Officials defined pauper by the future prospects of European standing within native society.

Evidence

The definition of pauper—a term which has become an accepted term in everyday speech here—we use in its wider meaning, i.e., in the sense of people, albeit not in great hardship, who by circumstances, dependent or not of their own free will, have fallen into a situation which is unsatis- factory for the future, and for the family, considering the place that one would want the European elements to have within the native society. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 930

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• DEFINE: A rare insider definition of what colonial commonsense meant by ‘pauper’ — future-oriented and status-grounded.

Broader Connections

• Colonial pauperism differed from European because it measured ruler-ruled distance #expands (0.70)