Sentiments functioned as judgments encoding rank and exemption in colonial life

Evidence

Sentiments are not opposed to political reason but are at once modalities and tracers of it. Here I treat sentiments as judgments, assessments, and interpretations of the social and political world. They are also incisive markers of rank and the unstated rules of exemption. How and to whom sentiments of remorse or rage, compassion or contempt were conveyed and displayed measured degrees of social license that colonial rela- 62 Weber (1946), 975. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 256

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines how the author treats sentiments — as epistemic judgments and legal tracers, not mere feelings opposed to reason.