Travelogues: The Ethnographic Foundations of Orthodox International Theory

Abstract

The near-complete neglect of Indigenous peoples by International Relations is a loose thread that now deserves a few more purposeful tugs. Critical reflection upon the sources of this lapse gives rise to some important insights into the concealed commitments that underwrite mainstream theory and exert considerable authority in defining and delimiting disciplinary problems, prospects, and possibilities. The origins of these conceptual predispositions and of the neglect of Indigenous peoples can be traced to the travelogues of the first Europeans in the Americas, the enduring influence of which in social contractarian thought recommends their treatment as foundational texts of the social sciences. This view highlights the relevance for International Relations of challenges raised against the veracity of these formative ethnographical accounts inasmuch as such reevaluations simultaneously call into serious question some of the most fundamental ontological commitments of orthodox international theory—commitments that have their conceptual origins in the travelogues. Significantly, the neglect of Indigenous peoples is inseparable from the not inconsiderable conceptual indebtedness of orthodox international theory to these earliest writings about the peoples of the Americas.