{"id":508,"date":"2009-03-10T10:58:21","date_gmt":"2009-03-10T18:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.landfood.ubc.ca\/jtraynor\/?p=18"},"modified":"2009-04-29T18:10:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-30T02:10:00","slug":"theories-of-mixture-ii-transculturation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/2009\/03\/10\/theories-of-mixture-ii-transculturation-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Theories of mixture II: transculturation"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span>After reading Vasconcelos and Wade\u2019s discussions on mestizaje,<\/em> this weeks readings presented an interesting follow up regarding the limitations of certain terms when discussing this topic of cultural and racial mixture. Mestizaje<\/em> seems to talk about an almost natural process of people coming together and how it plays out. In Vasconcelos opinion, this leads to the creation of a superior race, and in Wade\u2019s it serves as a platform for misplacement and questions of identity. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The readings this week challenge some of what these authors are saying. Mestizaje<\/em> seems to be too narrow a concept. Although it represents much more than a simple racial mixture, it does not delve deep enough in to the economic, social and political processes which allow for some societal traits to triumph others. As well, unlike \u2018the cosmic race,\u2019 where when the conquistadors succeed in assimilating the native cultures the new race is complete, transculturation acknowledges the contributions of all parties involved in mixture. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The first article by Ortiz explains why the use of \u2018transculturation\u2019 is used rather than the commonly known term \u2018acculturation.\u201d On page 98, Ortiz explains that \u2018acculturation is used to describe the process of transition from one culture to another, and its manifold social repercussions.\u201d <\/span>Ortiz then goes on to describe that \u2018transculturation is a more suitable term as it has the ability to encompass more of the complex \u2018transmutations of culture\u2019 such as \u201cin the economic or in the institutional, legal, ethical, religious, artistic, linguistic, psychological, sexual, or other aspects of life\u201d (Page 98). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ortiz uses Cuba as an example for this as the coming together of so many diverse groups on the island, the survival of some, and demise of others, has lead to the \u201cproblem of disadjustmment and readjustment, of deculturation and acculturation\u2014in a world of transculturation.\u201d (Page 98). Ortiz talks of not only the various economies and political systems (or lack thereof) influencing this process of transculturation, but also the manner in which the groups came to the island influencing how they influenced or were affected by transculturation. <\/span><\/p>\n

Most interesting to me was when Ortiz talked of the \u2018white men\u2019 from European countries who \u201cbrought with them a feudal economy, conquerors in search of loot and peoples to subjugate and make serfs of\u201d (Page 100). Although they came with these lavish intentions, they weren\u2019t necessarily coming from a similar hierarchal status. Ortiz describes these men as having \u201cleft their native lands ragged and penniless and arrived as lords and masters\u201d (Page 100). They had visions of power and wealth that they may not have had back in their homeland. Hence, these \u2018white men\u2019 had a thirst for domination and power that has carved in to the history of Latin America. <\/span><\/p>\n

On the reverse side of the spectrum, Ortiz describes the Africans brought in to the country as slaves, \u2018socially equalized by the same system of slavery\u2019 (Page 101). Thrown on to ships while soundlessly being assigned their position in the new world, the Africans may not have been allowed their \u2018institutions or implements\u2019 but they did bring with them \u2018their bodies and souls\u2019 (Page 101). Although the African people were subordinated their culture did and still does leave an imprint on what is Cuban culture. This past summer I went to Cuba and witnessed an all day celebration of \u2018Santeria\u2019 in the streets of Havana. Santeria is a good representation of the combination of cultures, as the religion itself is a fusion of the Catholic church and the African\u2019s own God\u2019s, a necessary combination so its presence would be allowed. <\/span>Transculturation is an appropriate term as it doesn\u2019t involve the loss of one culture in exchange for that of another. All parties involved have an influence on one another\u2019s lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>I chose to focus predominantly on the first article, however, the following two articles were great supplementary readings. The two articles by Cornejo Polar was excellent, especially in pointing out how cultural representations are influenced by artistic works of other cultures. Such as in the written works of indigenismo which have a European flare by being executed in similar written prose while describing indigenous culture. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The last article by Millington drove home the point that trans-culturation is superior to acculturation, describing \u2018acculturation\u2019 as referring to cultural take-over which is too definite a process and undermines the influences cultures have over one another regardless of power position. For balance, Millington does use literature which argues the effectiveness of this term. In an excerpt from author Neil Larsen, the point is brought up that \u2018transculturation\u2019 seems to present some sort of fairness of cultural influence, acting as a \u2018false solution to the underlying problem of social duality\u201d (Page 266). While this is valid to some extent, I think he is giving too much credit to the term, I see it more as being explanatory then some sort of cure (or band-aid as he would describe).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After reading Vasconcelos and Wade\u2019s discussions on mestizaje, this weeks readings presented an interesting follow up regarding the limitations of certain terms when discussing this topic of cultural and racial mixture. Mestizaje seems to talk about an almost natural process of people coming together and how it plays out. In Vasconcelos opinion, this leads […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3519,333],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ortiz-etc","category-responses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions\/876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/last201\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}