Did imperialism aid in the development of anthropology as a discipline?

Question

For instance would pioneers in the field such as E.B. Tylor have had the impetus or even the access to study the cultures that he did without the growth of world empires?

Answer 1

Interesting thought, and the answer depends on just what is meant by "Imperialism", to many the word means the building of an empire, by a nation state, but it can also mean, the way in which a society grows, by subsuming other cultures, and becoming dominant, in the process, interestingly enough there are two cultures that seem to believe that they have a "right" to push their culture onto others, and I am sure that the people in question would deny this taking place, being the French and the Americans, "they would say that, wouldn't they" to quote Mandy Rice Davis, in a different manner, but if we look just a little closer at what is happening to the societies around the world, we can see clear evidence, that this form of Imperialism is still taking place, it starts with the expansion of their laws over the societies they meet, in the case of the French, it is done by the "gift" of citizenship, in the Americans case, it is done by treaty, to gain "extra territoriality", by gaining power over another nations citizens, such as the right they now have, to demand extradition of British citizens to be extradited, to face charges in America, under their law, even when they have committed no crime, in this nation, but have yet to ratify the reverse for Britain to extradite Americans to face charges for things that are crimes under our laws, if there is no equivalent crime in America.....

These things are caused by the same basic beliefs that create economic Imperialism, that is to say, that the nation state believes, just like "stalkers" that they have an "entitlement", by virtue of simply wanting the thing to happen, i.e. they are arrogant in their belief that they are superior, to the other culture, and the decisions they make are best, for everyone, i.e. "what is good for America, is good for the world", as their own politicians have regularly said.....

This attitude is also present to a large degree in some religious fanatics, "the holier than thou", belief, leads them to think they have a right to dominate others, non believers, or other faiths, and ultimately, other cultures.....

In general terms to return to the main point of this reply, in order to judge other peoples, we ourselves do so by comparison, with what we believe are good standards, (our own society), and as a result we act in an imperialist fashion, to do so, Anthropology, is Imperialism, if it involves value judgements, they are two halves of one coin.....

We need to look no further than the ongoing process of European integration to see just how bad things can become, when this is allowed to happen, the so called "founding fathers"( as they describe themselves ) of Europe are taking decisions because they do not believe in "representative democracy", their belief is that of their right , their entitlement, to make decisions for the "great unwashed" of Europe, because, we "peasants" can not possibly understand the greatness of it all, so they will do it for all of us even when opinion polls clearly show the majority do not wish this to happen, "they" know better, this is Anthropology, and Imperialism "writ large" they conclude, that they as our superiors, are right to pass judgement on our little lives, as they believe that they are the superiors of us, we are governed by a new nation, that of the socialist masters "we are the masters now" as has been said in this countries past, and "the era of representative democracy is over " (Peter Mandleson) they are the New Order, the new nation of the "elite" and we are the primitives who are to be subsumed, and made to believe in their culture, like it or not, Imperialism, begins in this fashion, all of history teaches us this, we fail to recognise it very often, this link between judgement and dominance......but it is not possible for Anthropology to exist, without this base belief driving the Imperialism on, they are common in source, and results......

Answer 2

Definitely. It aided the early study of anthropology a great deal, not the least of which was the treatment of non-European cultures as "others." Additionally, negative views of past imperialism also probably provided some impetus later on for many of the traditions that exist in anthropology today. We probably wouldn't be so careful today if we hadn't been so careless in the past.