Decolonizing anthropological knowledge : A perspective from Morocco, H. Rachik,

Decolonizing anthropological knowledge : A perspective from Morocco
Hassan Rachik,
Rutgers University / New Brunswick (Thursday, February 10, 2022)

Decolonizing = Unmasking Ideological deviations; Deconstructing the Colonial Knowledge; Partial Truth : The Good Use of Ethnography; Partial Truth : Separating the Grains from the Chaff
For countries like Morocco which were formerly colonized, the entry, from the 1960s, into the field of social sciences of so-called third world intellectuals, anthropologists at home, has contributed to the change of the history of anthropology. Within this context, to understand what the decolonization of anthropology means, we need to examine their local strategies and practices which aimed to free the colonial heritage of their country from colonial and ethnocentric assumptions. We will examine their blueprints for decolonizing anthropology.
They tried to write a counter-knowledge to colonial anthropology. They insisted on the colonial uses of the notions of the tribe and the ethnic groups: Morocco was presented as a mosaic of tribes, it was divided between Arabs and Berbers, between nomads and sedentary people, that is to say it was not a nation.
We will then consider the theoretical limits of the decolonization of anthropology. Colonial heritage in anthropology has theoretical and ideological dimensions. Colonial anthropologists used theories and concepts such as the origin and the evolution of institutions, the social morphology, the social structures. Here it is useful to know how anthropological knowledge of a given country turned into a colonial ideology.

See, Rachik, H., “Understanding Colonial Anthropology: On the Ethnographic Situation Approach”, Hespéris-Tamuda LV (2) (2020): 41-60
https://www.academia.edu/44625....650/Understanding_Co