Legibility and the Politics of Ethnic Classification of the Population in the National Census of Mauritius: A Statist Perspective

Sookrajowa, Sheetal Sheena

doi:10.1080/13537113.2021.1888449

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State-formation and Private Lives: Power And Legibility1

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2022

2024

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Cited by 4 publications

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“…47 From the state's perspective, legibility acquires ethnic statistics, for various purposes, including "counting to dominate." 48 For example, the British used a census in colonial Mauritius to "ensure control and for economic and political purposes." 49 Legibility played an important role in other colonizations, such as US efforts to eliminate its "frontier".…”

Section: State-formation and Private Lives: Power And Legibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacies of Legibility: Genealogical Story-Telling as an Echo of State Power

Williams

2023

Journal of Family History

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Genealogy necessitates historical records, the majority of which derive from government sources, despite families’ “private” lives. State records weren’t intended to service future family historians, but were a means to state-formation and power. Consequently, records used by family historians reflect statist concerns, not state subjects’. Genealogy databases and censuses were analyzed to determine how many derive from state sources. An individual, anecdotal example focused upon a US Census record illuminates genealogical insight and misunderstanding; despite relevance, interpretation problems confront family historians. Genealogical research is limited by modernity's governmentality and the state gaze, impacts generally under-acknowledged by the average family historian.

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Section: State-formation and Private Lives: Power And Legibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%