Beyond the Orientalist Tradition: Late Marx's Critique on John Phear's Ethnological Study

Zhiming Ma

doi:10.47297/wspctWSP2515-470203.20230702

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Beyond the Orientalist Tradition: Late Marx's Critique on John Phear's Ethnological Study

Volume 7, Issue 2

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Beyond the Orientalist Tradition: Late Marx's Critique on John Phear's Ethnological Study
PhD candidate, School of Literature, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, P. R. China
Vol. 7, Issue 2, Pages: 28-47(2023)
Published： 30 December 2023 ，
DOI：10.47297/wspctWSP2515-470203.20230702

Full txt

Ma Zhiming.Beyond the Orientalist Tradition: Late Marx's Critique on John Phear's Ethnological Study[J].Critical Theory,2023,07(02):28-47.
DOI：

Ma Zhiming.Beyond the Orientalist Tradition: Late Marx's Critique on John Phear's Ethnological Study[J].Critical Theory,2023,07(02):28-47. DOI： 10.47297/wspctWSP2515-470203.20230702.

摘要

Abstract

The tradition of Orientalist discourse is devoted to the control of the West over the Eastern colonization and the maintenance of its legitimacy. Marx's early studies on Indian society

which rely on the Orientalist knowledge tradition

mainly tend to explain the social changes and material progress brought about by technological dissemination. In this discourse

the construction of Indian society itself inherits the traditional narrative of Orientalism to a certain extent

and in his later years

Marx made a more in-depth critical study of this issue

which is typified by his critique on the ethnological research work of John Phear on Indian village community. From Marx's critical examination of John Phear's ethnological research

as we can see: First of all

Marx's analysis of the current situation of Indian society is based on objective records

of which the ethnographic studies of John Phear are the most recent and new documentary texts; Secondly

John Phear recorded the current situation of the Indian village after the destruction of British colonial rule that exclude by the traditional Orientalist narrative

its direct result was the emergence of a large number of proletarian tenants

and has led to a highly distorted and destabilized state of the existing social structure in India

shattering the original Orientalist narrative on rural India as a closed and constant society; Finally

Marx always took the ideal of proletarian revolution and strong opposition to colonial rule as the basic starting point of his critical attitude in his concern for Indian society

which in no sense can be called a representation of Orientalist discourse.

关键词

Keywords

MarxJohn PhearEthnologyIndian Village CommunityOrientalism

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