, knowledge and power. It allows readers to develop a deeper understanding of the challenges of working with a range of specific source genres within imperial and colonial archives. It explores the ways in which newer approaches to, and ways of thinking about, the past have challenged more traditional views of 'the archive', provoking new questions about what archives are and where their conceptual, geographical and chronological boundaries might lie. And, it assesses the implications of these shifts for those interested in researching and writing about colonial and postcolonial societies. Focusing on the period from the late eighteenth century to the present, the authors examine issues, themes and case studies pertaining to a broad range of modern empires including those established by Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States. The source genres discussed illustrate and exemplify a range of core themes and debates regarding the writing of colonial and postcolonial histories, covering a range of subjects including government papers, censuses, petitions, case-files, and orality. Many of the chapters combine an overview of the current state of research and writing about a particular source genre or conceptual theme with a case study. This combination of overview and case study will enable readers to explore and examine the issues in a grounded, hands-on and applied fashion.

Sources and Methods in Histories of Colonialismprovides an in-depth study of the relationships between archives, knowledge and power. Exploring a diverse range of examples and surveying the now substantial scholarly literatures on the functions and scope of the 'imperial archive', it facilitates a deeper understanding of the challenges of working with a range of specific source genres within imperial and colonial archives. Covering the late eighteenth century to the present day and drawing on material from a range of modern empires including those established by Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States, chapters discuss themes such as the emergence of photography as an archival tool, the use of oral history in histories of colonialism and the ways in which the state informs the archive and vice versa. This book considers the ways in which newer ways of thinking about the past have challenged more traditional views of 'the archive', provoking questions about what archives are and where their conceptual, geographical and chronological boundaries lie. Examining a wide selection of source material including government papers, censuses, petitions and case files and providing both an overarching introduction to the subject and close analysis of specific case studies, this book will be essential reading for students of imperial and colonial history.