Document Type : Research

Author

• Parvin Ghasemi

PhD in Anthropology, University of Tehran,

Abstract

The book of Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples was written in anti-colonial texts with orientations toward anthropology, research, and science. From anthropology to science and research was blamed by the writer because of using them by the colonial system. The author claims that science, research, and anthropology have contributed to colonization. Pieces of evidence of inhumane research by British colonists in New Zealand on the Maori are presented in the book. This book shows that, in the face of numerous struggles that the Maori tribes have made with the colonists, today, the meaning and application of “research” have become different from the past, and they welcomed “research” with open arms. According to the evidence, the main culprit is not “research” but the economic and political ambitions of the colonial countries that overshadow the name of research and anthropology. The Maoris always in particular and the Polynesians generally are introduced and identified from the perspective of foreign anthropologists, But in this book, she is a Maori woman who writes and records and expresses her opinion and analysis of the past and anthropology.  In this book, is not to be seen anti-colonialist view of the West or colonialism in the light of their understanding of the Maori. This issue is less addressed in anti-colonial works. Writing about the Maori themselves and their wounds will help to improve the situation, but it does not require us to understand the West and colonize from a careful perspective and pay attention to the subjective layers.

Keywords

• Maori
• Anthropology
• Research
• Indigenous
• Colonization
• Methodology
• Method
• Humiliation
• Orientalism
• Occidentalism

Main Subjects

• Anthropology