So this week was focused on the Casta Paintings or grouping of people based on race. It was used for social control and often dictated someones role in the social system. Some defining characteristics depicted in the paintings were the clothes the people were wearing. Generally the “purer” European descendant wore the most elaborate and expensive clothing. So Spain during this time of colonization and expansions of the new world seemed to be having a sort of identity crisis in the homeland. They wanted to create a more uniform land….read more
Posted in Blogs, Week 3 | Tagged with casta paintings, race
I was standing at a museum in Mexico when I learned for the first time of the names and titles given to all the mixture of races. I remember being baffled while I stared at the chart of names that seemed to continually grow. My mom explained that after the conquistadores came, the Spaniards and […]
Posted in Blogs, Week 3 | Tagged with casta paintings, Catalina de Erauso, Colonial, Mexico, race
Towards the end of the Casta paintings article the author states that there are many questions still regarding “the circulation, patronage, and reception” of the paintings. While I agree that there is much still to be determined and confirmed, I think that some inferences can be made. The article already gives examples for the reception. … Continue reading “Week Three”
Posted in Blogs | Tagged with casta paintings, class, identity, racial hierarchy
First and foremost, I would like to say shoutouts to Jon’s haircut in this one. It looks nice.Re: Religion as WeaponIn one of our previous classes, we discussed (briefly) the use and implementation of religion re: the new world. In my group, we discuss…
Posted in Blogs, Week 3 | Tagged with casta paintings, colonialism, cultural appropriation, ethnic cleansing, indoctrination, problematic, religion, Spain, spanish
First and foremost, I would like to say shoutouts to Jon’s haircut in this one. It looks nice.Re: Religion as WeaponIn one of our previous classes, we discussed (briefly) the use and implementation of religion re: the new world. In my group, we discuss…
Posted in Blogs, Week 3 | Tagged with casta paintings, colonialism, cultural appropriation, ethnic cleansing, indoctrination, problematic, religion, Spain, spanish
First and foremost, I would like to say shoutouts to Jon’s haircut in this one. It looks nice.
Re: Religion as Weapon
In one of our previous classes, we discussed (briefly) the use and implementation of religion re: the new world. In my group, we discussed that religion has the ability to be used as a weapon intended to indoctrinate people. One of my classmates in the discussion called himself a “recovering catholic”, and never have I found a term with more relatability than that one. Upon leaving this discussion, I wondered if there was any room for spirituality in religious institution. It seems to me that in history (such as the Philippines, which was also a Spanish colony at one point), religious institutions are primarily used to instill certain morals and ideas in the best interests of the colonizers. The term “ethnic cleansing” comes into play in the lecture in pertaining to this, with the King and Queen of Spain made it clear that an unwillingness to concede to their religion would be punishable by death. I find it really tough to come up with a response to this aside from silence and a lot of lingering thoughts all pointing to “that’s so wrong.” Really depressing stuff.
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Re: Casta Paintings
Casta paintings are an interesting breed, as they function as art pieces, as well as a potential piece of anthropological and historical research for a shifting culture. I kind of see a lot of relevant contributions that casta paintings. The first being the aforementioned potential piece of anthropological and historical research of latin american culture during colonial rule. It allows us, as people who are looking into history and culture, to contextualize and peer into the ideals and societal perceptions of the spanish colonial elite on the growing society they are a part of, as well as how they perceived groups of people. However, that component is dedicated more to the future (us as observers) as opposed to the present of the casta paintings. I feel like casta paintings have the capacity to be construed as blueprints for to literally box in certain groups into certain stereotypes. And even as anthropological and historical research, they can get pretty unreliable at certain parts, like having certain groups of people labelled as “I don’t know understand you are” or “a step backward”. There are points when looking at and reading about casta paintings where it’s remarkably easy to say “that’s problematic”.
Posted in Blogs, Week 3 | Tagged with casta paintings, colonialism, cultural appropriation, ethnic cleansing, indoctrination, problematic, religion, Spain, spanish
First and foremost, I would like to say shoutouts to Jon’s haircut in this one. It looks nice.Re: Religion as WeaponIn one of our previous classes, we discussed (briefly) the use and implementation of religion re: the new world. In my group, we discuss…
Posted in Blogs, Week 3 | Tagged with casta paintings, colonialism, cultural appropriation, ethnic cleansing, indoctrination, problematic, religion, Spain, spanish
I hadn’t thought of the colonial experience as a Spanish (or European) crisis of identity before. I had pictured the colonizers as eagerly consuming all the land they were able to, and exploiting those resources and people who lived there. … Continue reading →
Posted in Blogs, Week 3 | Tagged with casta paintings, colonialism, disease, europe, gender, hierarchy, indigenous, mixture, race, Spain
When learning about history, what seems to stick with me the most is how historical events and ideas manifest themselves in the present day. When reading about casta paintings this week from Susan Deans-Smith’s article, I kept thinking about how these … Continue reading →
Posted in Blogs, Videos, Week 3 | Tagged with casta, casta paintings, colonization, diversity, ethnicity, hierarcies, history, identity, immigration, Peru, race, Venezuela
This week we have looked at casta paintings and the colonial experience. I found the casta paintings really interesting because they represented the social hierarchy found in Latin America at the time. At first, I tried to search for any signs that casta paintings might’ve had the intention of celebrating diversity by showing the different […]
Posted in Blogs, Week 3 | Tagged with casta paintings, Catalina de Erauso, colonial experience
