One of the purposes of consciousness is to acquire knowledge. The models of this task traditionally assume a division between the known and the knower, a division that leads into doubtful reasoning about some kind of (frequently disguised) homunculus. The current paper tries to avoid such fallacies by viewing the adaptation of the mind as an evolutionary process, a process distinct (but not ind...

Colonial institutions in Africa were shaped by a variety of factors, including local conditions prior to colonial rule, the policies of the imperial power, and rapid economic change during and after the period of colonial conquest. This paper contributes to a growing literature on the origins and structure of colonial institutions. It examines a neglected but important part of colonial governme...

Upon dissolution of modern empires, post-imperial states came to different decisions about the legal status to be assigned to residents from their former colonies. Some states preserved their de facto citizenship rights, whereas other states excluded them from the new polity. Japan opted for the latter. It instituted an exclusive citizenship regime, turning (most of) its former colonial residen...

THE VALUABLE EMPHASIS ON MODERNITY in colonial and postcolonial African studies has profoundly divided precolonial African history from what comes after. But the depth and complexity of African aspirations for moral community and the forms of collective action they inspire, often in the face of severe material constraints, exceed the explanatory power of narratives of modernity oriented toward ...