Wengrow, David;
(2022)
For an anthropology and archaeology of freedom.
Journal of the British Academy
, 10
pp. 55-65.
10.5871/jba/010.055.
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Abstract
‘Freedom’ has been characterised as a ‘weird, Western concept’ of little relevance to a broader understanding of human societies. Accordingly, it is sometimes suggested that anthropology, and its sister discipline of archaeology, have had little to say about freedom. Drawing on a collaboration with the late David Graeber, and reflections on the anthropology of A.R. Radcliffe-Brown, I will argue to the contrary that an ethnography of freedom – with its main locus in the colonial milieu of 17th-century North America – lies close to the disciplinary foundations of anthropology, and also has something to say about the modern development of our supposedly weird, supposedly Western concept.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | For an anthropology and archaeology of freedom |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.5871/jba/010.055 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/010.055 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The author(s) 2022. This is an open access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 Unported License |
| Keywords: | Native American history, Indigenous critique, Age of Enlightenment, anthropology, freedom. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10154338 |
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