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”.
The Sistema Casta was a complex system in which Spanish colonizers attempted to make distinctions between as many different interracial…
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 →
This week we have looked at various casta paintings and how they reflect the ‘colonial experience’. At a first glance, through the lecture video and just by viewing the casta painting I have attached, it is easy to see that the colonial experience was NOT easy to navigate and had many more levels of social […]
In the video, it is said that labeling anyone with African descent as “black” is a very North American way of categorizing race. My question would be, what led to the differences between racial categorization in North and South America? As we saw from the Casta paintings, there was a different system of categorization, with […]
In the video, it is said that labeling anyone with African descent as “black” is a very North American way of categorizing race. My question would be, what led to the differences between racial categorization in North and South America? As we saw from the Casta paintings, there was a different system of categorization, with […]
I very much enjoyed all the material presented to us in week three. I started by listening to Alec Dawson’s podcast about colonial heritage and was struck by a couple of his premises, especially the idea of “us” and “them”, as it seems to be a reoccurring theme in my classes this week. The colonizer, […]
Alec Dawson on the legacies of colonialism (video)
(I completely forgot to post my blog… better late than never?)The problematic notion of cultural appropriation and colonialism are concepts that I’m beginning to see a greater awareness of, primarily due to looking into my own history as a second gen…
(I completely forgot to post my blog… better late than never?)The problematic notion of cultural appropriation and colonialism are concepts that I’m beginning to see a greater awareness of, primarily due to looking into my own history as a second gen…
