Julian Steward, American Anthropology, and Colonialism

Abstract

Tribal peoples have traditionally been understood by Westerners as the last remnants of a hypothetical earlier stage of cultural evolution, and this socalled "primitive" stage of human development is a necessary preamble to any discussion of human beings and the meaning of their lives.Indeed, the stereotype of primitive peoples anchors the whole edifice of Western social thought.We need the primitive so that we can distinguish Western civilization from it and congratulate ourselves on the progress we have made.John Locke and Thomas Hobbes may have articulated the idea formally by beginning their theories of the social contract with the hypothetical stage wherein primitive people established a society, but subsequent generations of Western people have wholeheartedly accepted the image without any critical examinations of its validity.Thus the attitude of many philosophers is that American Indians must represent the stage of human development in which superstition and ignorance reigned supreme.

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