Julian Steward and American anthropology: The science of colonialism

Demonstrating a lacuna within the discipline of anthropology regarding its connection to colonialism in North America, this dissertation analyses Julian Steward's oeuvre and theorises him in four novel ways. First, his life-work is introduced with a focus on his representations of Indigenous Peoples. Second, his life-work is contextualised with respect to American federal Indian policy. Third, Steward's evolutionary theory is shown to have been designed as an explicit counter to Boas' method, belying a Spencerian biological analogy, and placing him outside of the "Americanist tradition." Finally, the culmination of Steward's method and theory, heralded as an objective approach to understanding Indigenous Peoples social organisation and the "scientific" method of anthropology, is exposed as a programmatic of the US Department of Justice in proceedings before the Indian Claims Commission, and showing it as a colonial science. Archival material regarding Steward's involvement in the Uintah Ute, Dockets 44 & 45 before the Indian Claims Commission, forms the data for this exposition. Exposing the connection of Steward's work to US government policy begins to fill the gap regarding anthropology's connection to colonialism in North America, and prompts a serious reconsideration of the discipline's method, practice, science, history, historiography, curriculum regarding Indigenous Peoples.