In No Man's Land: Blurred Boundaries between Colony and Metropole in 19th Century Mediterranean Anthropology

Abstract

Postcolonial approaches are nowadays widely accepted and influential in cultural and anthropological studies. This current relevance, however, has not hampered the emergence of intense controversy over their scope and implications. Certain concepts developed within postcolonial approaches to overcome the effects of colonial discourse, such as hybridity, have been criticised for neglecting the historicity, materiality, and power relations intrinsic to colonial situations. This article intervenes in this debate using a case study of anthropological studies in the Mediterranean during the nineteenth century as a common ground which integrates all of these considerations. It suggests the adoption of an approach that transcends the strict differentiation between European and colonial contexts, instead drawing from the notion of a common 'civilising process'.