cultural encounters Flashcards
Commensurability
how easily two cultures can be translated into each other/how far they share analogous concepts
refers to the extent to which two cultures or systems of thought can be compared, translated, or understood using a common set of criteria or standards. It involves the presence of analogous concepts, shared values, or similar frameworks that allow for meaningful comparison or interpretation between different cultural systems.
is often associated with the ability to find common ground or shared understandings between different cultures. It implies that there are points of reference or commonalities that facilitate communication, translation, and mutual comprehension
example of commensurability
An example of commensurability between cultures can be seen in the concept of hospitality. While the specific practices and customs associated with hospitality may vary across different cultures, the underlying value of welcoming and accommodating guests is a shared aspect that transcends cultural boundaries.
accuracy and understanding of travel writers
Rubies emphasises again and again that the early travel writers understood the practical importance of accurate knowledge, that they were careful to pay attention to what they were told by locals, and that they listened to and recorded local stories and traditions. They were concerned from the outset with diversity and how to understand it. ‘Travel writing was not simply, or primarily, a technique for colonial justification … the main impetus for this literature was scientific and instrumental
general view of Europeans towards the East- travel writing
- Orientalism (1978) by Edward Said – how accurate is his assertion that European travellers reduced India/the East to a set of clichés to excite the European imagination and conform to their own ideas of it?
o No development of a parallel Occidentalism to European Orientalism, although othering/exoticisation does occur
Orientalist discourse often served to justify and rationalize colonial domination by portraying the colonized peoples as exotic, backward, and in need of Western civilization and governance.
Othering’ of other cultures –
also defines yourself by delineating what is different
o ‘civilisation’ vs ‘barbarism’ – self-government vs kingship/tyranny
o Stereotypes and tyrannical and effeminate nature of Eastern rulers can be traced back to the Persian wars
intellect of travel writing in Europe
o François Bernier or Jean Chardin – not just ‘ego-documents’ but imbued with the sense that their author was contributing to expanding the horizons of the Republic of Letters.
Portuguese and religion
outward bonds of religious solidarity but their forces also consist of New Christians (converted Jews), Italians, Castilians, and Germans
Jesuit Jose Di Acosta on India
1589
The same natural causes could produce different effects according to secondary variables- The three kinds of government amongst the Indians were monarchies (albeit largely tyrannical), local communities ruled by councils with elected military leaders, and lawless nomads, that is complete barbarians. Acosta speculated that all Indians began at the lowest level, but some had progressed towards a more orderly and rational organisation.
Buffon’s writing
1700s – was by no means universal viewpoint but interesting nonetheless:
o thought that human beings came from one species and that they acquired their differences according to climate, nutrition and ways of living.
o Most human differences, physical and moral, explained by long-term influence, of climate upon a common nature (which admitted a degree of flexibility) and variations due to historical circumstances migrations, commerce, miscegenation other external cultural influences etc).
travel writing- Not very focused on racial difference instead more focused on religion/ manners/ cutoms
China enjoyed a remarkably positive image in early modern Europe (mainly due to work of Jesuit missionaries ex. Matteo Ricci (end of 16th C, 1552–1610) and Jean-Baptiste du Halde (start of 18th)
o Offered vision of country as well-ordered, prosperous nation ruled by an elite of literati selected on merit and imbued with a Confucian ideology of filial piety and service to the state. Race didn’t really factor - Chinese described as white & rational, like Europeans, not distinct
▪ Still had a negative image concerning the “fraudulent and selfish turn of temper” of the Chinese”
difference in morality
▪ things other than race contribute: Montesquieu even made the point that it was improper to compare Chinese morality to European morality: moral systems were relative to geography and history
how Christianity forced acceptance of all human rationality
o The primacy of religious classifications meant a kind of Christian universalism, that prevented any deep racialisation of mankind.
o For example, the important 16th century debate about the moral and political capacities of the Native American peoples concluded with the idea that, for all their barbarism, Indians were rational beings capable of Christianity, and shared a common origin with the rest of mankind. From a Christian orthodox position this conclusion was almost inescapable.
2 contrasting views of human capability
humanist jurists such as Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda (1494–1573) that the barbarians of the New World were so deficient in moral understanding and rationality that they presented an example of Aristotelian “natural slaves,”
▪ some missionary friars, most notably the Dominican Bartolomé de Las Casas (1474–1566), arguing that the Indians were on the whole as rational, virtuous and capable of civilization as the gentiles of antiquity, and that therefore all they required was to be invited to become Christians as autonomous moral and political beings.
Hierarchy of culture and practices in Christian Universalism
o 1390s-1520s - forced conversions of Jews and Muslims, driven by growing intolerance of alternative faiths/desire to incorporate all within the church
o Often argued there could be nothing wrong about Arab-speaking Christians per se, and yet the contextual logic of social interactions eventually led to the idea that, unless the Arabic of the Moriscos was replaced by vernacular romance languages of the Christian population, they would never abandon their residual Islam and become truly Christian.
date, name and author of the guide on Japanese customs for Jesuits arriving
- Luis Frois’s Tratado – drafted 1581
context of guide on Japanese customs
o Frois had lived in Japan for 20 years before he wrote it
o Frois’ superior Valignano wanted the church in Japan to be staffed by Japanese converts
▪ Need to rectify instability of the Christian presence in Japan by utilising native staff
View of Japanese from the guide on Japanese customs
▪ Idea that the Japanese had the potential to be moral and intellectual equals of the Europeans, unlike other societies (America, rest of Asia, Africa)-
Reff says Fróis is basically “neutral or explicitly respectful of Japanese customs”, attributing Japanese variations to “rationally-based choice
cultural relativism
ChatGPT
Cultural relativism is the idea that cultural practices, beliefs, and values should be understood and evaluated within the context of their own culture, rather than judged according to the standards of another culture. It suggests that there is no universal standard for what is right or wrong, and that moral judgments should be relative to the cultural norms and values of each society.
the guide on Japanese customs- example of respecting Japanese intellect
Frois- especially impressed by Japanese children, amazed at how quickly they learned how to use chopsticks, to behave politely, and to carry themselves confidently: “Young men in Europe do not know how to deliver a message; a Japanese child of ten can do so with the wisdom and prudence of a fifty year-old”
guide on Japanese customs- how Jesuits should act
▪ Need to assimilate with Japanese to be taken seriously
examples of assimilation to be taken seriously
● Cf Roberto de Nobili in India who wore a red dot on his forehead, learnt Sanskrit, and went vegetarian in order to work with Brahminic communities
● Cf Jesuits in Mapuche (America) – incorporate elements from indigenous rites, eg lining the paths of processions with live votive animals and fruits, tolerating polygamy, allowing them to retain ancestral burial practises
Frois’ cultural relativism
o 600 numbered couplets – ‘we do this; the Japanese do that’ etc; cultural relativism - Fróis observes, for example, that whereas wearing “clothing made from printed fabrics would be considered foolishness and nonsense” for European men, it is common for Japanese men
o Does not ascribe Japanese difference to the work of the devil but to its people’s own rational choice - it is difficult to believe that one can find such stark contrasts in customs among [us and] people so civilised, have such lively genius, and are as naturally intelligent as these [Japanese]’
Frois’ superior tone
o Frois occasionally lets superior tone seep in – eg Europeans are named after saints but Japanese naming conventions of ‘tea, kettle, bamboo’ – but is respectful for the most part
Area of Frois’ objectivity
Buddhism. “two scornful chapters” on Buddhism:
▪ Presents the monks as swindlers, charlatans, and paedophiles
▪ Portuguese aim to conquer and convert – they believe they are saved so why understand the nuances of other religions unless to degrade them
Varthena of Bologna writing on Vijayanagara- the work
o Travelled 1500s and published 1510
o Disguised as a Muslim, he claims to have travelled as far as the spice islands – some questionable chronology
o Narrative as commercial – Varthena writes to publish and sell his book
Varthena of Bologna writing on Vijayanagara- positive impression
o Emphasis on power of the Vijayanagara king and the institution of kingship
▪ Monetary system and road building – useful for foreign trade
Varthena of Bologna writing on Vijayanagara- Euro central view
o Generalises about S. India all living in the manner of Calicut
▪ Calicut being the most important economic and political centre for the Portuguese, and well-known since da Gama landed there
Varthena of Bologna writing on Vijayanagara- religious view
o 1515 German edition of the text includes an illustration of the idol at Calicut as a devil-like figure eating souls and receiving worship
▪ Accurate to Varthena’s description – Indian gods can only be devils to a Catholic
▪ Religious difference otherwise does not draw Varthena’s interest nor impair his judgements on S. India
Pietro della Valle’s work - cultural relativism
o Admires rather than degrades women for the practise of sati (sacrificed women on burial of husband by burning) – interviewed a future participant and recorded her own words
▪ Differentiates between a practise he perceived to be barbarous and the bravery of its victim
questioning the extent to which Pietro della Valle’s work exhibits cultural relativism
o Does della Valle approve of sati because of his own patriarchal values – does he approve because he thinks the woman is nothing without her husband?
▪ Does he actually understand the tradition behind it?
Dutch view of Christianity in the East
o VOC factor de Jongh, writing 1st half of C17-
▪ Looks for parallels between Muslims and Dutch Protestants – claims that the Mughals like Catholics less because they use images and lavish decoration in their churches vs the Mughal use of stone and wood
1677- VOC factor Bassingh
▪ Indian religion ‘no less curious as horrible’
▪ Viewed temples as money making scams with sinister, dark interiors and deformed figures
Jesuit absolutism
regardless of ‘cultural dialogues’, at their heart the Jesuits always have conversion and the zealous conviction that they are of the righteous faith and others are not
negotiation in religious imposition
Valignano: belief that the people of Japan and China were more ‘rational’ and it was therefore preferable to reach a moral common ground rather than quibble about diversity of custom.
even in accomodationism of religion still hierarchy
o Valignano - China as a ‘civilisation’ and a more appealing one than India - India home to the caste system and Brahmins preaching idolatry whereas China a literary society who dress modestly, have gunpowder/printing etc, and are ‘white’
strove to present the Christian faith as unified rather than driven by debate in order to emphasise its universal truth.
difficulties in compatibility between Confucianism and christianity
Matteo Ricci’s The True Meaning of Heaven (1603), the most popular C17 text on Christianity in Chinese, introduces the Incarnation but not the Resurrection
Confucianism is primarily concerned with ethical and social teachings rather than metaphysical or cosmological doctrines.
religion as a trade off- not necessarily accepted
▪ Japanese daimyo happy to pay lip service to Christianity in exchange for firearms and trading benefits
o As for the Chinese/Japanese - the missionaries are interesting as Renaissance men as much, if not more so, than as missionaries.
Portuguese on religion in Africa
- Portuguese in Africa: referred to all African religion as fetiçaria (witchcraft)
o Incomprehensibility of idolatry
o Africans as irrational and self-interested who go for impulse and superstition over reason – implicit legitimisation of their enslavement
Impact of European culture in East
o Transformation of Mughal art due to a European influence - paintings on biblical themes, eg those by Keshav Dad, which utilised perspective in urban and rural landscapes
o Fascination with woodcuts and engravings in printed books brought by Jesuits.
o Akbar- accumulated artefacts and engravings by famous artists, including Michelangelo, Raphael, and Durer.
