'Anthropology and Imperialism' Revisited

Author(s): Kathleen Gough

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 25, No. 31 (Aug. 4, 1990), pp. 1705-1708
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4396585
Accessed: 18-09-2016 21:22 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

Economic and Political Weekly is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Economic and Political Weekly

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Sun, 18 Sep 2016 21:22:30 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 PERSPECTIVES

however, with those who argue that the

'Anthropology and Imperialism' Soviet Union has practised imperialism in
eastern Europe and in some of its own

Revisited republics (although not, I would add, in

allied third world countries such as Cuba
or Vietnam). And I think that China has
Kathleen Gough
practised imperialism in Tibet, and has
tried to do so through its military and
economic support of the murderous
An article by the author in this journal in the late sixties noted
Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and through
that western anthropologists had neglected the study of its invasions and encroachments on
imperialism as a world system. The author suggests below that Vietnamese territory since the early 1970s.
this has been remedied, as various social and political movementsThe Soviet empire is now clearly breaking
up, while Chinese imperialist efforts in the
catalysed a corpus of social science literature and debate. This
Indochinese countries have met stiff and,
article examines demographic and economic indicators to highlight
one hopes, decisive resistance.
the changing character of developed and less developed capitalist Capitalist imperialism, however, is still
and socialist countries and its significance for social scientists.
flourishing. It operates especially through
the support, often covert, of governments
IN 1967 I wrote a paper, 'New Proposals which favour the interests of the US
Harner rose and stated: 'Genocide is not
for Anthropologists' for the Southwestern in the professional interests of anthro- capitalist class, and through the extraction
States Anthropological Association pologists! Against the chair's ruling, the of economic surplus from the dominated
meeting in San Francisco. I couldn't think countries by such means as withdrawal of
resolution was then passed by a large
of a journal in the United States that profits, unequal trade, and especially
majority. It was one of the first published
might be likely to publish it, and it was statements by a professional association recently, foreign debt.
published in Economic and Political against the war in Vietnam. There was of In my article 'Anthropology and Im-
Weekly. Monthly Review republishqd it an
course in enormous outcry against the perialism', I noted that western anthro-
1968 as 'Anthropology and Imperialism', war by the US public as well as by pro- pologists had neglected the study of im-
after which it was translated into several fessionals in later years. The Vietnam war perialism as a world system. I argued that
languages and reprinted many times. (or as the Vietnamese more properly call in most cases dependence on the im-
I- want first to briefly outline the pro- it, the US imperialist war) came to an end perialist powers of their own countries, yet
blems that were bothering me when I in 1975, after about two million Vietna- also on the goodwill of the people whose
wrote that paper and the historical mese had been killed and perhaps another cultures and societies they studied, had
background to it. I would then like to two million crippled. tended to produce either an attempt at
mention some of the kinds of work that By 'imperialism' I mean any social value-free social science (which is impossi-
have been done in North America since system in which the government and/or ble), or a kind of liberal benevolence in
1968 that are relevant to those problems. private property owners of one or more which anthropologists worked for reforms
Finally, I want to talk about some of the countries dominate the government and in dependent societies rather than con-
major changes in the world which have an people of one or more other countries or fronting the governments and the total
impact on our subject and our thinking. regions politically, militarily, economical- system in which they operated. I noted
'Anthropology and Imperialism' was ly, or socio-culturally (usually, all four of that because of anti-communism in the
written at the height of the war in those) to the detriment of most of the western imperialist countries, hardly any
Vietnam. My husband, David Aberle, and subordinated people's welfare. western anthropologists had done field-
I, along with a number of other anthro- For the last 400 years, most imperialism work in socialist societies, and that an-
pologists, had become deeply disturbed by has been capitalist. During this century, thropologists did not usually even use the
the evidence of wholesale destruction of capitalist imperialism has wreaked the work of journalists and others who had
territory, villages and people by US forces most harm and been responsible for the lived in and written about socialist coun-
in Vietnam, especially by the use of anti- most deaths through two world wars and tries or were associated with revolutionary
personnel weapons such as napalm, and almost countless 'minor' wars, as well as movements.

the defoliation of forests and cultivated through starvation, malnutrition, destruc- I tried to do a numerical calculation of
land. tion of traditional agriculture and in- the so-called third world or 'under-
In 1967 David Aberle presented a dustries, and political repression by developed' countries, the results of which
resolution at the annual meeting of the dependent, dictatorial governments. are presented in the accompanying table.
American Anthropological Association However, the Soviet Union and China I argued that shortly after World War II,
which condemned those weapons. To our have also practised forms of imperialism it had looked as if at least 37 per cent of
dismay, it was ruled out of order by thesince their revolutions. In 1967 I tended the third world population-for example
then chairperson, Frederica de la Guna, to neglect this phenomenon because I am in India, Indonesia, Egypt, etc-might
and vehemently opposed by Margaret a Marxist and was somewhat biased in my progress in mixed economies under
Mead, who argued that political resolu- outlook, and partly because I did not have .relatively independent governments, but
tions were 'not in the professional interests evidence that the USSR and China had that by the late 1960s, it seemed that those
of anthropologists'. There was a commo- extracted economic surplus from their countries, which I classified as 'less depen-
tion on the floor. David Aberle, Gerald dependencies, and so I tended to under- dent capitalist' were also coming more
Berreman and others argued against the estimate the politicai and cultural repres- and more under the sway of capitalist im-
chair, but the day was won when Michael sion that they had practised. I agree, perialism, especially from the US.

Economic and Political Weekly August 4, 1990 1705

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Sun, 18 Sep 2016 21:22:30 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 I noted that about one third of the third and spoke warmly of some of the reforms faculty committees from outside the
world populations had had revolutions that Fidel Castro had introduced. As a university had judged that we should be
and were moving towards socialism in result of this talk, the university president reinstated.
systems which I saw as relatively came down on me very severely. He made As a result of this fiasco, Simon Fraser
independent. it known that I would never receive a University was censured and boycotted for
About two per cent of the third world permanent appointment at Brandeis, and 15 years by most professional associations
people still lived in outright colonies in after a series of incidents may husband in the social sciences worldwide. The
1967, while about 28 per cent lived under and I were forced out of the university. We result for me, however, was that I could
governments which might be called 'neo- moved to the University of Oregon, but not find a regular teaching position locally
colonial'. as they were largely beholden to I was unable to find another regular until 1984, when the University of British
one or more imperialist powers and were teaching post until 1967. Columbia offered me a professorship. I
likely to collapse if imperialist military A different dilemma presented itself in didn't take it then, as I was nearly 60 and
and economic support were withdrawn. early 1967. The US government brought was in the midst of research in India and
Within this global setting, I noticed that in a ruling that students in universities and Vietnam.
in the late 1960s, at least 20 third world colleges would be classified by their draft Although these events were painful at
countries with a total population of266 boards in accordance with the grades that the time, I must note that I don't have the
million-11 per cent of the third world they received. In general, students in good need to self-pity, for I was able to obtain
population-possessed armed revolu- standing would be exempt from fighting grants and have had a wonderful time for
tionary socialist movements, while in Vietnam, but students who failed exams thirty years studying revolutionary
another 21 per cent of the third world would have to go. Feeling that this com- movements and societies. At times,
peoples had large, unarmed revolutionary promised the integrity of his subject and however, I have felt wistful because my
movements or parties with considerable gave him an unjustifiable right of life and contact with students has been so limited.
popular support. death over his students, David Aberle Some professors fared much worse than
It seemed to me that western anthro- refused to fail ahy of them, and I I did, and some chose or were forced to
pologists were entering a dilemma because informed my department that I would not leave the universities.
they worked increasingly in countries that grade the students in some sessional lec- In spite of such obstacles, universities
were undergoing revolutionary upheavals, tures that I was about to give. As a result, in North America are more open now
yet they were funded by and dependent on my appointment was withdrawn, and than they were in the 1960s, and research
counter-revolutionary, usually western, David faced the embarrassing prospect of on imperialism has increased enormously.
governments and universities. I suggested having other faculty grade his students. During the sixties, national liberation
that in spite of this dilemma, anlhro- In some other universities, a number of movements in the third world, the Black
pologists should try to study socialist faculty members were fired for refusing Liberation movement in the United States,
countries and revolutionary movements to grade their students. This situation con-
the Women's Liberation movement, and
with as little bias as possible. I also pro- tributed to our decision to move to the anti-war movement smashed the in-
posed trying to compare the effects of Canada. Ironically, the draft board regula-
tellectual strait-jacket that North
western capitalist and industrial socialist tion was withdrawn while we were leaving. Americans had suffered under since the
forms of influence on third world peoples, For me, however, Canada proved less McCarthy period, when Marxists and
for example, by comparing United States tharn hospitable for revolutionary many left-liberals were cleaned out of
influence on the Dominican Republic with socialists. I taught for two years at Simon universities and colleges-indeed, out of
Soviet influence on Cuba. Another sug- Fraser University in a department about most forms of employment. Because of
gestion was, that we try to test, through half of whose faculty were Marxists or left the shifts in power that occurred as a
research, Andre Gunder Frank's belief liberals. Too many extraordinary events result of these new social movements,
that per capita food production in non- happened for me to recount, but when my radical scholars were again able to find a
communist Africa, Asia and Latin contract came up for renewal, although footing in universities, even if only tem-
America had declined, often to pre-war I was a senior professor, I was turned porarily in some cases. Inside and outside
levels, since 1960, whereas it had risen down by the Tenure Committee on the the colleges, a large body of radical social
above pre-war levels in China and Cuba. grounds of 'serious doubts about her science literature and debate arose. Much
Before turning to the present, I want to scholarly objectivity and academic of it was in sociology and economics
note that it is not easy for anthropologistsprocedures'. rather than anthropology or political
to study imperialism and report their fin- The 'scholarly objectivity' ruling, I later science, but all disciplines were affected.
dings and hypotheses boldly. We may learned, arose because the committee- Following the publication of Paul
think we are free and independent, but which did not contain any anthropologists Baran's Political Economy of Growth
often we are not, or have not been in my or sociologists-had read only one of my (1957) and Harry Magdoff's The Age of
experience. I'd like to mention three articles, 'Anthropology and Imperialism'. Imperialism (1968), Andre Gunder Frank
incidents where this was brought home Apparently they didn't like it. The and Immanuel Wallerstein have done
to me. 'academic procedures' objection was more than most authors to try to grasp
The first of these occurred in October based on the fact that our department had the dynamics of imperialism and its
1962 when I gave a lecture at the request instituted student committees on par with changes through the centuries. Eric Wolf's
of students at Brandeis University on the those of the faculty for recommendations Europe and the Peoples Without History
day of the Cuban missile crisis. I must on such matters as curriculum, promo- is a major contribution, as are the
admit it was a fairly passionate lecture, as tions, and hiring. The administration and works of Noam Chomsky and Edward S
I had been studying the Caribbean, had most of the university disapproved, and Herman, Edward Friedman and Mark
visited Trinidad, and in general supported 11 of us, or half the department, who had Selden, John Bellamy Foster, Cheryl
the Cuban revolution. I condemned the supported the student committees, were Payer, Eleanor Leacock, and Susan
US threats to Cuba, which the US had fired. Five of us were dismissed in mid- George. Among studies of imperialism in
already invaded at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, year after a strike by students and facul- particular regions, I have found Wolfs
supported Cuba's right to defend itself, ty, ev-en .hough a series of independent work on C'entral Amer ica, James Petras

1706 Economic and Political Weekly August 4, 1990

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Sun, 18 Sep 2016 21:22:30 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
on Latin America, Thomas Hodgkin on ple of allied countries, much to their own Korea, Singapore and Tkaiwan-have nsen
Africa and Vietnam, and Gabriel Kolko, cost and disadvantage. The allied govern- into the semi-peripheral category through
also Daniel Gettelman and his associates, ments had popular support, were trying industrialisation or highly favourable
on Vietnam, among the most fruitful. My to build more humane, egalitarian trading positions. These countries are
own work has been on the impact of im- societies, and were worth helping. often cited as show-cases for capitalist
perialism in India and Vietnam. I want now to turn to the changing industrialisation. They have however, only
A number of North American and character of the world today and its a tiny percentage of the third world
other western scholars have now worked signiricance for social scientists. The ac- population, and are anomalies. In part,
in so-called communist countries, for companying table gives a rough they were built up initially through capital-
example Eleanor Smollett in Bulgaria, breakdown of countries in the 'developed' flight from China, or by industrial capital
Michael Vickery and Ben Kiernan in and 'less developed' areas as of 1960, 1980 from the west as places of cheap labour
Cambodia, a host- of scholars in China, and 1990. Some of the countries I have to which transnational corporations could
and Melanie Beresford, David Marr, listed as 'less dependent capitalist' ought move their factories. There is little hope
Christine White, Jayne Werner and myself perhaps to belong to the 'more heavily that the majority of Africans, Indians, or
in Vietnam. But the list is too long to dependent capitalist' category, but I have Latin Americans could climb out of their
recount. And of course, as before, there given them the benefit of the doubt when deep poverty through the same route.
have been excellent studies of imperialism, I was uncertain. The category of 'socialist The number of socialist LDCs have
revolution and socialism by scholars in the countries' lists these as they are at present, grown as a percentage of the total since
third world or outside western universities but it may be that we shall shortly have 1960, mainly through national liberation
by such authors as Paul Sweezy and Harry to reclassify some of them, for example, wars in Indochina and other previously
Magdoff, Darcy Ribeiro, Felix Greene, Poland, East Germany and Hungary, as dependent capitalist states. These coun-
Wilfred Burchett, Arlene Eisen, Susan capitalist. tries, however, have not increased their
George, and many more. In the late six- The first important change is that the percentage of the world population since
ties and later, journals sprang up that were populations of developed countries, both 1980, for the 1980s saw few successful
devoted to radical scholarship on the third socialist and capitalist, have shrunk as a national liberation struggles except in
world, for example, Journal of Contem- percentage of the world population since Namibia.
porary Asia, Bulletin of Concerned Asian 1960. Together they have fallen from In general, most socialist countries have
Scholars, Journal of Third World Studies, nearly 35 per cent of the world popula- not done well since 1960. Recently, we
and several on south Asia, Latin America tion to just over 22 per cent. This change have seen the collapse of almost all comn-
and the Middle East. Although there are has come about mainly because of munist governments in eastern Europe,
still anthropologists who would deny that population growth in the third world at and severe conflict in the Soviet Union.
imperialism exists, it must be hard now a time when birth rates were falling in The economies of Soviet Union and all
to go through a university education in the most of the developed states. eastern European states are badly com-
social sciences without some knowledge The capitalist 'less developed countries'
promised, partly through too-heavy
of it. There are still, of course, anthro- have grown the most as a category. This military burden and the burden of aid to
pologists and other social scientists who growth has been mainly in the poorest, the third world, partly through debts to
work actively, sometimes covertly, in sup- most dependent states. The states I have the industrial capitalist states, but also no
port of imperialism, but their influence called 'less dependent capitalist LDCs' doubt because bureaucratic centralism
is less menacing than when I first came have stayed at much the same percentage has proved inadequate for building
to the United States in 1953. of the world population as in 1960. modern economies with high technology
Lest I sound too optimistic, it must be Now, as then, there are some countries or for administering modern, highly
stressed that imperialism is as bloody and such as South Africa, Israel, Spain and educated populations.
cruel as it ever was. In the last decade, we Portugal among LDCs which some In the third world, too, a number of
have had the British invasion of the authors call 'semi-peripheral' They con- states like Ethiopia, Burkina Faso Congo
Falklands/Malvinas Islands, British tribute less than 5 per cent of the world (Brazzaville) and Mozambique are giving
repression in Northern Ireland, the US population. Their per capita incomes up one-party rule and turning to greater
invasions of Lebanon, Grenada and average about 4,480 dollars a year, as reliance on the market in order to try to
Panama, the US attack on Libya, South against art average of only 908 dollars per
develop their economies. Cuba is the most
African support for invasions in Angola, year for the other capitalist LDCs. Some successful of the third world socialist
Namibia and Mozambique, and 'low former 'semi-peripheral' states, such as countries, but it has relied on generous
intensity warfare' (which is never low- Argentina, have dropped into the low Soviet aid, and may not be able to con-
intensity for those at the receiving end) in
income category since 1960 and have beentinue on its present path as that aid is
Afghanistan, Cambodia, Angola, and reclassified. A few, notably the four withdrawn. China has travelled far along
Nicaragua. China, too, has joined the 'tigers' of Asia-Hong Kong, South the road to capitalism. Without China.
CIA in harassing Vietnam and supporting
the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Some TABLE: TENTATIVE CATEGORIES OF STATES AS PERCENTAGES OF WORLD POPULATION
might count the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan as an imperialist adventure- 1960 1980 1990
one the Soviets now regret. I am doubt-
'Developed' Countries
ful of that, for I think the Afghain govern-
Capitalist 23.11 16.89 14.12
ment was worth supporting against the
Socialist 11.56 9.47 8.21
mullahs and the landlords. Some might Sub-total 34.67 26.36 22.33
also include the Vietnamese troops' war- 'Less Developed' Countries
fare in Cambodia, and the Cubans' in Heavily dependent capitalist 19.69 27.27 28.79
Angola, but I would not. My reasons are Less dependent capitalist 24.17 19.29 22.71
that in both cases, those governments and Socialist 21.47 27.08 26.17
troops went in to help the working peo- Sub-total 65.33 73.64 77.67

Economic and Political Weekly August 4, 1990 1707

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Sun, 18 Sep 2016 21:22:30 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
less developed socialist countries claim see is some form of world socialism- again by Gorbachev in 1985, and is long
only about 5.8 per cent of the world ultimately, of world communism-in past due. If it does not happen, millions
population. At least at present, aite future which production and distribution are more will die young in the third world and
of the socialist state with vanbuard com- organised rationally within and betweer international conflict will grow.
munist parties is problematic. The average nations, and working people have the The second struggle is for disarma-
per capita annual income of the developed main voice in the running of their ment, both nuclear and so-called 'conven-
socialist countries is only 4,427 dollars, as societies. tional' We can see the interaction of this
opposed to more than 13,000 dollars in the The immediate outlook is admittedly struggle with that for a New Economic
industrial capitalist states. The average,per rather gloomy for socialists and for most Order when we consider that all of
capita income in the less developed of the world population. Yet I don't Vietnam's dilapidated roads, bridges,
socialist states is reported to be only 736 believe for a moment that this means that ports, transport and other kinds of in-
dollars, less than the 908 dollars of the socialism is dead, or that we are at Francis frastructure could be rebuilt for the price
capitalist LDCs excluding the semi- Fukuyama's 'End of History: I also. don't of a single B-52 bomber. Again, we are
peripheral states. It should be noted, think it is true, as some authorities in the learning that nuclear power plants, quite
however, that socialist per capita income west are telling us, that we have seen the apart from their relation to nuclear war,
are actually higher than is reported in end of national liberation struggles. At are too dangerous by themselves. The
dollar terms, for they include, as well as least four are going on at present,, with peace movement has had encouraging suc-
cash incomes, substantial amounts in strong chances of success-in El Salvador, cess in recent years. The disarmament in-
welfare facilities and subsidised rents and the Philippines, Palestine and South itiatives of the Soviet Union and eastern
consumer goods. Africa. The enormous size of the under- Europe result not only from those coun-
Meanwhile, the gap in wealth and developed world and the increasing, tries' economic problems, but from the
technology between developed and totally unnecessary poverty of most of it,
pressures of the European Nuclear Dis-
underdeveloped capitalist states is widen- suggest widespread national revolutions in
armament Movement. Whereas they con-
ing alarmingly. Many more millions of the not-too-distant future. For the time demned it five years ago, the Soviets now
people in the third world are very poor, being, these movements may not get much adopt its phrases and publicise its slogans.
and many more are starving, than in 1960. help from the older 'socialist camp'. The The west cannot go on indefinitely
Today, 40 million children die needlessly Soviet Union and the countries of eastern building horrendously dangerous and
each year in the third world, while the Europe are likely to turn inwards in the costly weapons when the threat they
developed countries do less and less to aid next few years in an effort to solve their are supposed to be countering has
them, and draw more and more of their own problems. It may be some time before disappeared.
wealth from those countries. Susan their people realise that capitalism, or The third worldwide struggle is, of
George's book, A Fate Worse Than Debt, reliance on industrial capitalist loans, is course, for the environment. It is grow-
graphically illustrates these horrors. not the answer to their political and ing rapidly in every country and will pro-
The gaps in incomes within industrial economic problems, and before they start bably be the most urgent movement of the
capitalist states are also widening. The to struggle for a new national and a new 1990s. As well as being for survival,
capitalist world economy has been in a world order. But in the third world, some
environmental struggles are ultimately
crisis since 1973, and almost every coun- countries, notably in Latin America, may necessarily opposed to both capitalism
try has seen a decline in the incomes of begin to struggle collectively against the and bureaucratic centralism, and are for
most workers, a progressive deepening of deprivations caused by capitalist im- some form of democratic socialism
recessions, and on average, greater perialism. In many low-income countries, throughout the world.
unemployment. While the socialist we may see various forms of revolutionary
'world'
is in an obvious crisis, the capitalist movement, military or non-violent, accor- On the eve of her assassination, the
'world' may be teetering on the edge of ding to the-circumstances. Polish revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg
an abyss of financial collapse and depres- We can also expect struggles in the in- surveyed a scene in which the struggle for
sion worse than has been seen in this dustrial capitalist states on the part of socialism outside the Soviet Union had
century. workers, minorities, women and the temporarily failed and most people
At the same time, major shifts are unemployed, as the capitalist crisis around her were announcing the im-
deepens. In eastern Europe too, it is possibility of world communism. A
occurring in the distribution of power
unlikely that the workers who built similar pessimism has gripped parts of the
among industrial capitalist states. US
Solidarity in the early eighties will sit left today, but I think it is inappropriate,
imperialism, which reigned almost
down indefinitely under the crippling for with the end of old-style state cen-
supreme until the mid-seventies, is declin,
prescriptions of the World Bank and the tralism and repression, the way is open for
ing in the face of its enormous foreigh
debt and budget deficit and of rebellions International Monetary Fund. a better, freer, more democratic socialism
within its satraps. The US may still be $ble What is still more probable is that we for the world. And the need for it has
to 'win' in small countries like Grenada shall see worldwide struggles. Such strug- never been more urgent. In last summer's
and Panama, but it cannot take on the gles are essential now because the world Monthly Review, Daniel Singer quoted
whole of Central, let alone of Latin economy has become more unitary since Rosa Luxemburg's challenge in her final
the sixties and its most serious problems article. I can't do better than repeat it, for
America, nor the Middle East tior the
Pacific. Western Europe and Japan must affect many countries, or even the whole it is a singularly appropriate riposte to
share the 'burden' in the 1990s. they may world, simultaneously. those who are predicting the end of
expand their empires temporarily, or may Three worldwide struggles are likely to socialism.
be significant and will probably interact.
be submerged in a world depression. What "Order reigns in Berlin", she wrote.
One is the struggle for a New Economic
they cannot do is plunge into a world war, "You stupid lackeys. Your order is built
Order which will redistribute the world's
as they did in periods of comparable inter- on sand. Tomorrow the revolution will
wealth among the industrial and low-
imperialist competition in 1914 and 1939. raise its head again and proclaim to your
Some other wa5 out of the world crisis income states. It was prescribed by the sorrow, amid a brass of trumpets:
must be found. The only way that I can United Nations in 1975 and -spelled out 'I was. .. I am. .. I shall always be2'.

1708 Economic and Political Weekly August 4, 1990

This content downloaded from 160.36.178.25 on Sun, 18 Sep 2016 21:22:30 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms