scholarly journals Archaeological heritage in the age of digital colonialism

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-125
Author(s):  
Monika Stobiecka
Keyword(s):  
Grand Tour ◽  
Archaeological Heritage ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Digital Reconstruction ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
Digital Documentation ◽  
Heritage Politics ◽  
The One ◽  
Epistemological Dimension

AbstractDigital archaeologists claim that their practices have proven to be an important tool for mediating conflict, ensuring that the digital turn in archaeology entails engaging in current political issues. This can be questioned by analysing a copy of the Syrian Arch of Triumph. The original was destroyed in 2015. A year later, a copy was carved out of Egyptian marble; the replica was constructed thanks to digital documentation, which allowed archaeologists to create a 3D model. The arch was placed in various Western locations; however, it never reached Syria. Hybridity, the cultural and political significance of the arch’s replica and its ‘Grand Tour’ invite us to think about different interpretive layers of this artefact of ideological discourse (ontological, epistemological, ethical). In this paper, the replica of the Syrian arch will be analysed through the frameworks of post-colonial theory and technology studies. Both perspectives provide an insight into promising advantages and alarming drawbacks of such digital practices. This paper argues that the case of a copy of the Syrian Arch of Triumph on the one hand reflects the contemporary colonial technocracy in heritage politics (an ethical dimension), and on the other demonstrates that an ideological aspect of its digital reconstruction emerges from a speculative anticipation of what might constitute the universal value of world heritage in the future (an onto-epistemological dimension).

The ant as metaphor: Orientalism, imperialism and myrmecology [W. T. Stearn Student Essay]

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-361
Author(s):  
Carissa Chew
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Ant Colony ◽  
The Other ◽  
White People ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Inferior Status ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
The One ◽  
Civilized Society

Myrmecological texts that circulated in Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth century can be interpreted, from the perspective of the post-colonial theory of Orientalism, as belonging to a wider body of colonial-era European literature that has historically portrayed New World peoples and animals as the “Other”. In implicit ways, colonial-era literature on ant behaviour reproduces the Orientalist dichotomy of civilization and savagery. At different times, the ant colony has been portrayed, somewhat paradoxically, as both a civilized society in miniature and a foreign savage order. On the one hand, some British myrmecological texts rendered the ant as a symbol of Britishness and civilization: the elevated image of the ant reflected the imperialist trope that non-white people were inferior, savage Others. On the other hand, the ant colony was portrayed elsewhere in British myrmecological literature – and in other European texts that were translated into English and circulated in Britain – as a dangerous, merciless and aggressive Otherness itself. Accordingly, in these texts, the ant and the “native” are depicted as accomplices who share an antagonism toward the colonial project. Both these positive and negative representations of the ant reflect and reproduce Orientalist tropes, which have historically been used to emphasize the perceived inferior status of non-white colonial subjects.

Decolonising African Cultural Identity in Es’kia Mphahlele’s Chirundu : A literary Appreciation

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-45
Author(s):  
Malesela Edward Montle
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Hybridity ◽  
African Culture ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
African Renaissance ◽  
The World ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
The One

Though Africans are striving to re-define and re-construct themselves through re-asserting their eroded African cultural identity, this appears to be a mammoth, almost insurmountable task. It remains a nuanced terrain because, on the one hand, there is material benefit from being bedfellows with the neocolonial forces while on the other hand, there is hardship which is meted out against the proponents of African decolonisation, particularly the quintessential ones. Sanctions are one of the austerity measures which the neo-colonial powers use to suppress those Africans who genuinely want to advance African renaissance. This is the cause of identity crisis among many Africans, and unsavoury marriages of convenience between the West and African nations today. This paper, therefore, seeks to examine the dilemma faced by the essentialist adherents of African culture today and their supposed role in the advancement of Africa as a continent. It uses Chirundu's character in Es'kia Mphahlele's novel of the same name, as a case in point. The argument, in this paper, is grounded on Afrocentricity as a strand of Post-Colonial Theory (with or without a hyphen) with an implied suggestion that the solution to Africa's postcolonial challenges lies in forging cultural hybridity with the nations of the world.

Óscar Romero and the Politics of Sainthood

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-291
Author(s):  
Manuel A. Vasquez ◽  
Anna L. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil War ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
The Other ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Holy See ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Face ◽  
Crisis Of Modernity ◽  
The One

In this article, we explore the debates surrounding the proposed canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero, an outspoken defender of human rights and the poor during the civil war in El Salvador, who was assassinated in March 1980 by paramilitary death squads while saying Mass. More specifically, we examine the tension between, on the one hand, local and popular understandings of Romero’s life and legacy and, on the other hand, transnational and institutional interpretations. We argue that the reluctance of the Vatican to advance Romero’s canonization process has to do with the need to domesticate and “privatize” his image. This depoliticization of Romero’s work and teachings is a part of a larger agenda of neo-Romanization, an attempt by the Holy See to redeploy a post-colonial and transnational Catholic regime in the face of the crisis of modernity and the advent of postmodern relativism. This redeployment is based on the control of local religious expressions, particularly those that advocate for a more participatory church, which have proliferated with contemporary globalization

Subordinate-Deity Models of Ultimate Reality

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley J. Wildman
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Metaphysical Problem ◽  
Axial Age ◽  
Colonial Resistance ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One

Subordinate-deity models of ultimate reality affirm that God is Highest Being within an ultimate reality that is neither conceptually tractable nor religiously relevant. Subordinate-deity models ceded their dominance to agential-being models of ultimate reality by refusing to supply a comprehensive answer to the metaphysical problem of the One and the Many in the wake of the Axial-Age interest in that problem, but they have revived in the twentieth century due to post-colonial resistance to putatively comprehensive explanations. Subordinate-deity ultimacy models resist the Intentionality Attribution and Narrative Comprehensibility dimensions of anthropomorphism to some degree but continue to employ the Rational Practicality dimension of anthropomorphism, resulting in a strategy of judicious anthropomorphism. Variations, strengths, and weaknesses of the subordinate-deity class of ultimacy models are discussed.

scholarly journals Matrices of ‘Love and Theft’: Joan Baez Imitates Bob Dylan

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
MIMI HADDON
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
First Century ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Third ◽  
Bob Dylan ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Asymmetrical Power ◽  
American Popular Music

Abstract This article uses Joan Baez's impersonations of Bob Dylan from the mid-1960s to the beginning of the twenty-first century as performances where multiple fields of complementary discourse converge. The article is organized in three parts. The first part addresses the musical details of Baez's acts of mimicry and their uncanny ability to summon Dylan's predecessors. The second considers mimicry in the context of identity, specifically race and asymmetrical power relations in the history of American popular music. The third and final section analyses her imitations in the context of gender and reproductive labour, focusing on the way various media have shaped her persona and her relationship to Dylan. The article engages critical theoretical work informed by psychoanalysis, post-colonial theory, and Marxist feminism.

scholarly journals Hidden features in global knowledge production: (re)positioning theory and practice in academic writing

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Windle
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Positioning Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Academic Literacies ◽  
Global Knowledge ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
Global North

ABSTRACT A key challenge for applied linguistics is how to deal with the historical power imbalance in knowledge production between the global north and south. A central objective of critical applied linguistics has been to provide new epistemological foundations that address this problem, through the lenses of post-colonial theory, for example. This article shows how the structure of academic writing, even within critical traditions, can reinforce unequal transnational relations of knowledge. Analysis of Brazilian theses and publications that draw on the multiliteracies framework identifies a series of discursive moves that constitute “hidden features” (STREET, 2009), positioning “northern” theory as universal and “southern” empirical applications as locally bounded. The article offers a set of questions for critical reflection during the writing process, contributing to the literature on academic literacies.

Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader

1995 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 168
Author(s):  
David Chioni Moore ◽  
Patrick Williams ◽  
Laura Chrisman ◽  
Bill Ashcroft ◽  
Gareth Griffiths ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Discourse ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Theory

A Contextual Genealogical Approach to Study the Religious

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Edgar Zavala-Pelayo
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Analytical Procedures ◽  
The One

Abstract The paper seeks to fill the gap in the literature that on the one hand adopts productively a Foucauldian genealogical approach to analyze religious phenomena yet on the other hand offers only minimum details, or no account, of methodological criteria and analytical procedures. Drawing retrospectively on the methodological experiences and insights of the author’s previous genealogical exercises, and the findings of some of the works above, the paper develops a contextual genealogical approach to study the religious in colonial and post-colonial settings with a Christian background. Based on a critical adoption of Nietzschean and Foucauldian tenets and six strategic analytical axes, the approach is presented as an open and flexible context-oriented methodological alternative for the necessarily constant rethinking of the religious in the present.

scholarly journals Ethnohermeneutics in a postmodern world

1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
Armin Geertz
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
World History ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Literature And Science ◽  
Western Literature ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Colonial Theory ◽  
Recent Collection ◽  
Critical Literature

During the last three decades a growing amount of literature has accumulated that, to quote from the title of a recent collection of essays, can aptly be summed up with the words: The Empire Writes Back. This literature addresses Western literature and science and definitively rejects much of that literature and its stereotypes. It shows how power is at the center of Western literature, and it therefore addresses issues of hegemony, language, place and displacement, racism and sexism, and it attempts to address a common post-colonial theory. This critical literature, sometimes extreme but usually insightful, coincided with the postmodern crisis in ethnography and other cultural sciences that have also assimilated literary theory. Some of the greatest philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, historians, and cultural scientists are either ignorant of world history or adamantly ethnocentric. Ethnohermeneutics is an appeal to professionalism in dealing with these cultures, especially in requiring the basics of the study of any other religion, namely, historical insight, linguistic knowledge.

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