Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: February 22, 2021 at 6:25:57 PM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Ideas]: Leonard on Glazier, 'Anthropology and > Radical Humanism: Native and African American Narratives and the Myth of Race' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Jack Glazier. Anthropology and Radical Humanism: Native and African > American Narratives and the Myth of Race. Michigan State University > Press, 2020. 1 online resource. ISBN 978-1-61186-350-5. > > Reviewed by Douglas Leonard (USAF Academy) > Published on H-Ideas (February, 2021) > Commissioned by Eliah Bures > > Race and American Imperial Anthropology > > Since Kathleen Gough first wrote of anthropology as the "handmaiden" > of colonialism, anthropologists and historians have struggled to come > to terms with the discipline's early role in providing information on > subjugated populations to imperial authorities.[1] Much of this > attention has focused on British, French, and, to a lesser extent, > German ethnographers, ethnologists, and anthropologists engaged in > colonial social science. Generally viewed as an independent school, > the American anthropologists who emerged under Franz Boas's tutelage > have escaped some of that criticism, perhaps due to the smaller scope > of American overseas colonialism. Seeking to add to scholarly > understanding of American anthropological engagement with the > systemic racism that came from contact with Native Americans and > African Americans, Jack Glazier has entered this fray with his work, > _Anthropology and Radical Humanism_. Glazier centers his account on > the career of Paul Radin, a student of Boas with a somewhat checkered > and itinerant career in the early twentieth century. Constructed from > a strong foundation of largely untapped primary material generated by > Radin and his collaborators, the book serves as a useful overview of > anti-racist efforts of Boas and Radin as they worked in a field > largely shaped by the intellectual power of W. E. B. Du Bois and the > luminaries attached to the Harlem Renaissance and related movements. > In Glazier's telling, Radin emerges as a crucial figure linking > studies of Native American and African American social and religious > practices to a wider movement to restore humanity to these > long-oppressed groups. _Anthropology and Radical Humanism _provides a > useful perspective on the fraught engagement of social science with > institutionalized American racism in the early twentieth century > while offering access to a new range of sources on African American > religious practices, particularly among ex-slaves. > > Glazier set his book amidst the tumult of twentieth-century American > racism, finding the Boas school, best exemplified by Radin, as fellow > travelers "sharing the methodological and interpretive goals of the > black history movement" (p. 10). Linking Radin's work among the > Winnebago of Nebraska and Wisconsin with his brief time collecting > ex-slave narratives, Glazier describes Radin's belief in the > "universal need to find meaning and psychological adjustment in their > lives" among all of his research subjects (p. 15). Proceeding from a > brief methodological and historiographic introduction, Glazier's book > includes five relatively brief chapters and a short conclusion. The > first chapter centers on Radin's background as a humanist, with a > general discussion of his study of, and belief in, "native > intellectuals" operating with "wide latitude" in "pre-industrial > societies" (p. 27). Building from the Boasian emphasis on cultural > relativity, Radin extolled the power of local context and individual > agency among Native American societies in particular as > representative of the great intellectual heights possible even when > isolated from Western norms. As part of the larger salvage > anthropological efforts of the Boas school, Radin took an avowedly > synchronic or even atemporal approach to history, focusing instead on > frozen moments for deep analysis rather than a consideration of > longer-term forces or processes of change (p. 19). Glazier > interrogates this tendency through the lens of biography, finding > that Radin's use of the term "primitive" reflected "his own > alienation from the most inhumane dimensions of modern life, > including racism and worker exploitation" (p. 34). Primitivity, in > other words, provided an outlet for Radin's frustration with what he > perceived as growing inequality across American society. Revealing > the beauty of non-Western societies, therefore, might compel others > to consider the great strength of Blacks and other disadvantaged > groups. > > While the psychological understanding of Radin certainly provides > useful depth to his work, it falls short as a tool for analysis of > anthropological practice. Comparisons with the nearly contemporaneous > work of Marcel Griaule, for example, would add insight to the > difficulties anthropologists faced when working through the > cosmological memory of informants.[2] Most glaringly, Glazier missed > an opportunity to engage the then-influential work of Lucien > Lévy-Bruhl on the "primitive mind," a term in the implicit racial > hierarchy common to imperial Eurocentricity.[3] The lack of this > critical apparatus leaves Glazier's book, particularly in this first > chapter, somewhat hollow as a laudatory biography, with only tacit > efforts to contextualize or break down Radin's work beyond its clear > humanist intent in the United States. > > Chapters 2 and 3 of Glazier's work, however, provide an excellent > summative intellectual history of the anti-racist movements of the > early twentieth century in the United States. Glazier's close > attention to the links among Boas, Du Bois, sociologists Robert Park > and Charles S. Johnson, and other Boas students such as Robert Lowie > and Alfred Kroeber demonstrate the strong engagement of the nascent > anthropological community with the anti-racist movements of the time. > Glazier's work clearly places Boas, Radin, and their colleagues as > "part of an anti-racist discipline that was waging a decisive > campaign to free twentieth-century American anthropology from the > moribund race science that had preceded it" (p. 83). The > interdisciplinary approach of these scholars served as a corrective > to white-authored historiography that presupposed racial and > intellectual inferiority of African American and Native American > populations alike. The relative newness of the discipline thus > allowed its practitioners to adopt more of an activist approach, > adding social scientific credibility to protest movements (p. 95). > These chapters thus offer a strong introduction to the scholarly > conversations that underpinned the growing movements for human rights > in underrepresented American communities of the era. > > Chapters 4 and 5, on the other hand, offer a source-rich portrayal of > Radin's particular method for retrieving and describing the lived > humanity of these African American and native communities. Offered > thematically rather than chronologically--Radin's work with the > Winnebago predated his work with ex-slave populations by decades but > appears here as chapter 5--these sections provide superb detail > useful to any understanding of anthropological practice among these > American pioneers. Chapter 4 is particularly rich in reproducing > largely unseen accounts from ex-slaves collected by Radin and his > graduate student collaborator, Andrew Polk Watson. Demonstrating the > methodological power of oral sources, Radin and Watson acquired these > tales from the last survivors of slavery in and around Fisk > University in Nashville, Tennessee, during Radin's brief period of > employment at that university. Both Radin and Glazier found powerful > examples of moral resistance to dehumanization in these stories of > religious conversion and practice among survivors, a "special form of > American oral literature," in Radin's words (p. 134). If there is a > critique of this section it comes again in the relatively quick > analysis without deep consideration of important theoretical tools. > Glazier could have profitably employed postcolonial and > psychoanalytical theory, particularly the work of Jacques Lacan and > Frantz Fanon, to bolster his analytical efforts to understand these > slave narratives. Instead, he chose to let the narratives speak for > themselves, and indeed these stories will prove of immense value to > future scholars seeking to understand the slave experience. > > Glazier does his best work in the concluding fifth chapter, analyzing > Radin's methodology when studying among the Winnebago in the first > decade of the twentieth century. Glazier effectively probes Radin's > ethical failings as the anthropologist continued his synchronic > approach and refused to accept the impact his own presence was having > on native religious practices already in conflict. The struggle > between more traditional Medicine Dance practitioners and the > schismatic peyotists predated Radin's arrival, but his engagement > with the leaders of the latter provided them with a protest outlet > that went to the very core of Winnebago social life (pp. 166, > 176-178). At the same time, Radin contradicted his own, repeated > emphasis on the importance of individual humans as storytellers and > subjects when he conflated accounts and identities among a number of > his informants, eliding their personal information and mitigating the > social agency they expressed through their accounts. Although he > refused to create archetypal representatives of the group, as was the > practice for a number of his peers, he nonetheless used their > narratives to further his own analytical goals rather than as a pure > representation of native thought (pp. 151-152). Importantly, Glazier > also considers the gendered implications of Radin's heavy focus on > male informants as he remained, at least at some level, a product of > his times. Anthropological perspective has been an issue since the > birth of the discipline, and Glazier is right to focus on the > representational issues generated by its practitioners. American > anthropologists in particular have been the subject of such inquiry > in recent years, so Glazier's book links well to those discussions. > > In considering the rise of the Boasian school of American > anthropology, Glazier's book fits in a wider conversation on the > practice of the emerging social science. Glazier places himself at > the nexus of a generalized discussion among Lee Baker, Herbert Lewis, > and Kamala Visweswaran on the racial inflections in Boas's work in > particular.[4] However, their engagement with critical race concepts > combined with postcolonial theory places them in a different context > from the relatively straightforward presentation offered by Glazier. > Instead, Glazier's efforts to demonstrate the wider connection of > early American anthropologists to powerful movements advocating > change in racial and gender norms puts him in conversation with the > recent work of Charles King, along with the broader histories of > anthropology by George Stocking.[5] King's view of the contributions > of Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict, which are given little attention > by Glazier, makes King's contribution more useful for introductory > students in anthropology, particularly given its emphasis on the > creation of analytical categories that remain important today. > Stocking's approach aligns most comfortably with Glazier's work, as > it provides a useful baseline for understanding the growth of and > change to anthropological practice. > > Perhaps most importantly, I would place this work alongside the older > but still powerful study by James Clifford of French missionary > ethnologist Maurice Leenhardt.[6] Unlike Clifford, Glazier does not > view Radin's work through the lens of colonial engagement, though > many of the same forces of political and social control through race > were at work in the American example. Clifford's biography, while > sympathetic to its subject, adopted an internal view of the process > of ethnography and the combination of religion, spirit, myth, and > science in a potent brew. Glazier's work has recovered important > voices in American anthropology's past but does not engage them as a > microhistory of American imperial and racial engagement. His > exposition of the reach of the anti-racist movement in the early > twentieth-century United States is important and necessary, but it > falls short of the demands of a fully contextualized intellectual > biography. > > Historians of anthropology and race in the United States would find > great value in Glazier's thin volume. As mentioned above, the superb > fourth and fifth chapters provide a wide array of evidence not > frequently considered in conversations about race in the United > States. Glazier's eminently readable prose allows a reader at the > undergraduate level and above easy access to what can become > difficult-to-comprehend subjects. Unfortunately, scholars hoping for > a broad and detailed engagement with postcolonial theory in an > American context will be disappointed, as the lack of theoretical > engagement is the greatest hindrance to a wider consideration of the > work. Nonetheless, the book has great promise as an introductory text > for students new to critical race theory, the history of American > social science generally, or historians of anthropology more > specifically. > > Notes > > [1]. Kathleen Gough, "Anthropology and Imperialism," _Monthly Review > _19, no. 11 (April 1968): 12-27. > > [2]. See, for example, _Conversations with Ogotemmêli: An > Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas_ (London: Oxford University > Press, 1965 [1948]). > > [3]. Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, _Primitive Mentality_, trans. Lilian A. > Clare (New York: Routledge, 2018 [1923]). > > [4]. Lee D. Baker, _Anthropology and the Racial Politics of Culture_, > (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010);_ _Herbert S. Lewis, "Boas, > Darwin, Science, and Anthropology," _Current Anthropology _42, no. 3 > (2001): 381-406, and "The Passion of Franz Boas," _American > Anthropologist _103, no. 2 (2001): 447-67; Kamala Visweswaran, "Race > and the Culture of Anthropology," _American Anthropologist _100, no. > 1 (1998): 70-83. > > [5]. Charles King, _Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade > Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth > Century_ (New York: Anchor Books, 2020). For examples of Stocking's > engagement with Boas and American anthropology, see _Race, Culture, > and Evolution: Essays in the History of Anthropology_ (New York: The > Free Press, 1968); and _Delimiting Anthropology: Occasional Inquiries > and Reflections_ (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001). > > [6]. _Person and Myth: Maurice Leenhardt in the Melanesian World_ > (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982). > > Citation: Douglas Leonard. Review of Glazier, Jack, _Anthropology and > Radical Humanism: Native and African American Narratives and the Myth > of Race_. H-Ideas, H-Net Reviews. February, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55923 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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