University of British Columbia Press
Colonial Proximities
Crossracial Encounters and Juridical Truths in British Columbia, 1871-1921
Distributed for University of British Columbia Press
Colonial Proximities
Crossracial Encounters and Juridical Truths in British Columbia, 1871-1921
Encounters among Aboriginal peoples, European colonists, Chinese migrants, and mixed-race populations generated a range of racial anxieties that underwrote colonialism in BC. By focusing on these points of contact, this book forges critical links between histories of migration and dispossession. The book highlights the legal and spatial strategies of rule mobilized by Indian agents, missionaries, and legal authorities who sought to restrict crossracial encounters. Mawani illustrates how interracial proximities in one colonial contact zone inspired the production of juridical racial truths and modes of governance that continue to linger in the racial politics of contemporary settler societies.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction: Heterogeneity and Interraciality in British Columbia’s Colonial “Contact Zone”
2 The Racial Impurities of Global Capitalism: The Politics of Labour, Interraciality, and Lawlessness in the Salmon Canneries
3 (White) Slavery, Colonial Knowledges, and the Rise of State Racisms
4 National Formations and Racial Selves: Chinese Traffickers and Aboriginal Victims in British Columbia’s Illicit Liquor Trade
5 “The Most Disreputable Characters”: Mixed-Bloods, Internal Enemies, and Imperial Futures
Conclusion: Colonial Pasts, Entangled Presents, and Promising Futures
Notes
Bibliography
Index