The Decolonizing Generation: (Race and) Theory in Anthropology since the Eighties

In the wake of anthropology’s much storied crisis of representation; attempted corrections following movements of “Third World” peoples, women, and queer folks; the recent disavowal of 1980s and 1990s reflexivity and experimentation; and what George Marcus has recently termed a “crisis of reception,” this essay seeks to critically reassess and reanimate the formative interventions of anthropologists of the African diaspora (including Africa itself)—foregrounding work that lends new insights into anthropological theory, method, and pedagogy. The intention here is not to merely redeem the pioneering insights of African diaspora anthropologists as unsung forerunners of contemporary anthropological theories (though this is a worthwhile endeavor in itself) but rather to illuminate continued and prospective contributions of this mode of knowledge production.