Colonialists freeze sociological differences into fixed biological natures to bar change

Evidence

The colonialist stresses those things which keep him separate, rather than emphasising that which might contribute to the foundation of a joint community. In those differences, the colonised is always degraded and the colonialist finds justification for rejecting his subjects. But perhaps the most important thing is that once the behavioural feature, or historical or geographical factor, which characterises the colonialist and contrasts him with the coloniser, has been isolated, this gap must be kept from being filled. The colonialist removes the factor from history, time and therefore possible evolution. What is actually a sociological point comes to be labelled as being biological or, preferably, metaphysical. It is attached to the colonised’s basic nature. Immediately the colonial relationship between the colonised and coloniser, founded on the essential outlook of the two protagonists, becomes a definitive category. It is what it is because they are what they are, and neither one nor the other will ever change. — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 210

Categorization

• XREF: This is precisely the mechanism by which nature gets naturalised as fixed essence — central to the Eco-Justice/Ecofeminist reading of how the nature concept legitimates hierarchy. — connects to: Colonial peoples were naturalised alongside their land as savage nature to be tamed — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 404; Colonial-era anthropologists treated colonialism as a natural given rather than a social process — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 822; Racial-colonial governance shifted from spatial freezing to temporal freezing (+2 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: ‘Removes the factor from history, time and therefore possible evolution’ names the deep epistemic move behind all naturalised oppression — worth sitting with beyond the gender case.

Broader Connections

• Colonial-era anthropologists treated colonialism as a natural given rather than a social process #expands (0.85) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 822
• Racial-colonial governance shifted from spatial freezing to temporal freezing #qualifies (0.80)
• Customary anti-miscegenation attitudes hardened into formal colonial policy #exemplifies (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1413