Colonial Violence and the Chicago School: The Impact of Ellsworth Faris's Missionary Experiences in the Congo

Building on a growing body of literature showing how colonialism has shaped the content and production of social scientific knowledge, this project traces an unacknowledged, but influential, case in which colonial violence witnessed by a Christian missionary became a basis for sociological theorizing. Ellsworth Faris, one of the earliest American missionaries in the Belgian Congo, witnessed violence and exploitation of native people at the hands of colonial authorities, and contributed evidence to the infamous 1904 “Casement Report” that exposed atrocities. This paper argues that, while never turning away from his religious inspiration, Faris came to see Mead's and others' social psychological ideas as key to understanding his experiences, and this task remained the central preoccupation throughout his professional scholarship, even in seemingly unexpected contexts. These ideas led to his pathbreaking critique of theories of instincts, emphasis on the socio-cultural relativity of human nature, study of social structures and impulses of punishment and hostility, and public stances against pseudo-scientific racism. Uncovering the ways secular Chicago School social science engaged with the ethics of colonial knowledge and with religiously motivated pursuits helps to recontextualize their work and raise new questions in light of contemporary scholarship. This project includes the first comprehensive bibliography of Ellsworth Faris's published work.