From Cultural Pluralism to a Global Science of Acculturation in the United States
This chapter focuses on Collier and the US Indian Service (IS). Collier brought applied anthology into the Indian Service so as to develop culturally appropriate policies—an innovation he claimed was inspired by what he saw in Mexico. Collier drew on examples of indirect colonial rule, including Spanish colonialism in New Spain, to further a scientific democratic governance of cultural and racial differences. Collier and others sought to promote and use democratic forms of Native leadership. During and after the Second World War, Collier, along with Laura Thompson and other academics, extended what they had learned regarding the management of ethnic difference to the Japanese-American internment camp at Poston, Arizona, which was run by the Indian Service, and, later, to U.S. “dependencies” abroad and “minorities” at home. This chapter charts the shift toward a more universalizing view of modernization and its application to diverse groups.