Description
Book SynopsisSavage Constructions composes a critical examination of the popular assumption that violence is an essential quality of certain ethnic or racial populations. Wendy Hamblet challenges the supposition, all too common in the West, that darker-skinned peoples are inherently violent. To challenge this myth, Savage Constructions offers a theory of subjectivity transformed by historical violence. It rethinks how African peoples, once living in simple neighborly communities more democratic and egalitarian than modern states, have come to the condition of abjection, misery, and fierce aggression, in which we find them today. This rethinking she argues that Western affluence is built upon slaughter, slavery, and colonial oppression, and suggests that prosperous nations of the West owe a great debt to the societies they trampled en route to their prosperity. This work is important because Nnewly independent nations of Africa are a primary example of a much vaster phenomenon. Western powers conti
Trade ReviewA groundbreaking, thoroughly engaging study that plumbs the breath and depth of Western enthnocentricism. Hamblet's telling account of rebounding violence reveals the terrible legacy afflicting emerging African nations. -- Ron Hirschbein, Past President, Concerned Philosophers for Peace
Hamblet offers an important addition to any library that wishes to remain on the cutting edge of postcolonial studies. Her book is an important reexamination of Western prejudicial myths involving the cultures and beliefs of precolonial Africa....It should appeal to all students interested in understanding the difference between precolonial and postcolonial knowledge and truth issues. Faculty and students involved in multicultural studies should also find it helpful. Highly recommended. * CHOICE, November 2008 *
"Without a doubt this is a significant contribution to the field. It is a thorough and thoughtful analysis of the current state of Africa from the perspective of the influence of the colonial period. For those who agree with the main premise it will provide many additional arrows to their quiver, for those in a different camp it sets a high standard for their rebuttal." -- Jay D. Glass, author of The Animal Within Us, Soldiers of God, and The Power of Faith: Mother Nature's Gift
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 One: The Savagery of "Civilizing" Forces Chapter 3 Two: Orienting Notions Chapter 4 Three: The Truth of Myth, The Myth of Truth Chapter 5 Four: Rebounding Violence in Social Rituals Chapter 6 Five: Precolonial Africa Chapter 7 Six: Colonialist Constructions of Africans Chapter 8 Seven: Anthropological Constructions of Africans Chapter 9 Eight: Religious and Medical Constructions of Africans Chapter 10 Nine: Western Philosophy's Human Hierarchy Chapter 11 Ten: African Self-Identity After Colonialist Myth Chapter 12 Eleven: Conflict of African and Colonial Identifications Chapter 13 Twelve: Savage Is as Savage Does Chapter 14 Thirteen: Rebounding Violences Chapter 15 Fourteen: African Philosophical Therapy Chapter 16 Fifteen: Concluding the Savagery
