Reading Notes Decolonizing Methodologies

12 February 2013

In this 2nd edition text, Linda Tuhiwai Smith seeks to call attention to the influence of imperialism upon Western researchers and knowledge construction of the “Other”. She seeks to push beyond mere deconstruction of this long, complex history of research of indigenous peoples–the push and pull between modernist-postmodernist thought–by both calling attention to the assumptions informing Western research methodologies, but also enjoin modern research practices with new ways to ethically investigate Othered groups, helping such groups maintain their voice and cultural knowledges.

She first surveys the various meanings and uses of the terms imperialism, colonialism, and indigenous.

Going back to 15th century Europe, Smith claims that Imperialism is used in at least the 4 following ways:

1. imperialism as economic expansion – used as a “system of control” to gain access and maintain possession of “markets and capital investments” (p. 22). “Colonialism facilitated this expansion,” says Smith.
2. imperialism as the subjugation of ‘others’ – To rationalize the devastation against indigenous cultures, more nuanced methods of “subjugation” were developed to ensure the supremacy of Western history-keeping over the stories and way of life of indigenous peoples. Treaties were written and signed, blood quantums constructed, and the spaces and identities of indigenous peoples were stripped away “to serve the interested of the colonizing society” (p. 23).
3. imperialism as an idea or spirit with many forms of realization – much broader in scope, Smith discusses its use as a “complex ideology which had wide-spread cultural, intellectual and technical expressions” (p. 23). Such expressions provided force to Western-European conceptions of taming new discoveries, or as Smith writes, to imagin “new worlds, new wealth and new possessions… that could be discovered and controlled” (p. 23).
4. imperialism as a discursive field of knowledge – Writers of imperialism and colonialism mark the fourth use. Smith claims that such writers base their knowledge “either on their membership of and experience within colonized societies, or on their interest in understanding imperialism from the perspective of local contexts” (p. 24).