Postcolonialities: the challenge of new modernities

Journal/Book: Int Soc Sci J. 1997; 49: 108 Cowley Rd, Oxford, Oxon, England OX4 1JF. Blackwell Publ Ltd. 357.

Abstract: This article discusses the current and coming state of postcoloniality and argues that this phase is in the process of being superseded by the growth of new modernities, especially in Asia. It takes the view that postcoloniality as a concept is to be distinguished from decolonization in so far as it represents the cast of mind of intellectuals and cultural critics of the developing world consequent on the collapse of communism and the internal decay of the regimes of many developing countries. This set of circumstances has generated an agnostic consciousness which represents the translation of postmodern angst into the circumstances of the developing world. The development of this postmodern postcolonialism is traced in anthropology through an examination of the work of 'external' and 'internal' anthropologists and critics. The rise of Asia transforms much of this debate because 'Asian rationality', certainly in the case of Japan, is forging new modernities which are ahead of the West when judged from purely rationalistic, materialistic standpoints. This growth of a multipolar modernity offers new possibilities for a multipolar anthropology which is free of ethnocentrism of any kind.

Note: Article Robotham D, Univ W Indies, Kingston 7, JAMAICA

Keyword(s): ANTHROPOLOGY

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