Denial of abstract thought to tribal peoples birthed a failing colonial theory.

Evidence

Up to the present, ethnographers have denied all abstract thought to tribal peoples. The civilized Christian European was exalted, the savage and pagan primitive man was denigrated. Out of this concept a theory of colonisation was born which now threatens to fail everywhere. A true estimate of indigenous peoples can now take the place of the misunderstanding and fanaticism of the ethnology of the past and of the former attitude of aversion entertained with regard to them. That is why this present work by the Revd. Fr. Tempels is destined to achieve so much good. It will mark a new epoch in the history of colonisation. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 680

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to the colonial denial of rationality debate and to anthropology’s self-critique (Lévy-Bruhl’s ‘primitive mentality’).

Related

• Ethnographers’ denial of abstract thought to tribal peoples underpinned colonial theory (similarity 0.95)
• Denying colonized peoples a system of thought denies their humanity. (similarity 0.85)
• The Bantu Philosophy controversy tested the colonial civilizing-mission ideology at its foundation (similarity 0.84)
• Tempels sought to understand Bantu thought only after missionary conversion failed (similarity 0.84)
• Questioning African intellect forced rethinking of colonial administration and mission methods. (similarity 0.83)
• Ethnophilosophy was condemned for restoring tradition to already-modernized Africans (similarity 0.82)
• Ethnophilosophy debates are tied to colonial ideology and contested concepts of philosophy (similarity 0.82)
• Tempels’s condescending work still broke from classical anthropology (similarity 0.82)
• Tempels deliberately framed Bantu thought for classification via Western categories (similarity 0.81)
• Colonial educators had assumed Africans were blank slates needing civilizing. (similarity 0.81)
• Tempels addressed Bantu Philosophy to colonizers seeking to Christianize Africans (similarity 0.81)
• Ethnophilosophy survives as a decolonial challenge to Western epistemic hegemony (similarity 0.81)
• Ideological critics charged Tempels with diverting attention from colonialism’s real harms (similarity 0.81)
• Ethnophilosophy’s damning flaw is its interdisciplinary method, which makes it insufficiently technical for philosophy (similarity 0.80)
• Colonial ‘civilizing mission’ ideology negated African morality and rationality (similarity 0.80)