Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 03:01:57 +1000
From: saeed urrehman <saeed.urrehman-AT-anu.edu.au>
Subject: on the post-colonial condition of knowledge


 >> to ask for what you call a "post-colonial condition of knowledge" being 
specified

i think that the postcolonial condition of knowledge can be defined as a 
set of statements that are invalidated or mariginalised by the coloniser's 
model of worlding the world. for example, the essay "mathematics as the 
secret weapon of imperialism" in the ashcroft et al reader attempts to 
recuperate what can be called "the postcolonial condition of knowledge." i 
dont know whether it is that easy to identify this condition. for example, 
here is an idea. let us supposed, there is a culture that believes that the 
their "dead" ancestors are looking after them. and then later on an 
outsider culture arrives and invalidates that belief and erects 
institutions of "welfare" to replace the ancestoral system of welfare or to 
control the population. i think that ancestoral system of welfare will 
become a part of the postcolonial condition of knowledge. it has been 
invalidated or marginalised not because of some "inherent" flaws of its own 
but because of the new regime of "truth" does not acknowledge it as a set 
of "true statements."

i hope that helps.

saeed urrehman
australian national university



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