modernity

nationality

Dutch

prizes and famous lectures

Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture

occupation / innovator as

anthropologist

university professor

University of Amsterdam

Utrecht University

innovator in the field of

religion

is not multiple, but singular. It is embodied in the political idea of the nation state. The distinction between west and non-west is irrelevant here. The project of modernity that is crucial to the spread of colonial power over the world provides new discourses in which subjects understand themselves and their actions.

I would suggest that there is, in fact, only one modernity and that is the one embodied by the political idea of the nation-state. It clashes with other historical forms of social lfe and governmentality and it is the clash and the violence of it which has to be described everywhere. The distinction between West and non-West is irrelevant here. The project of modernity that is crucial to the spread of colonial power over the world provides new discourses in which subjects understand themselves and their actions' (van der veer 1998:289)

is singular and embodied in the political idea of the nation state and colonial power. The distinction between west and non-west is irrelevant.

I would suggest that there is, in fact, only one modernity and that is the one embodied by the political idea of the nation-state. It clashes with other historical forms of social lfe and governmentality and it is the clash and the violence of it which has to be described everywhere. The distinction between West and non-West is irrelevant here. The project of modernity that is crucial to the spread of colonial power over the world provides new discourses in which subjects understand themselves and their actions' (van der veer 1998:289).

's history ought to be understood reflexively as the history of modern professionalized history writing.

The history of modernity is also and perhaps primarily the history of modern history writing. If one wants to tackle the issue of 'modernity' I would argue that ther is a substantial need for a reflexive theory of the geneology of history and of the professionalization of the writing of history' (Van Der Veer 1998:290)

Peter Van der veer

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Peter Van der veer