The search for the complicit native: Epistemic violence, historical amnesia, and the anthropologist as ideologue of empire

Abstract

This essay analyzes a number of issues surroundingthe Menchu ! } Stoll dispute.In locating Stoll' s criticism of Rigoberta within a larger referential arena that includes an attack on the North American academic left and an unbridled anti-Marxism, the authors attempt to reveal how Stoll' s ideological agenda is functionally compatible with the larger political agenda of the New Right. The authors also attempt to reveal Stoll' s distortions of Guatemalan guerrilla history as well as problems with his analysis and collection of the data.

Creating Indigenous Discourse: History, Power, and Imperialism in Academia, Palestinian Case

“…Menchù (1996) expressed that the collective experience was part of her suffering. In response, Western scholars attacked Menchù because they claimed she had not personally experienced these calamities (McLaren & Pinkney-Pastrana, 2000). The converse of this argument is that the individual is part of the collective voice and, on the other hand, nominates oneself to be the spokesperson of the group.…”

“…On the contrary, circumstances are created whereby imperialistic interests are served even when physical colonization is not apparent, a process Parenti (1988) described as the "practice of direct exploitation without the burden of direct rule" (p. 66). Oppressed people have only one escape, but the choice relies heavily on the prevailing imperialistic discourse (McLaren & Pinkney-Pastrana, 2000). The opportunity to restructure a discourse is consistently conditioned by an imperialist or colonialist approach.…”

“…Academic neutrality is a false argument because academic endeavor is constituted in time and processes that intersect with cultural and academic imperialism (Churchill, 1995;McLaren & Pinkney-Pastrana, 2000). The existence and practice of such a relationship (in terms of valued topics, funding research, research methods, etc.)…”

“…Individual ownership, cultural representation, language, and the reconstruction of intellect strongly prevail. Complexity in reporting is only part of the political position a researcher encounters (Churchill, 1995;McLaren & Pinkney-Pastrana, 2000;Memmi, 1965). Failure to establish a political stance on what seems an objective study deludes the researcher in attempting to understand the complexity of the academy and the academy's response to indigenous research.…”

The problem of truth in educational research: The case of the Rigoberta Menchú ‘Controversy’

“…Was the conflagration at the Spanish Embassy which killed 35 people, including peasant protestors, hostages and Menchú's father, caused by the military with government backing or by revolutionary suicide? (Lincoln 1999, McLaren and Pinkney-Pastrana 2000, Tierney 2000.…”