colonialism - secondary lit Flashcards
Alison moutz
o ‘By placing one’s self at the centre, the ‘other’ always constitutes the outside, the person who is different’
o we ‘other’ through making assumptions e.g. to assume heteronormativity is to other homosexual couples
o ‘to create school curricula exclusively in one language in a bilingual setting is to ‘other’ those who speak any language other than that chosen’
moutz on ethnicity
o ‘Under colonial regimes, for example, scientists for many years studied the physical characteristics of persons of different races for signs of differing traits. Measurements of differently sized crania were used by colonial powers, for example, to suggest differing levels of racial intelligence’
♣ 1951, UN physical anthropologists claimed differences were not very significant. We are one human race
stroumsa on indians
- ‘Europeans’ contacts with the religious practices and beliefs of the native peoples challenged the biblical view of the unity of humankind and one true religion. At first, the Europeans wondered if the Indians were human beings and had souls. After deciding that the Indians were human beings, they compared the religious practices of the New World with Greek and Roman rituals and with Islam. Using the old concepts available to them, they considered the Indian rituals as idolatrous, as serving the devil (Stroumsa 2010: 15).’
Dubois - key moment for said
- ‘For Said, the key moment came in the late eighteenth century, when the British and French attained their “positional superiority” over the Levant, and more importantly when their images of the Orient had accumulated to such a mass that they could become self-referential. In other words, while the West has always sought to define its oriental other, this period marked both a new will to power and the firm establishment of a global regime of knowledge’ (114)
dubois - religious images and colonialism
- ‘Certainly, images of religion were central to the colonial encounter, and feature prominently in many portrayals of Orientalism. Talal Asad and others have focused on different aspects of this prob- lem, such as the changing role of European and Christian universalism, the for- mation of scholarly disciplines of knowledge, and the changing politics of mis- sionary advocacy in creating a set of scholarly and political standards to which other religions, particularly Islam, were held’ (115)
Dubois, postcolonial asía
- ‘The fruits of such discourse can be seen in the attempts, successful or not, of the states of postcolonial Asia to replicate sacred and transcendent principles of national unity. These attempts occasionally used religion overtly, as in state cults or religious monarchies, but more frequently involved the pseudo-sacralization of the state. This was most spectacularly pursued through the equation of the nation- al body with cultic figures, such as the Japanese Meiji Emperor, Mao Zedong, or Sukarno, who were themselves the embodiment of transcendent struggles for national wealth and power, Marxist destiny, and anti-imperialist territorial integrity, respectively’ (119)
Dubois, European law and the colonies
- ‘When European law was transmitted to the colonies, it carried with it a great deal of ethical (and often religious) baggage. British law in African colonies, for example, regulated the practice of daily life… often according to an overtly Christian mission’ (120)
Dubois, spiritual progress
- ‘The idea of spiritual progress distinguished culturally conditioned religious expression (national religions) from superior belief systems (such as Buddhism and Christianity), and defined advanced religion in terms of discrete belief systems with canonical founders and texts and a goal of personal dialogue with the divine’ (124)
david kopf on hinduism
. In an effort to know Hinduism, British orientalists sought guidance from the brahminical elite, who not only taught them Sanskrit, but also informed them of the Hindu tradition
- Systematisation = key part of successful colonisation
weber - otherness within a single religion
prots vs. RCC
Reynolds - otherness within a single religion
- ‘From the time of the colonial conquest of Northern Nigeria in the early years the twentieth century up to 1960, the British governed this predominantly Mus region through a system known as Indirect Rule. This system maintained and utilized the region’s existing forms of administration, from regional emirs to lo judges, rather than replacing them with British officers and institutions’ (601)
- sense of otherness within a single religion
- british colonial officrs looked at different regions’ forms of Islam in Northern Nigeria and decided whether they were ‘good’ or ‘bad’
Didier bertrand - Robinson Crusoe
- when Crusoe meets Friday – the epitome of foreign chaos – he must either ‘dominate and civilise, or be dominated and rendered savage’ (30)
- Friday = civilised savage
o ‘the “civilized savage” will never rise to equality with the agent of civilization, but must always remain in a subservient position’ (37) - ‘Crusoe portrays Friday as an exemplary savage. He instantly recognizes the supremacy of Robinson as his rescuer. Indeed, all the trappings of civilization with which Robinson surrounds himself, especially his gun, clothes and religion reinforce this supremacy. He is capable of quickly learning their value, and he never questions his master’s teachings nor the assumed superiority of Robinson’s civilization over his own. In fact, he rein- forces it by asking Robinson to visit his people and to teach them about Christianity. Furthermore, Friday’s numerous questions about the Bible do not question the validity of its teachings but rather reinforce it, along with Robinson’s own belief, by compelling Robinson to search deeper into his faith in order to explain it better to Friday’ (36)
