Decolonising Anthropology
Decolonising the curriculum should not only question what we are taught, but also how we are trained to become anthropologists. This means moving away from an “open laboratory” model of field site selection, and paying critical attention to how our positionalities as researchers intersect with the complex histories and legacies of our interlocutors. Given the problematic histories attached to the bodies of Northern or Northern-based anthropologists, we cannot assume licence to find ourselves in a position of intimacy and trust with interlocutors across the world. Nor can we assume that our individual choices and personalities can meaningfully offset historically given and structural asymmetries in the field. These considerations, contextualised in the personal backgrounds of students and professors, must be embedded in new curricula
