Kill your ancestors: The wars of decolonization

Abstract

This essay explains why debates about the decolonization of anthropology tend to become reactive and confrontational, and outlines a model for why productive critique is central to intellectual progress. In a small, young discipline that values subjectivity and the questioning of ethnocentrism, the decolonial critique of tradition is more likely to be felt as a personalized war on one's professional community and sense of self. Further, the tendency toward factionalism in anthropology is driven by an emphasis on charismatic and individualistic intellectual work. The essay argues that decolonization should not be conceived as a discrete generational war that can be definitively won. Rather, it should be understood as an ongoing collective transformation that expresses the logics of social progress and is consistent with the ethnographic imperative.