Cultural Misrepresentation Research Articles

META-NARRATIVE OF SANSKRIT IN INDIAN ENGLISH WRITINGS

Sanskrit has been the primary language and the receptacle of sublime expressions in early India. The language became an object of engagement for Indologists and Orientalists who began a series of translations of Sanskrit works in English and initiated an association that subsequently culminated in form of Indian English Writings. The gradual absorption of English in Indian culture became partly accountable for rendering original works of Sanskrit inaccessible due to incomprehensibility as well as distortions in translations and cultural misrepresentations. Yet, it was also the chief reason why crucial works of the Sanskrit tradition survived. It is in this context that this research paper analyses Sanskrit as an enduring source of influence in the genesis of the canonical tradition of Indian Writings in English.

Multilingualism and Multiculturalism in Family Guy: Challenges in Dubbing and Subtitling L3 Varieties of Spanish

Multilingualism and multiculturalism are verbally and visually recurrent in the sitcom Family Guy (1999-in production) through a combination of a main language of communication (L1) and other languages (L3) in the source language (SL) or source text (ST). The use of L3 is tantamount to tokenism and stereotyping characters, especially those whose recurrence is incidental and part of jokes. This paper compares two versions of the episode “Road to Rhode Island” (American and Spanish DVDs) and addresses a scene to analyze the linguistic challenges and lexical choices in dubbing and subtitling L1 and L3 in two geographical varieties of Spanish: Latin American Spanish and Peninsular Spanish. In this regard, this study focuses on the role and function of L3 in translation, the techniques to represent L3 in translation, L1 and L3 translation techniques, and which techniques are used in translation. Overall, this paper explores how the Spanish DVD adds a new L3 in the target text (TT) to maintain its original function in subtitling and dubbing, and the differences in the American DVD: L3TT omission in subtitling and L3TT change of function and meaning in dubbing, which ultimately accentuates linguistic and cultural misrepresentation and stereotypes.

Intercultural film literacy education against cultural mis-representation: Finnish visual art teachers’ perspectives

Cultural misrepresentation simplifies cultures and their minorities, promotes racism, nationalism and eventually weakens democracies by spreading false information through audio-visual media. Intercultural film literacy education combines intercultural education and film literacy and uses a film as a starting point to discuss the cultural context, to analyse cultural representation and to evaluate how the culture is portrayed from a stylistic and formal point of view. The current study builds upon the previous research that linked intercultural education and film literacy to discuss how visual art teachers understand and practice intercultural film literacy education towards critical analyses of cultural representation in audio-visual media. The research data includes eight semi-structured interviews with Finnish visual art teachers, which were analysed using a thematic approach. The findings reveal the need to broaden the concept of intercultural education to include LGBTQ+ people and focus on their experiences. At the same time, the findings highlight the importance of critical thinking to combat cultural misrepresentation, as well as the broader view of film literacy, which includes video-based social media. Finally, the results reveal a lack of cultural representation in an already limited number of teaching materials.

Demand reduction campaigns for the illegal wildlife trade in authoritarian Vietnam: Ungrounded environmentalism

The demand side of illegal wildlife trade (IWT) has received increasing academic, media, and policy attention for its powerful potential to address the biodiversity extinction crisis. The article contributes to this emerging literature by analysing demand reduction campaigns for illegally traded wildlife in Vietnam, a country that has been named and shamed by transnational conservation elites as one of key perpetrators of species loss across Africa. Conspicuous consumption of ‘rare’ and ‘prestige’ wildlife by the wealthy and nouveaux riches of Vietnam has been identified as a principal factor threatening the survival of many wild species. Accordingly/not surprisingly, significant amounts of donor and government money have been channelled to consumer-targeted interventions and campaigns in that country.My study shows that these campaigns have limited effects because they are a form of ‘ungrounded’ environmentalism. The article advances the scholarly debate on IWT demand reduction interventions by demonstrating that the ungrounded environmentalism typical of these campaigns is problematic and risks deepening historical stereotypes and cultural misrepresentations. As social beings, consumers are deeply embedded within long-standing socio-cultural, political and institutional contexts, therefore it is essential that consumer-targeted campaigns are be informed and underpinned by these dynamics, especially in authoritarian contexts such as Vietnam. The article offers a novel theoretical contribution to literature on environmental politics by focusing on the conceptual lens of ‘ungrounded’ environmentalism to demand-side campaigning, and testing its utility by applying it to the specific case of Vietnam.

Cultural use of ICT4D to promote Indigenous knowledge continuity of Ngarrindjeri stories and communal practices

AbstractWhile there is a considerable amount of interest in information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) in the Indigenous communities, it remains limited to those who can afford it and have the skills and knowledge to implement the technology and access appropriate digital tools. Hence, Indigenous communities are continually stigmatized as marginalized, leading to a cultural misrepresentation of histories that affects the continuing information disparity between Indigenous and Western knowledge systems, particularly the insufficient technology infrastructure designed for traditional users. In this article, ICT4D was conceptualized as a digital platform to support Senior Ngarrindjeri Elder Aunty Ellen Trevorrow in continuing her practice of weaving and storytelling throughout the pandemic. In this context, the community‐based participatory research (CBPR) principles within the structure of video ethnography were qualitatively designed to implement the ICT4D project culturally and ethically. Video recordings, image data, transcriptions, and the Ngarrindjeri ICT4D Pondi (Murray Cod) framework were embedded to justify the findings and the aim of illustrating Aunty Ellen's knowledge‐sharing process to online learners. Likewise, the results demonstrate the positive and negative impact of COVID‐19 on the continuity and orality of Aunty Ellen's cultural stories and practices. The future continuity of Aunty Ellen's knowledge ought to consider the inconsistency of technological infrastructure in regional areas, her waning health, and the interconnectedness of oral expertise, which often pose challenges. This study is a small step toward a better understanding of the value of oral knowledge; emphasizing the creation of e‐learning weaving instructional videos is valuable for future digital management of Indigenous knowledge relevant to LIS.

Extension and Continuation of the Colonized Misrepresentation of the Pakhtun Society: An Analysis of the selected Narrative

There has always been a huge debate about the misrepresentation of Pakhtuns. Pakhtuns have always been depicted as barbaric, exotic and uncivilized. Such kind of depiction disenfranchised their actual image throughout the world. Such misrepresentation basically paralyzed the identity and image of the said community. The present study explores Saidian' Co-Optation'' (self-orientalism) as a concept, following the footsteps of colonizers and contributing to the cultural misrepresentation of Pakhtuns. The primary text for the research is The Wandering Falcon (2011) by Jamil Ahmad. Such sort of misrepresentation carries different meanings andserves multiple purposes for the colonizers. The uni-polar, stereotypical and generalized misrepresentation unquestionably clouded the image of Pakhtuns. The research method used for the analysis of the selected text is textual analysis. It argues that howthe said work is keeping the promises of the colonizers to misrepresent their own people. The present study also highlights that how Pakhtuns are still under colonial suppression and are misrepresented by their own people.

Reimagining Conflict Management Pedagogy through Fantastical Role-Play Simulations

Abstract Research demonstrates that simulations encourage students to apply their understanding of theories and content, navigate problem-solving processes with peers, support student motivation for learning, and reflect afterward to enrich their comprehension of course materials. Peacebuilding and international relations scholars have implemented simulations to improve student learning and understanding about complex dilemmas, such as collective action, structural inequality, post-conflict reconstruction, climate change, disaster management, and terrorism. However, studies of real-life-based simulations also indicate that they may entrench, rather than subvert, students’ extant bias, perpetuate cultural misrepresentation, and pose logistical challenges for instructors and students. We thus add to scholarly debates about the utility of role-play simulations in internationalized pedagogy settings by asking and answering: Do adult learners perceive fantastical role-play simulations as effective teaching and learning tools for cross-cultural negotiation? We bridge disparate literature on (1) simulations as active learning tools, (2) real-life simulation approaches for teaching cross-cultural studies, and (3) creative play pedagogy to investigate the utility of fantastical simulation as a pedagogical approach for teaching cross-cultural negotiation theories. While we examined the perceived effectiveness of fantastical simulations for adult learners in a graduate-level course, more research is needed to understand their utility in other classrooms and disciplines.

Cultural Misrepresentations of the COVID-19 Response in Indonesia

The cultural aspects of Indonesian society have been overlooked by government policies aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19. The Government has tended to overlook Indonesian society’s visible and intimate culture, whether on a daily basis or in the face of unforeseen events such as crises. The data for this study were gathered by tracking COVID-19-related news on the internet, narrative and message content on social media, and television broadcasts. The absence, as well as the neglect, of local wisdom and local perspectives in preventing the spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia were mapped using primary data and critical analysis. The findings revealed that cultural misrepresentations in the handling of COVID-19 manifested themselves in a variety of ways, including the Government’s sole authority, the use of foreign languages, instructional messages, and community traditions. The neglect of culture has aided the virus’s spread, and society’s response has been indifferent, if not chaotic. This paper argues that if the lack of culture in the handling of COVID-19 is allowed to continue, the government-society relationship will become more distant, not only in terms of social but also cultural distancing.
 Keywords: COVID-19, pandemic, media online, media social, social distancing, cultural distancing

Otherness in Buchi Emecheta’s Second-Class Citizen: A Postcolonial Rendering

In postcolonial discourse, the concept of the “Other” represents someone who carries dark human traits such as stigmatization, subjugation, domination, socio-political or cultural misrepresentation. The “Other” represents one of the main postcolonial concepts in literary studies because there is indisputable evidence that the term is a colonial construct. In essence, colonialism has left a permanent mark in the minds of the colonized people and this imprint has significantly manifested in literature. This analysis, thus, aims to explore how the colonial “Other” is represented in Second-Class Citizen (1974), one of the prominent postcolonial novels written by Buchi Emecheta, an author from the colonized African society. This study adopts textual analysis in which context-oriented technique is used to understand the character traits of the colonial “Other” in the two selected texts. The analysis draws upon Postcolonial theory, particularly Edward Said’s Orientalist approach. We show that Emecheta represents the colonial “Other” as backward, inferior, and of lower social class. Also, this representation is based on economic and socio-cultural differences as well as conflictual relationships between African indigenous people and British citizens.

‘Africa is dying and no one gives a damn’: combating colonial historiography with revisionism, temporality in Tade Ipadeola’s The Sahara Testaments

ABSTRACT The colonial historiography of Africa renders the continent historyless, oriental, and primitive. This cultural misrepresentation of Africa has dominated Western imagination and influenced the relationship of the West with Africa for a number of decades, while traces of this prejudice still subsist till now. Like other Africanist writings that repudiate jaundiced colonial African historiography, Tade Ipadeola’s The Sahara Testaments (2012) offers a literary theorisation for interrogating the historiography through revisionism and temporality. Ipadeola assumes the role of a historical revisionist, making efforts to rectify Western ahistorical perception of Africa through empirical historical events, sites, and panjandrums. He uses the power of poetry to reinvigorate Africa’s past, projecting it as a tool to rebuild the future of the continent. As a revisionist, he refuses to accept the traditionalist colonial perspective of African historiography that is pro-West, but calls for a revisit and celebration of Africa’s past as a defining moment in the history of a continent relegated to the margins of global economy and development. Drawing on Ipadeola’s position, this article contends that Africa’s history should reflect triadic temporal linearity, rather than limiting its historical development to then and now, because doing so is self-defeating.

Applying an Indigenous methodology to a North–South, cross-cultural collaboration: successes and remaining challenges

This article represents our collective reflexivity in the process of applying an Indigenous methodology in a North–South, cross-cultural collaboration, funded through the British Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund. The projects’ aim was to bring together Bribri and Jakun leaders (from Costa Rica and Malaysia) for constructive dialogues about sustainable development. Specifically, we applied ulàpeitök (traditional form of Bribri collaboration and translates to lend [peitök] a hand), a concept of collaboration that honours family and community; we also used S-kṍpàkö, the Bribri word for conversation, a concept that translates to feeling the space around each other together. We analyse successes and challenges and elaborate on lessons learned including (a) how and why Indigenous collaboration and reciprocity should be understood before a project is planned or financed, (b) why western academic concepts of reciprocity (such as one-to-one exchanges) need to be decolonized to include Indigenous ways of relating to others, and (c) paying special attention to language in the co-writing of publications to avoid cultural misrepresentation. Our research can inform other North/South, Indigenous/non-Indigenous collaborations that aim to contribute to decolonizing research.

Myths of the Veiled Kingdom: Representation and Counter-Representation of the Middle East in Selected Contemporary Bestsellers

The present research stems from an interest in contemporary Western cultural stereotypes of the Middle East and the counter-discourse, which seeks to dismantle such images. One can argue that a monolithic approach to the East still exists, which is based on an opinionated mythic discourse. In his Mythologies, Roland Barthes notes that, in such a discourse, myth “distorts”. It is “an inflexion” (1972, 129). Many bestsellers, which depict images of the Middle East, cater to a long-borne stereotype of a secluded “veiled” realm that conjures up sketches from The Arabian Nights. For example, in her bestselling book, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (1995), Geraldine Brooks delineates her experience of travelling in several Islamic countries and her perspective of what she depicts as an exotic world, very much alien to Western culture, yet satisfying Western curiosity. The paper, thus, raises the question of whether, at the turn of the twenty-first century, bestsellers from the Western world still represent and interpellate the Middle East by means of a mythic discourse, or, whether they have shifted to a more impartial vantage point. Rajaa Alsanea’s Girls of Riyadh (2007), among others, is an example of a bestseller from this pivotal region of the world, proposing a counter-discourse as it attempts to dismantle the myth and tell a different story. The paper will shed light on selected bestsellers from the Middle East, which interpolate cultural misrepresentation.

What is (the wrong of) cultural appropriation?

Social media is full of accusations and counter-accusations of a wrong called ‘cultural appropriation’. Our goal in this article is to sift through these deliberations and identify what cultural appropriation is, what it is not, and what, if anything might be wrong with it. We begin by explaining why public discourse about cultural appropriation should matter to political theorists of multiculturalism, especially in the anti-immigrant mood that has engulfed many immigrant-receiving countries. We then place cultural appropriation under the umbrella of cultural engagement, before identifying two forms of problematic cultural engagement – cultural offence and cultural misrepresentation – that are often conflated with cultural appropriation. In the next section, we define cultural appropriation as the appropriation of something of cultural value, usually a symbol or a practice, to others. We go on to explain that two additional conditions must be present to define an act of cultural appropriation: the presence of significant contestation around the act of appropriation, and the presence of knowledge (or negligent culpability) in the act of appropriation. Although this account of cultural appropriation is normative, cultural appropriation is often wrong only in a trivial sense. One of the ways it can become more serious is through the presence of what we term ‘amplifiers’. The contextual conditions that can render acts of cultural appropriation more egregious include: the existence of a power imbalance between the cultural appropriator and those from whom the practice or symbol is appropriated; the absence of consent; and the presence of profit that accrues to the appropriator. Ultimately, we find that there are very few instances of seriously wrongful cultural appropriation, and that many of the actions decried as cultural appropriation may be wrongful, but not because they appropriate.

Tourism, Representation and Compensation among the Dukha Reindeer Herders of Mongolia

Abstract Increasingly, tourists come to northern Mongolia to visit the camps of the Dukha reindeer herders, a small group often characterized as primitive and disappearing. The year-round entry of tourists to Dukha camps is unregulated; the timing and context of these encounters, including compensation and accommodation, unpredictable. Some herders leverage dominant cultural and social capital, gaining more visitors and more opportunities to earn cash. However, while visits bolster the local economy, these cross-cultural contacts may disrupt traditional socio-cultural identities, migration patterns and egalitarian norms. This qualitative, interpretive study used guided, open-ended interviews (N=30), a modified pile sort and participant observation to examine reindeer herders’ perceptions of tourist visits and gift giving. Results show Dukha most involved with tourists have a positive attitude toward their visits. As tourists generally stay only two to four days, negative outcomes vis-a-vis gifts, cultural misrepresentations and economic compensation currently appear minimized. However, as visits increase, taiga tourism would further benefit from Dukha owned and controlled economic and ethnographic initiatives.

Experiences of Microaggressions Among American Indian and Alaska Native Students in Two Post-Secondary Contexts.

American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) are subject to widespread cultural misrepresentations ranging from intrusive questions about ethnic identity to Native-themed sports team mascots. Racial microaggressions are linked to negative physical health, mental health, and academic consequences for AI/ANs. This study examines microaggressions experienced by AI/AN post-secondary students in New Mexico and Oklahoma. Microaggression prevalence ratings and associated distress were compared across region, gender, income, age, and cultural involvement. Results showed microaggressions were highly prevalent among AI/AN students in New Mexico and Oklahoma and varied by demographic and cultural factors. Increased AI/AN microaggressions research is needed to bring awareness, education, and solutions.

Mascots, Metaphor, Methodology: Counter Poetics

Through a series of counter poems, the authors, one of whom is a sport mascot performer, consider the experiences, cultural (mis)representations, and significance of sports mascots in United States.

Toward Understanding Arab Women's Cultural Landscapes

The cultural representation of women in the Arab world is a complex issue due to the sensitivity surrounding their status in the region. We are confronted with many ways in which women are misrepresented and distorted. There are false claims used by male dominated culture(s) in the Arab world about women and their intellectual and physical capabilities. Indeed, Arab women are often prevented from representing themselves. When they are present, they are conceptualized as serving a decorative purpose. When women are given platforms from which they may speak, they are expected to reiterate male discourses.The paper focuses on the cultural and political marginalization and misrepresentation of Arab women and describes a number of cultural biases against women in Arabic-speaking societies. Based on culturally constructed misconceptions, Arab women are effaced and excluded from decision-making processes both politically, where they are subjugated and denied a social voice in the public sphere in favour of male-dominated discourses, and within the private sphere of the family where they are subordinate to male relatives.

A Semiotic Study: Cultural Misrepresentation in Pakistani Advertisements

This study analyzes the Pakistani culture’s misrepresentation in local brands’ advertisements. Three brands have been choose for this research: Lux (soap), Sunsilk (Shampoo) and Tarang (Milk pack). The research aims at the exploration of various signs, symbols and gestures that carry heavy connotative meaning and symbolic significance for the viewers; simultaneously highlighting the related issues. I will deploy a synthesis of semiotic analysis and critical theories for this analysis. Multiple images from advertisements have been captured for this study and Pierce’s model has been used for interpretation of all these signs. This is a multi and interdisciplinary study which is related to the different areas of culture, semiotics, and media. Keywords: Semiotics, misrepresentation, images, sign, culture, advertisements, symbols

Ethnic Bias in the Reception of Adolphe Stern’S Translations of Hamlet and Macbeth

Abstract This paper focuses on the way in which cultural misrepresentations interfere with the reading of the Romanian versions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth by Adolphe Stern, a Romanian translator of Jewish descent. The two main critical articles are authored by two renowned intellectuals from the historic principality of Moldova, A.D. Xenopol and I. Botez. Despite the fact that the critical opinions issued in the two articles are not enrooted in ethnic discrimination, the potential negativity of the criticism is fully exploited by promoters of extreme nationalism. Two are the reasons that catalyse the negative valorisation of Stern’s translations: the growing xenophobic nationalism that influenced the political decisions at the end of the 19th century, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the need to create a homogenous space for all Romanians, not only geographically, but also linguistically and culturally, translated in the emergence of a linguistic nationalism. Adolphe Stern, the embodiment of the foreigner, in spite of being born within the limits of the Romanian space, produces texts the value of which is denied, to compensate for the partial loss of identity inherent to all unification processes

Teaching about Islam and Muslims While Countering Cultural Misrepresentations

Contemporary global events of the War on Terror, the War on ISIS, and the United States contentious relationship with Muslim societies make it crucial to teach about Islam and Muslims in school. However, negative representations of Islam and Muslims often impede this process. Overcoming these challenges is critical for the development of compassionate and informed students who are capable of thinking critically in a complex and globalized world. This article shows the importance of addressing Muslim representation in the media, debunks myths about Islam and Muslims, and provides concrete classroom recommendations for teachers.