Social Construction of the Past

Representation as Power

Edited by George C. Bond, Angela Gilliam

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About the Book

Social Construction of the Past examines how mainstream scholarship constructs the past and, in creating a people's cultural history, appropriates it and turns it into a form of domination by one group over another.
Acknowledgements of the intellectual and scholarly contribution of subjugated peoples such as women, minorities, and workers has led to a critical review of the established bodies of knowledge. Social Construction of the Past looks at the way 'postcolonial' scholars redefine the nature of scholarship, and themselves, in order to develop a more egalitarian discourse. It probes the nature of the relationship of labour, race and gender to power and class. The chapters cover a broad range of topics, from the role of intellectuals in restructuring a non-apartheid South Africa, to Haitian working-class women using sexuality to resist domination.
Social Construction of the Past is essential reading for academics and students from a whole range of different social and intellectual backgrounds, including anthropology, archaeology, history, comparative literature, political science and sociology.

About the Author(s)

George C. Bond is Professor of Anthropolgy and Education at Teachers College and Director of the Institute of African Studies at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, New York. Angela Gilliam is Professor of Anthropology at the Evergreen State College, Washington.