The development of anthropology and colonial policy in the Netherlands: 1800-1960

Although there have been studies of both Dutch colonial policy in the Indies and the development of anthropology in the Netherlands, there has been no systematic examination of the historical relations between them. This paper attempts this for a period of 160 years from the collapse of the Dutch East India Company to the birth of an independent Indonesian state. During this time, the need of successive governments for information on subject peoples was matched by the requirements of scholars for suitable conditions and locations for their work. As Dutch anthropology emerged in the nineteenth century and developed in the twentieth it was closely related to the prevailing political climate--state capitalism, liberal, and ethical policies. The analysis shows how there is a 'fit' between these and certain dominant anthropological styles and interests, principally in the form of empiricism, customy law studies, "Leiden" structuralism, and functionalism.