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”.
While reading Columbus’ journal for this week’s pre-reading, I came to see the violence of his actions and the consequent violence perpetuated by them in a different light than previously. Having been taught my high school history curriculum by a … Continue reading →
This week the readings were based on what we may consider, today, the beginning of Latin America. For me Latin America has always been full of culture and history. I had never considered the beginning of it; I had only ever considered it as it is today. Hence, I found 1942 an interesting but logical […]
In primary school I was told the story of Christopher Columbus, how he crossed the ocean and discovered the continent which we now know as America. Having always been fascinated with the world, I found his journey extraordinary. Today, I still remember how he used to be my favourite protagonist in History. He remained so … Continue reading “WEEK 2: The Meeting of Two Worlds”
The first I would to summarize and discuss is an lecture on Haiti released on January 2nd of 1893 from the book “Haiti: A Slave Revolution”, which was released a 2004 and is a collection of essays, lectures, or all around academic look into the history of Haiti 200 years after they revolted and became […]
The first I would to summarize and discuss is an lecture on Haiti released on January 2nd of 1893 from the book “Haiti: A Slave Revolution”, which was released a 2004 and is a collection of essays, lectures, or all around academic look into the history of Haiti 200 years after they revolted and became […]
I found this week’s homework to be very interesting, which focuses on how people viewed each other in Latin America from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century. I say the nineteenth century because this is how far our homework extended, although I feel that racial disparities are still apparent in Latin America. I found […]
I found this week’s homework to be very interesting, which focuses on how people viewed each other in Latin America from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century. I say the nineteenth century because this is how far our homework extended, although I feel that racial disparities are still apparent in Latin America. I found […]
It is strange to think that it took centuries for October 12, 1492 to become a day of such significance. Maybe I am forgetting to remember how much longer it took for news to travel than as it does now. Anyways, while listing to Week Three’s video lecture, I noticed that the Alhambra Decree was […]
