This work investigates the interlocking histories of "cultural instruments", meaning normative forms of analysis and practice that are central to Western culture and in the course of their history came to be ways of understanding and controlling different cultures.
This book investigates "cultural instruments," meaning normative forms of analysis and practice that are central to Western culture. It explores their history from antiquity to the early Enlightenment and their use and reworking by different cultures, moving from Europe to Africa and the Americas, especially the Caribbean, in the process giving close readings of a wide range of authors.
" . . . a courageous book like this, carefuly articulated and aresting on the absolute mastery of over three hundred primary sources, belongs on the shelves of everyone with a serious interest in the material covered in this journal."
