Rounsevelle Wildman: The Lone Ethnographer

Authors

Wen Li Teng, The University of ChicagoFollow

Abstract

Rounsevelle Wildman (1864 – 1901), the United States Consul at Singapore, published a series of magazine articles documenting his experiences in the Malay Archipelago from 1893 to 1897. These articles, published in several travel-related magazines, feature Wildman’s observations of the Malay Archipelago and its varied peoples. The ethnographic perspective in these writings may be analyzed using Renato Rosaldo’s Lone Ethnographer concept, as presented in Culture & Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis. This tripartite model concerns the ethnographic process, the role of ethnography in imperialism, and the relationship between the ethnographer and natives. Evaluating Wildman’s articles with this model, one may conclude that he provided an informal ethnographic perspective as an American diplomat in a European colony, one which supported imperialism and the subjugation of natives.

First Page

141

Last Page

153

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Teng, Wen Li (2018) "Rounsevelle Wildman: The Lone Ethnographer," Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History: Vol. 8: Iss. 2, Article 10.
DOI: 10.20429/aujh.2018.080210
Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/aujh/vol8/iss2/10