This reading had a similar theme of reinvestigating a commonly used term (hybrid/hybridisation) and deconstructing and critiquing the current and potential application of the term. Canclini’s writing was intriguing as his thoughts and findings are applicable to many aspects of how the world functions in these globalised times.
One thing I found interesting was, the concept of a ‘pure point of origin’ never really existing in this globalised state. This reminded me of an advertisement I saw recently by the travel company Momondo (even though it might be a bit of a tangent in regard to Latin American studies). The ad had 67 participants take a DNA test that shows their ancestry (click here for video). Prior to showing the participants the results, the people were asked where they thought they were from and a few participants expressed dislike for particular ethnicities and/or superiority of their ancestry through prejudices or their ‘purity’. Upon receiving the tests back most of the participants were shocked humbled to find how mixed their ancestry actually was. Although the ethnicity testing was critiqued amongst people in the field of DNA testing, the point was to depict how we are not as far away or unrelated to one another as we like to think! As Canclini stated “We can chose to live in a state of war or in a state of hybridisation” (xxxi). So, we must chose to embrace the overlaps between cultures, people, societies or we must be in constant collision, fighting for what belongs to whom and not progressing together. But what can be lost and how do we respect the tragedies of the past?
In the context of humans as a whole, the rise of technology (from biological DNA testing to social media) allows every one in the world to share and be connected on some level. Globalisation has created a form of mass hybridity to a certain extent, yet we are all still grounded in our own differences –cultures and beliefs. This is particularly interesting to me as it is relevant in our ever-globalising world but at the same time, fundamental traditions/beliefs must still be treated with respect and not appropriated as a pseudo hybridisation or just lost.