Lecture 2 Flashcards
What is culture?
Patterns of learned shared behavior and beliefs of a society or group
Is there such thing was global culture?
Capitalism is a cultural form.
Where did Capitalism originate?
Europe, and was elaborated on in North America and the rest of the world
Why was the European “Discovery” of the “New World” significant?
It created the possibility of new overseas trade routes and a new trade market
Who dominated overseas trade and subsequently colonialism?
Northern Europeans
What can be said about European perception of Aboriginal populations?
It made Europeans believe that culturally, they had the conditions for domination.
European cultural beliefs and assumptions led to their false perceptions about those populations.
Goal of Columbus’ first exploration
Create new trade routes to provide new sources of wealth (trade) in Asia
To spread Christianity (divine mission)
Who financed the first voyage?
King and Queen of Spain
Ferdinand and Isabella.
What did Columbus originally say about the natives?
They were amenable and worthy of conversion to Christianity.
Lack of clothing - culturally and spiritually naked
Docile and gentle, moldable
They were natural
Describe the situation, belief and interpretation of Columbus.
Situation: conversions to Christianity
Belief: Divine authority
Interpretation: Natives are worthy of conversion
How were natives thought of in the First Voyage?
Without culture
Ready to be educated/converted
Without sin
Have embryonic Christian qualities
“Noble savages”
What was the goal of Second Voyage?
To colonize (set up cotton production, find gold, find slave labour, conversions to Christianity)
How were natives thought of in the Second Voyage?
Have “bestial” habits
Violent, aggressive
Warlike
Cannibals
Forever unequal of Europeans
“Degenerate savages”
What were the two native groups described and why is their descriptions problematic?
Arawak - kindly and peaceful
Carib - warlike, canoe-borne raiders raiding the Arawak
One was perceived as the Noble Savage and the other as the Degenerate Savage, they’re contradictory.
When was the first voyage?
1492
