“ ‘Refined’ (refinado) was the adjective used to refer to someone considered culto, having culture. Diametrically opposed to ignorance, and yet more significant, to coarseness and immorality, having culture implied being erudite, having delicate manners, and behaving according to the principles prescribed by the Catholic religion”
When reading De la Cadena’s text, Indigenous Mestizos: The Politics of Race and Culture in Cuzco, I was surprised how terms of Indigenousness were avoided in the text- rather, De la Cadena explores premises of “culture” and “decency” the colonial state uses to justify discrimination, despite it being very evidently racially based. This tactic is often weaponized by colonial hierarchies, as it makes it more difficult to dismantle structures of subordination that allow them to remain in power. I thought this was very clear in the text that “culture” was being linked to “ethnicity”, but De la Cadena made a claim that made me wonder if it was as evident as I thought it was.
“These exculpations of racism are embedded in a definition of race rhetorically silenced by the historical subordination of phenotype to culture as a marker of difference. In other words, Peruvians think their discriminatory practices are not racist because they do not connote innate biological differences, but cultural ones”
This becomes exponentially complicated in the case of hybrid identities as seen in Mestizo community. The concept of “decency” is one of the ways that I saw this exemplified in the text. This weaponization of the Catholic standard of “decent behaviour” results in a systematic cultural assimilation of individuals of hybrid identities- who risk harm if not doing so. Not only are individuals rationing with balancing expectations of differing cultural values, but face prejudice and inhibition in social hierarchies if they reject the imposed colonial expectations designed to sever cultural ties. I’ve been wondering this week if there are residual prejudices in claiming Indigenous identities in Peru that perhaps inhibits people from doing so.
On a side note, I appreciated that De la Cadena took the time to address how these colonial notions of decency affect women differently than men. Oftentimes the male experience is taken as the default, and neglects the intersectionality of how coloniality affects women differently than men.
2 replies on “Blog Post #10: The (weaponized) Politics of Race and Culture”
“Oftentimes the male experience is taken as the default, and neglects the intersectionality of how coloniality affects women differently than men.” Too much has been written about Latin America without taking into account the gender perspective. Thank you for commenting on it on your blog, because, among other reasons, that is why De la Cadena’s book is very important. She recognizes and seeks to understand intersectionalities by historicizing concepts and, therefore, identifying contradictions. In several ways, women are the protagonists of what we read.
Hi Grace, thank you for your thoughts!
The way De La Cadena describes present day “Indigenous Mestizos” and how race is essentially viewed more through aspects of culture reminds me of our discussions of colonization from a few weeks ago; how, apparently, the Spanish cared more about the religion of the Indigenous than the fact that they were Indigenous. Despite all these things, people still notice when someone looks differently than them, and this must contribute to some subconcious discrimination at the very least, right? I feel like both these things can be true.