French official attitude toward native chiefs shifted over time, not continuously

Evidence

Ponty’s policy toward chiefs has often been discussed in the context of French native policy generally, but its ideological character has not always been recognized. … But these studies fail to distinguish between the different attitudes within the French administrative hierarchy, and imply that antichief sentiment persisted from the advent of civilian rule until independence. … In fact, the official attitude toward chiefs changed not only with personnel, but in the wake of such watersheds as World War I. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 1145

Categorization

• XREF: The author contrasts her periodized account with ‘persistence’ accounts — a familiar historiographic corrective in colonial studies that also applies to how officials’ methods changed after watershed events like WWI.