Article ID: CBB001201589

“Empirical Anthropologists Advocating Cultural Adjustments”: The Anthropological Governance of pirana Ngata and the Native Affairs Department (2014)

unapi

McCarthy, Conal (Author)


History and Anthropology
Volume: 25
Pages: 280--295


Publication Date: 2014
Edition Details: Part of the special issue: “Anthropology, Collecting and Colonial Governmentalities”.
Language: English

In 1929, pirana Ngata published an article titled Anthropology and the government of native races in the Pacific. This would appear to confirm the link between anthropology and the rule of indigenous populations in New Zealand and its Pacific empire, but the evidence presented in this article suggests a more complex situation. This paper examines the empirical anthropology of Ngata and Peter Buck and the ways in which their activities reshaped the policy and practice of the Department of Native Affairs between 1920 and 1935, particularly through the notion of cultural adjustments or adaptation. Archival research reveals that behind the activities of the Dominion Museum, the Polynesian Society and its Journal was a M ori-led body, the Board of M ori Ethnological Research, which redirected government collecting, research and publication from salvage to the maintenance and revival of M ori cultural heritage in the service of tribal social and economic development. Seen through the theoretical framework of assemblage theory, we can see how a malleable idea of culture was employed in social governance in quite different ways to the colonial governmentality at work in other settler colonies at this time. The paper argues that this form of anthropological governance effectively de-territorialized state institutions, thereby creating a distinctive space for the native exterior to the nation.

...More
Included in

Article Bennett, Tony; Dibley, Ben; Harrison, Rodney (2014) Introduction: Anthropology, Collecting and Colonial Governmentalities. History and Anthropology (p. 137). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001201589/

Similar Citations

Article Morrow, Daniel; Brookes, Barbara; (2013)
The Politics of Knowledge: Anthropology and Māori Modernity in Mid-Twentieth-Century New Zealand (/isis/citation/CBB001201575/)

Article Bennett, Tony; Dibley, Ben; Harrison, Rodney; (2014)
Introduction: Anthropology, Collecting and Colonial Governmentalities (/isis/citation/CBB001201581/)

Article Rowse, Tim; Shellam, Tiffany; (2013)
The Colonial Emergence of a Statistical Imaginary (/isis/citation/CBB001201830/)

Article Priscilla M. Wehi; Hemi Whaanga; Steve A. Trewick; (2012)
Artefacts, Biology and Bias in Museum Collection Research (/isis/citation/CBB988516615/)

Article Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette; (2013)
Popular Science and Politics in Interwar France (/isis/citation/CBB001320569/)

Book Dirlik, Arif; Li, Guannan; Yen, Hsiao-pei; (2012)
Sociology and Anthropology in Twentieth-Century China: Between Universalism and Indigenism (/isis/citation/CBB001202153/)

Article Milanesio, Natalia; (2013)
The Liberating Flame: Natural Gas Production in Peronist Argentina (/isis/citation/CBB001320297/)

Book Berman, Elizabeth Popp; (2012)
Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine (/isis/citation/CBB001201809/)

Article Bennett, Tony; (2014)
Liberal Government and the Practical History of Anthropology (/isis/citation/CBB001201582/)

Article Alff, David; (2014)
Swift's Solar Gourds and the Rhetoric of Projection (/isis/citation/CBB001201790/)

Book Mirowski, Philip; (2011)
Science-Mart: Privatizing American Science (/isis/citation/CBB001210019/)

Chapter McEvansoneya, Philip; (2012)
Sir William Gregory and the Origins and Foundation of the Colombo Museum (/isis/citation/CBB001201474/)

Authors & Contributors
Rowse, Tim
Dibley, Ben
Bennett, Tony
Steve A. Trewick
Priscilla M. Wehi
Hēmi Whaanga
Concepts
Science and culture
Science and government
Government sponsored science
Science and politics
Museums
Indigenous peoples; indigeneity
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century, late
20th century
21st century
18th century
Places
New Zealand
United States
China
Australia
North America
France
Institutions
Musée de l'homme (Paris)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment