Surveillance, measurement, judgment, and reform : Indian reserves in the British Columbia interior and the Panoptic mechanism

dc.contributor.authorSmith, Keith D. (Keith Douglas)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-15T18:24:22Z
dc.date.available2024-08-15T18:24:22Z
dc.date.copyright1996en_US
dc.date.issued1996
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of History
dc.degree.levelMaster of Arts M.A.en
dc.description.abstractThis thesis examines the nature of the surveillance of Native peoples in the British Columbia interior in the early twentieth century. Drawing on Michel Foucault's use of the "panopticon" as an instrument of observation and normalization, Indian reserves are investigated as "laboratories of reform" that were isolated from the outside population while at the same time open to the light of inspection. While the federal government intended to measure and judge all aspects of Native peoples' lives to a degree unprecedented in Canadian history as part of its "civilizing" project, this study focuses primarily on economic activity. Every cent earned from wage labour, hunting and fishing, and the agricultural produce of each reserve was recorded in incredible detail and used to compare each group with its neighbours and to judge its relative level of "advancement". It is in economic activity, as well, where resistance during this period is particularly evident.
dc.format.extent140 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1828/19736
dc.rightsAvailable to the World Wide Weben_US
dc.titleSurveillance, measurement, judgment, and reform : Indian reserves in the British Columbia interior and the Panoptic mechanismen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

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