Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World

by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Through an examination of such disciplinary keywords, and their silences, as the West, modernity, globalization, the state, culture, and the field, this book aims to explore the future of anthropology in the Twenty-first-century, by examining its past, its origins, and its conditions of possibility alongside the history of the North Atlantic world and the production of the West. In this significant book, Trouillot challenges contemporary anthropologists to question dominant narratives of globalization and to radically rethink the utility of the concept of culture, the emphasis upon fieldwork as the central methodology of the discipline, and the relationship between anthropologists and the people whom they study.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, History, Social Science, World History, Politics

178 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Michel-Rolph Trouillot was a Haitian academic and anthropologist. He was Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. Rolph (as he was known conversationally) was the son of Ernst Trouillot and Anne-Marie Morisset, both Black intellectuals from Port-au-Prince. His father was a lawyer and his uncle, Hénock Trouillot was a professor who worked in the National Archives of Haiti. Hénock was an influential noiriste historian. He attended the Petit Séminaire Collège Saint-Martial, moving on to the École Normale Supérieure. However, faced with repression from the Duvalier regime in 1968, Trouillot joined a mass exodus of students who found refuge in New York.

In 2011 Trouillot was awarded the Frantz Fanon Lifetime Achievement Award, which is given annually by the Caribbean Philosophical Association in recognition of work of special interest to Caribbean thought.

In 1977 his first book Ti dife boule sou Istwa Ayiti on the origins of the Haitian slave revolution was published. It has been described as "the first book-length monograph written in Haitian Creole." In July 2012, Université Caraïbe Press reprinted this masterful work. Trouillot's lifetime of work presented a vision for anthropology and the social sciences, informed by historical depth and empirical examination of Caribbean societies.

Trouillot died on July 5, 2012.

Reviews

[Purple Iris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not the kind of person who has to read a book as soon as it comes out, even if it's by an author I typically enjoy. I mean, there are exceptions like Harry Potter. But in general, I'm fine with waiting a while to read a book, even if it's one I already own that's just sitting on a shelf waiting for me.

So, this book has lived in my room for a while now, and I've meant to read it, but the time was never right. A few days ago, even though I had a bunch of other texts to get through rather quickly for work, I somehow knew the time had come.

I was right! This is a great book in terms of questioning the very practices and methodologies employed by anthropology, reminding those who study that we are never outside of context. What's even better, though, is this book is absolutely perfect in terms of helping me conceptualize a new project I'm working on, so I really did read it at the perfect time.

Fabulous book, fabulous timing. What more could a girl ask for?

[Bob Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Painting Yourself into a Corner

Without any doubt Trouillot's book has been reviewed in scholarly journals by his colleagues around the world. They have mounted either learned attacks or heaped learned praise on his work. I never read any such reviews. Though I can call myself "anthropologist" with some justification, I cannot say that I have ever moved in the rarefied atmosphere of ratiocination that surrounds GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS. I have not engaged in such debates, perhaps from lack of ability, perhaps also from lack of desire to do so. This book is aimed at the highest level of scholars; it is extremely difficult, but if you discipline yourself to hack through the dense jungle of ideas and verbiage, you will glean a rich harvest of thoughts to consider on a wide variety of topics.

GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS discusses the previous and future directions of the field of Anthropology in the light of globalization. It is a strong critique of almost everything that has been done up to the present. Anthropology, says the author, has ignored history to its own peril. Anthropologists have fetishized field work--making it into a ritual beloved for its own sake----and continually tried to describe discreet cultures, rather than link their chosen area or people up to wider processes and trends. Anthropology has been too fascinated with "the Other" a.k.a. the Savage. Trouillot makes a big point of arguing that globalization is hardly new, that it is not just a phenomenon of the 1990s and after, but that in their search for the pure, untrammelled "savage", anthropologists did not acknowledge this. There are so many ideas in this book that it reminds me of a smoker who lights one cigarette with another, a continuous cycle of smoke, a filmy tower of ideas that reach up to the stars. Are they all firmly anchored to the earth ? Maybe, maybe not. While there are occasional concrete examples given in the text, and they are excellent, many times I felt as if I had to take it all on faith, not a style that I relish in anthropology books. Trouillot's criticisms are trenchant and well-argued, they are legion. He manages to disparage nearly everyone and all work done so far. As for work that he approves, only a few minor works seem to get the nod. His arguments cover the relationship between academe and politics too. He delineates two models, a nineteenth century one and one that arose in the 1960s. Saying that both are flawed, he hopes that anthropologists could work out a new "model of engagement" that would better reflect the relationship between political power and academic work. Certainly the relationship between power and anthropologists has been problematic over the whole time the field has existed.
Arriving at the end of this short work of 139 pages (plus notes)-which took me nearly a month to read---my feeling was that I had been painted into a corner. Which way to turn ? Every action seemed politically naïve or incorrect, if I wanted to describe life in some corner of Indonesia or Uruguay, I would have to relate my writing to the legion of negative forces abroad in this world, to weave my way through a vast minefield of caveats and no-nos. The brilliant mass of ideas in the book produced a great gloom in me; I felt that it would be better to stay home and grow strawberries. But, if anthropology is your field, you can't avoid reading this book. If you are young, perhaps you will have the enthusiasm to work out a way in which Trouillot's critique could be coupled with a plan of action. I should say that though GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS had a rather depressing effect on me, it is the most interesting or challenging book that I'd read for several years. It made me think---perhaps that's why it depressed me.

[Saul Chan Htoo Sang · Rating 3 out of 5]

some many thoughts on this book!

brilliant intro!

construction of the "other" in the western minds began in Renaissance era obsession with utopia! Hence, the king's financial support to the explorers of the utopia created a thriving industry that turned monstrous when industrial revolution began—and the west colonized the rest.

10/10 recommended to anyone interested in finance capitalism, construction of other and its impacts, and state-sponsored capitalism as abuse to its subjects.

[isabela baldini]

só li 3 capítulos

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trouillot's book is particularly useful in that it specifies helpful ways to make anthropology truly multi-sited. First, he discusses the importance of recognizing our interlocutors especially in the West. Secondly, he introduces the idea of geographies of imagination and geographies of management. While his small book is not adequate to full elaboration of what is meant by these geographies, it does offer enticement for relating what he means to other ways of breaking up the same ideas (e.g. spectacle and governmentality, consciousness and practice). That being said, the book is quite badly edited, for example leaving out specific reference to Touraine and spelling Huntington as Huttington.

[versarbre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the first chapter. Very interesting writing with admirable clarity!Bravo!