Social Construction of the Past: Representation as Power

Social Construction of the Past examines how mainstream scholarship constructs the past and, in creating a people's cultural history, appropriates it and turns it into a form of domination by one group over another. Acknowledgements of the intellectual and scholarly contribution of subjugated peoples such as women, minorities, and workers has led to a critical review of the established bodies of knowledge. Social Construction of the Past looks at the way 'postcolonial' scholars redefine the nature of scholarship, and themselves, in order to develop a more egalitarian discourse. It probes the nature of the relationship of labour, race and gender to power and class. The chapters cover a broad range of topics, from the role of intellectuals in restructuring a non-apartheid South Africa, to Haitian working-class women using sexuality to resist domination. Social Construction of the Past is essential reading for academics and students from a whole range of different social and intellectual backgrounds, including anthropology, archaeology, history, comparative literature, political science and sociology.