Siglo XX: colonización y antropología. Esbozo para una crítica desde Bolivia

Abstract

Drawing on an outline that articulates modernity, colonization, and subjectivity, we present the context in which the relationship between anthropology and colonization is produced. These elements, which generate a specific political project, help to illuminate the concealed purpose of that relationship. That aim is illuminated using data from international organizations and hegemonic state policies which impose projects on governments in subordinate countries. Finally, taking into account a commitment to the preservation of cultural forms of life as emphasized by certain anthropologists, we reflect on the concealed colonial sense of anthropology in its application to the dynamics between existing cultures in Bolivia and modernity’s premises of “development” and “progress”.