CHAPTER 3 Colonizing Knowledges We bane « history of people putting Moort under 2 micrscope in the came may 2 science leaks at on tse. The ones doing the leaking are ging thssseles the poner to define Merate Mia! In the previous chapter the metaphor of an archive was used to convey the sense by which the West drew upon a vast history of itself and muhiple waditions of knowledge which incorporate cultural views of reality, of time and space. This chapter axgues that the form of imperialism which indigenous peoples are confronting now emerged from that period of European history known as the Enlightenment. The+ Enlightenment provided the spirit, the impemus, the confidence, and the political and economic stractares that facilitated the search for new knowledges. The project of the Enlightenment is often referred t0 35 ‘modernity’ and itis that project which is claimed to have provided the stimulus for the industrial revolution, the philosophy of iberalisea, the development of disciplines in the sciences and the development of public education. Imperialism underpinned and was exitical to these developments. Whilst imperialism is often thoughe of as a syscem which drew everthing back into the centre, ir was also a system which distibured meterials and ideas outwards. Said’s notion of ‘positional superiority’ is useful here for conceptualizing the ways ia which know- ledge and culture were as much part of imperialism as raw materials and military strength. Knowledge was also there to be discovered, extracted, appropsiated and distributed. Processes for enabling these things © ‘occur became organized and systematic. They not only informed the field of study referved co by Said as ‘Orientalism’ but other disciplines of knowledge and ‘regimes of truth’. It is through these disciplines that the indigenous world has been rspresented to the West and it is through these disciplines thar indigenous peoples often research for the fragments se COLONIZING KNOWLEDGES 39 of ourselves which were taken, catalogued, stadied and stored. It is not the intention of this chapter to tell the history of Western knowledge but rather to draw that history down into the colonized woud, show the relationship between knowledge, zesearch and imperialism, and then discuss the ways in which it has come co structuse our own ways of knowing, through the development of academic disciplines and through. the education of colonial elites and indigenous or ‘sative’ intellecmals. ‘Western knowledge and science are “beneficiasies’ of the colonization of indigenous peoples. The knowledge gained through our colonization has been used, in turn, to colonize us in what Ngugi wa Thiong’o calls the colonization ‘of the mind’? Establishing the Positional Supesiority of Wester Knowledge “The project of modemaity signalled the ead of feudalism and absolutise sothorigy, legitimated by divine rule, aad announced the beginning of the modern stare. The new stats formation had to meet the requirements of an expanding economy based on major improvements ia production. ‘The industeal revolution changed and made new demands upon the individual and the poltiesl system. The modezn state vas wrested fom the old regime of absolutise monarchs by the articulation of liberal politcal and economic theories” As a system of ideas, lberaism focuses fn the individual, who bas the capacity to season, on a society which promotes individual abtonomy and sel&interest, and on a state which hias a sadonal rule of law which regulates public sphere of life, bat which allows individeals to pursue their econdmie selfinterest, Once it vwas accepted that bumans Fad che capacity to reason and to attain this potential dhrough education, through « systematic form of organizing knowledge, thea it became possible to debate these ideas in rstional and ‘scientific’ ways. ‘The development of scientific thought, the exploration and ‘discovery’ by Europeans of other worlds, the expansion of trade, che establishment of colonies, and the systematic colonization of indigenous peoples in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are all facets of the modemist project. Medemism is more than a representation of fiagmens from che cultural archive in aew coatexts,‘Discoveres’ about and from the ‘new’ world expanded and challenged ideas the West held about itself The production of knowledge, new Knowledge and transformed ‘old’ knowledge, ideas about the nature of knowledge and the validiy of specific forms of knowledge, became as mach commodiscs of colonial” exploitetion as other naturil resources Indigenous peoples were classified alongside the flora and fauna; hierarchical ypologies of humanity aad systems of representation were60 DECOLONIZING METHODOLOGIES fuelled by new discoveries; and cultaral maps were charted and teritoties limed and contested by the major Buropean powers. Hence some indigenous peoples were ranked above others in tezms of such things as the bela? that they were ‘neatly burmarr, ‘almost human’ or ‘sob-human’. This often depended on whether ic was chought that che peoples concerned possessed a ‘soul and could thesefore be ‘offered Ecivation and whether or aot they were educable and could be offered Schooling, These systems for aganting, cassifing and storing acwr Knowledge, and for theotiring the meinings ‘of such discoveries, constiated research. In a colonial context, however, this esearch was adeniably also about power sad domisacon. ‘The instruments or cechnologies of ‘esearch were also insromenss of knowledge and insumments for Jegidmating various colonial practices. “The imaginary line beroeen ‘east and ‘est, raw in 1493 by a Papal Bull, allowed for che pola] division of the world and the stugle by competing Western staes to evtblich what Sad has refered (0 as @ “fenible positonel supedority over the known, and yet to become known, world This postional supedority was contested at several lovls by European powers, These imaginary boundaries were dcawn again in Berlin in 1954 when European powers sot around the table once moze to catve up Afsica and other parts of thei? empires, They contioue 10 be redsawn, Impediliam aad colonialism are the specific formadons through which the West came to ‘set’, to ‘name’ and to ‘know jndigenovs commonities. The caltural sichive ‘with its. systems of representation, codes for unlocking systems of lassifcation, and Hagmented artefacts of knowledge enabled travelers and observers 0 rake sense of what they saw and to represent their new-found knowledge back to che West through the authorship and authority of their repeesenations. ‘While colonialism at an economic level, incloding ies olimate expression through siavey, opened op new auterials for explokation tnd new markers for tide, at a cultoral level, ideas, images aod experiences abour the Other helped to shape and delineate the essential Aifferences besween Eusope and the fest. Notions about she Other, ‘which already existed in the European imagination, were secast the framework of Enlightenment philosophies, che iadustcal revolotion and the scientific ‘discoveries’ of the eighteenth and nineteenth Centuries, "When disousing the scientific foundations of Westem research, the indigenous coatsibution to these Soundations is rarely mentioned, To have acknowledged their conuibaon would, in erms Of the rules of research practice, be as legitimate as acknowicdging the ‘contribution of a variety of plant, a sherd of pottery or a preserved head of a native to research. Fusthermore, scoording to Bazin, “Europeans 7? conomizine KNOWLEDGES a could not even imagine that other people could exer-have done things ‘before or better than themselves.’ The objects of zesearch do not have ‘a voice and do not contsbute to sesearch or science. In fact, the logic Of the argument would suggest that it is simply impossible, ridiculous leven, 10 suggest that the object of research can contribute to anything. ‘An object has no life force, no humanity, no spirit ofits own, so there fore §P cannot make an active contibution. This perspective is not deliberately insensitive; itis simply chat the rules did.notallow such a thought 2 enter the scene. Thus, indigenous Asian, American, Pacific and Aftican forms of knowledge, systems of classification, technologies and codes of social life, which began to be recorded in some detail by the seventeenth century, were regarded as ‘new discoveries’ by Western science These discoveries vere commodified as property belonging to the calcul archive and body of knowledge of the West? ‘The cighteeoth and nineteenth centaries also constituted an ea of highly competitive ‘collecting. Many indigenous people might call cis ‘stealing? rather than ‘collecting’. This included the collecting of tesri- tories, of new species of flor and fauna, of mineral resources and of cultures. James Clifford, for example, refers to ethnography as a science which was 12) form of culture collecting ... which) highlights the ways char diverse experiences and facs are selected, gathered, deached fiom their orginal temporal occasions, aod given chdusing value in a acw arrangement. Collecing ~ at least ia the West, where time is generally thought to be lincar and icreverible ~ implies 4 rescue of phenomena fom inevitable historical decay or Joes!" “The idea that collecrors were actualy rescuing artefacts from decay and destruction, and from indigenous peoples themselves, legiimated practices which also inchided commercial tade and plain and simple theft. Cleasy, in corms of teade indigenous peoples were often active erticipants, in some cases delivering ‘made to order’ goods. The different agendas and sivalsies of indigenous groups were also known £0 have been incorporated into the commercial activities of Europeans. Hence, muskets could be traded and then ued to pursue traditional ‘enemics or one group of people could be used to caprare and assis ia the enslavement of another group who were also hex traditional rivals. Indigenous property is stil said to be housed in ‘collections’, which in rum are housed either in museums or private guleses, and art and artefacts ae often grouped and clasified in the aame of ther ‘collector. These collections have become the focus of indigenous peoples’ attempts to reclaim ancestal remains and other cultura items (kaowa in the West as ‘artefacts) belonging to their people.oe DECOLONIZING METHODOLOGIES Ie is important to remember, however, that colonialism was sot just about collection. It was also about rearrangement, re-presentation and re-distribution. For example, plant species were taken by Joseph Banks for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Here they could be ‘grown, studied, and disbursed to the colonia! stations, « centre of plant transfers, ‘on the scientific level, and of the generation and publication of know- ledge about plants’. The British Empire became a global laboratory fox zesearch aad development. New species of plants and animale were Inwoduced to the colonies to facilitate development and to ‘strengthen’ indigenous species. This point is worth remembering as it contrasts with, the view, sometimes refered co as a diffusionist explanation, that Knowledge, people, flora and fauna simply disbursed themselves around the world. This botanical colonization had already been successfully cactied out in other places: for example, maize, sweet potatoss, and tobacco from South America had been widely diseribured. In the centre of this collection and distribution network was the imperial ‘home’ country. The colonies were peripheral sutellizes which gained access 29 these new knowledges and technologies through ‘recourse to the ‘writiags of authors in the centre’? One effect of this system of redistribution was the interference caused by new species to the ecologies of their new environments and the eventual extinction of several species of bitd and animal life. In the case of New Zealand, Checeyl Smith argues that, ecologically, the indigenous world was colonized by weeds. ‘Among the cther significant consequences of ecological impecialism ~ carsied by humans, as well as by plants and animals — were the viral and bacterial diseases which devastated indigenous populations. This devastation or genocide was, in the accounte of many indigenous peoples, used deliberately as a weapon of war. Stories aze told in Canada, for example, of blankets used by smallpox vietims being sent into First Nation communities while che soldiers and seulers camped outside ‘waiting for che people to.die, There were several ideologies which legitimated the Western impact on indigenous health and well-being. ‘These supported sacial views already in place but which in the later sinezcenth cearuny became increasingly legiimated by the ‘scientific’ ‘views of social Danwinisn. The concept of the ‘survival of the Sites? used to explain the evolution of species in the natural world, was applied ‘enthusiastically wo the human world. It became a very powerful belief that indigenous peoples. were inherently weak and therefore, at some point, would dic out. There were debates about how this could be prevented, for example, chrough miscegenation and cultural assimilation, and whether this, in fact, was ‘desirable’. judgements on these issues circled back or depended upon prior considerations 25 to whether she i COLONSZING KNOWLEDGES 8 indigenous group concemed had souls, could be saved, and also could be redeemed culturally. Induential debates on these matters by Catholic scholars such as Bartolome de Las Casas took place dusing the sitecath century. In nineteenth-centucy New Zealand some of the debates delved ght down into che supposed fecundity rates of indigenoas women and the beter prospects fo: zaial survival if miscegenation occusred. There ‘were very serious scientific views put forward (0 accouat for the demise — of the indigenous populations. Some views included: sterility caused by the ‘Tcentionsaess’ of the women, 2 vegetable diet, infanticide and abortion. Other causes were put down to # sense of hopelessness’ and lack of spirit, which came about through contact with ‘cvlization’? Bur there were also state polices (Federal, provineial and local) of ‘enign neglect’ which involved minimal invervenson (the ‘infected blanke? strategy) while people suffered and died. There were also more proactive policies based around such ideas as “Manifest Destiny’ which sanctioned the taking of indigenous lands by aay means.* Ward Churchill and other indigenous writers classify these actions as part of the Columbian legacy of genocide.” In relation to the diseases and dis- case which the West is said to have introduced to indigenous peoples, the bigger question has always been the extent co which the impact of disease is an inevitable consequence of contact with the West. The signifi cance of the issues which this question raises emerges when we examine, jin a later chapter, the world-wide search cuereatly being undertaken amongst indigenous populations for genetic solutions to Wessern dis- ‘eases. Aborigine activist Bobbi Sykes has an ‘acid tes?’ for the Western impacs of indigenous health which consists of ewo lists one 2 list of diseases introduced by Europeans to Aboriginal people, che other a list of diseases introduced by Aboriginal people 20 Europeans. There are 20 items listed on the second list. That empty space tells avery potent so ‘The globalization of knowledge and Western culture constantly sealfirms the West's view of itself as the centre of legitimate knowledge, the arbiter. of what counts as knowledge and the source of ‘civilized? Knowiedge. This form of global knowledge is generally referred to as, ‘universal knowlege, svailable to al and not zealy ‘owned’ by anyone, thar is, uatl non-Western scholars make claims to it. When aims bike that are made history is revised (again) so, that the story of civilization remains the story of the West. For this purpose, the Mediterranean ‘world, the basin of Arabie culture and the lands east of Constantinople are conveniently appropriated as part of the story of Western civilization, ‘Western philosophy and Western knowledge. Through imperialism, however, these cultures, peoples and their nation siases were re. positioned as ‘oriental, oF ‘outsider in order wo legitimate the imposition of colonial rale. For indigenous peoples from other places, the real