The Laws of Indiscipline: Anténor Firmin, Racial Justice, and the Case for a Humanist Anthropology

Haitian intellectual Anténor Firmin is seldom recognised for his contribution to the social sciences outside of the Caribbean. Yet, as a member of the Société d'anthropologie de Paris, Firmin authored a robust critique of the discipline at a moment when it was most invested in North Atlantic ra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Dix-Neuf
Main Author: Craipain, Bastien
Format: Text
Language:unknown
Published: LSU Scholarly Repository 2024
Subjects:
anthropology
Haiti
humanities
indiscipline
race
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://repository.lsu.edu/french_pubs/7
https://doi.org/10.1080/14787318.2024.2318154
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Summary:Haitian intellectual Anténor Firmin is seldom recognised for his contribution to the social sciences outside of the Caribbean. Yet, as a member of the Société d'anthropologie de Paris, Firmin authored a robust critique of the discipline at a moment when it was most invested in North Atlantic racist and colonial politics. Rereading his 1885 De l'égalité des races humaines as a work of intellectual and political indiscipline, this article demonstrates how Firmin's unique engagement with anthropology has led to an enduring problem of formal and substantial illegibility, one largely responsible for its silencing in the history of the discipline.

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