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3 - Ethnography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2021

Thomas Simpson
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

India’s frontiers were areas of extraordinary human interest for agents of empire and men of science throughout the nineteenth century. This chapter investigates the production, dissemination, and reception of British knowledge of frontier inhabitants. Widespread recognition among personnel in colony and metropole alike that frontier people were important did not, however, emanate from or lead to settled knowledge of their origins or significant characteristics. Doubts over the validity of particular informants and modes of representation, disputes over competing theoretical frameworks, and controversies over the nature of frontier communities were at the heart of colonial ethnography. Frontier ethnography was a diverse field with complex relations to state power. Examining sketches and photographs as well as written material, the chapter demonstrates how processes of reproduction, adaptation, and circulation generated influential but highly unstable knowledge of human diversity.

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The Frontier in British India
Space, Science, and Power in the Nineteenth Century
, pp. 116 - 182
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Ethnography
  • Thomas Simpson, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Frontier in British India
  • Online publication: 07 January 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108879156.004
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  • Ethnography
  • Thomas Simpson, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Frontier in British India
  • Online publication: 07 January 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108879156.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Ethnography
  • Thomas Simpson, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Frontier in British India
  • Online publication: 07 January 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108879156.004
Available formats
×