Colonial Influence Research Articles

Beyond Anti-Conquest: Unearthing the Botanical Archive with Locative Media

This article introduces the Alpine Garden MisGuide / Le Jardin alpin autrement, a locative media project that endeavours to bring the complex cultural and historical insights of the paper archive on botanical exploration into dialogue with the embodied experience of visiting the living archive of contemporary botanic gardens. Recently created mobile guides to botanic gardens tend to fall back on the discourse of “anti-conquest”—where the colonial subject claims innocence even as s/he subordinates the other to their gaze—to frame their collections for the public. Taking a decolonial approach, this essay explores how the affordances of the MisGuide’s locative platform presents opportunities to challenge innocent or nostalgic presentations of botanic gardens’ collections and engage garden visitors in a more complex account of the influence of colonialism in the history of gardens and the environment.

Uprooting Narratives: Legacies of Colonialism in the Neoliberal University

AbstractTwo intertwined stories evince the influence of colonialism on Western universities. The first story centers on a conflict about wild rice research between the Anishinaabe people and the University of Minnesota. Underlying this conflict is a genetic notion of biological identity that facilitates the commodification of wild rice. This notion of identity is inextricably linked to agricultural control and expansion. The second story addresses the foundation of Western universities on the goals of civilization and capitalist productivity. These norms persist even in diversity efforts through a focus on individualized notions of difference rather than socially contextualized and politically significant identities. The tendency to produce both knowledge and knowers as commodities results in the alienation, individuation, and abstraction of objects of research and researchers themselves. Decolonial change demands that we learn the specific histories of our universities and disciplines, break disciplinary boundaries, and contest commodification in knowledge production.

Deconstruction of Gambus Art Instrumentation, as a Prototype of the Emergence of Bandar Art in Pariaman West Sumatera

The establishment of gambus art in Pariaman as a port city is inseparable from the influence of Gujarat Arabs and western colonialism. In the past, Pariaman was famous as a place where Islam first entered the coastal regions of West Sumatra. This region was dominated by the interests of the sovereigns socially, politically, economically and culturally by migrant traders and Western colonials for quite a long time. This research, musicology, aims to see the deconstruction of a gambus orchestra instrument as a prototype of the emergence of Bandar art in the city of Pariaman namely gamat music and katumbak music. The research method used is descriptive analysis and interpretive methods using qualitative data in two aspects textual and contextual. It is suspected that, in terms of the development of the Gambus orchestra instrumentation in the city of Pariaman in 1965, it was marked not only by using acoustic musical instruments such as, gambus imported from Arabic but also by using other acoustic musical instruments imported from the West such as: violins, guitars, accordion, harmonium, cello pick, tipa drum, castanyet, and bass contra. Furthermore, this type of instrumentation is also used by other similar music groups, in the coastal regions of West Sumatra Keywords: Deconstruction, Instrumentation, Gambus, Art, Bandar. DOI : 10.7176/ADS/79-05 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

Weeks’chiloowew: Resistance and Disidentification in Tomson Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen and Jean de Léry’s History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil

This article examines the relationship between symbolic and physical violence toward First Nations peoples in the Americas. It examines the mutual sympathies of symbolic and physical violence, and the interdependence between them. Through an examination of how colonial and postcolonial narratives recount symbolic violence—through problematic narratives—and physical violence—through institutions like residential schools—the article charts how resistance to this violence is both actively mobilized and innate. Developing José Esteban Muñoz’s theory of disidentification, where resistance to colonial influence is neither an acceptance of dominant ideology nor overt resistance or opposition to it, early modern colonial documents are examined, and contemporary fictional texts demonstrate a third way of responding to dominant ideologies.

Deconstruction of the colonial discourse on the erpangir ku lau ritual in karo society

Erpangir ku lau is a ritual of cleansing based on Hindu Pemena teachings. This ritual teaches the Karo people to maintain harmonious relations between humans, the forces of nature, and the Creator. However, in the Dutch colonial era, erpangir lau was stopped because it was part of the worship and the practice of magic. The method used in this article is a descriptive qualitative research method that uses theory as a basis. This qualitative descriptive design format embraces phenomenology and post-positivism. This study aims to describe, summarize the various situations or phenomena of social reality in a society that are the object of research, and try to pull that reality to the surface as a description of certain conditions, situations, or phenomena. The findings obtained are that the colonial influence still imprinted on the person of the Karo people even though the occupation had long since ended. Concerning the Dutch colonial discourse, it is necessary to carry out a deconstruction practice to reverse the Karo people's perspective on the erpangir ku lau rites.

Museum Performativity and the Agency of Sacred Objects

Based on a critical revision of the Easter Island statue exhibit Hoa Hakananai’a at the British Museum, this paper discusses how indigenous sacred objects have been traditionally interpreted and displayed by Western universal museums. However, considering the influence of colonialism in the way these objects tend to be presented, it explores the potential of performativity in museums and its relevance for understanding the concept of agency in native ancestors’ representations. Therefore, it is argued that, through the integration of divergent non-Western ways of interpreting their collections, museums could promote participation, diversity and constructive connections with source communities and visitors alike, as contemporary museology has urged. Relating to similar cases, it also pays attention to the process of repatriation that Rapa Nui people have formally begun, with the support of the Chilean state as the constitution responsible for that territory. What is the role of museums in contemporary societies?

Casteism and Marriage in Igbo Society: A Study of Buchi Emecheta’s The Bride Price

The most prominent and pronounced form of casteism that prevails in the Nigerian society is the discrimination against Osus. Osu is a caste determined by heredity irrespective of the individual’s religious faith and practices. Though coming from a society where individual merit and achievement entitles one to the highest indigenous title and social prestige, Osus cannot aspire to one for their stigmatized caste status. Under the colonial influence, Osus became the first people to be educated, which made them the earliest Nigerian-Igbo elites, but this privileged class status too could not provide them an inroad into the mainstream of the Igbo society, which makes the Osu identity paradoxical. In this article, we attempt a reading of how the exclusionary practices of Igbo marriage ritual contribute in constructing the Osu identity as perpetually marginalized and, in doing so, how the Igbo society throws its preoccupation with individual merit and achievements as the keys to social respectability to the wind through Buchi Emecheta’s third novel The Bride Price. The novel is a study in different forms of marginalizations and liminalities, which raises questions about agency as it exposes the paradoxes on which the social life of a tribe is riveted.

Neo-Colonialism in India as Represented in Aravind Adiga’s The Last Man in Tower

The term ‘neo-colonialism’ generally represents the indirect involvement of the developed countries in the developing world. Post-colonial studies show in detail that in spite of attaining independence, the influence of colonialism and its representatives are still very present in the lives of most former colonies in different forms. These influences constitute the subject matter of neo-colonialism. Aravind Adiga’s Last Man in Tower abounds with incidences that represent neo-colonialism in India. The novel portrays how Mumbai, one of the metropolitan cities and an important commercial centre has developed a place of multiple opportunities. To have a decent house in a commercial city like Mumbai therefore remains only a dream for the middle class people. The residents of Tower-A are ordinary middle class people of Mumbai who try to live their both ends in the globalised India. The novel spins around two opposing forces: the retired school teacher Masterji, trying to fight for his rights and Dharmen Shah, the greedy real estate developer. This paper therefore is an attempt to identify the elements of neo-colonialism in India as represented in Aravind Adiga’s Last Man in Tower.

DOMINANCE OF EUROPEAN CULTURE IN TODAY’S SOCIETY

Throughout modern history, we can see that Western culture has influenced the life of people all of the world and the way we think. My research is focused on European colonialism and its impact on modern society. My reference materials in the research process include scholarly articles and current news articles. The findings of my research are that almost all of the issues and trends today are somewhat related to colonialism. Even though colonialism has long ended, its legacies remain in today’s society and has shaped the way of our thinking today, as it has led to dominance of European culture in the world. This paper examines colonialism’s impact in many different areas, including politics, economics, religion, language, clothing, and cuisine, using examples from different parts of the world, including Africa, Asia and South America. Based on the research, I have found the profound influence of European colonialism on today’s society and people’s way of thinking.

Remote Places As Post-Contact Refugia

ABSTRACTThe arrival of Europeans, and later Americans, to California in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to complex social and economic turmoil for Native Americans. Throughout this period, Native Americans found myriad ways of resisting colonial influence and maintaining traditional ways. In this article, we explore how two places considered “remote” by colonial powers (San Clemente Island and the Coso Range in the Mojave Desert) served as ideal locations for those seeking to remove themselves from the colonial system. Although local cultural and economic circumstances were different, both locations were less desirable to Euroamerican settlers until relatively late in time. Using the ideal free distribution model as a theoretical framework, this article argues that the remoteness of these areas allowed Native cultures to continue in traditional ways until the 1850s on the Channel Islands and the 1870s in the Coso Range.

SANCTIONS: POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC FORESHORTENING

A number of aspects of the change of the political and economic relations, apparent by the sanctions policy of the western states to the Russian Federation and its realization, has been considered. The balance between the liberty, equality and fraternity, the perfect competition and free business, on the one hand, and the competition of smothering, ball and chain, on the other hand, – has been disclosed. It has been substantiated, that the western states seek to substitute the colonial influence in the past for sanctions pressure in our days. It allows them to get not only the competitive advantage, but also to obtain the absolute dictatorship sometimes. The conclusion has been made, that external intervention in the natural course of managing and especially the rough administrative influence never gives a positive effect.

The colonial reverberations of livraria do Globo translations in 1930s Brazil

Este artigo investiga o começo do Brasil pós-colonial sob a ótica de uma de suas editoras mais proeminentes, a Livraria do Globo, procurando definir as ligações entre a tradução literária e o poder colonial supostamente em retrocesso. Em uma análise de nove traduções de textos originários de língua inglesa lançadas por aquela editora na década de 1930, o que inicialmente parecia fazer pouco sentido em termos de coerência de política editorial na verdade acabou por evidenciar uma influência colonial ainda bastante presente. França, Portugal e Inglaterra pareciam travar um embate nas páginas desses livros, ao mesmo tempo em que nelas também se viam os primeiros desdobramentos do nacionalismo brasileiro e da sistematização do português brasileiro.

Sacred Texts and Symbols: An Indigenous Filipino Perspective on Reading

Reading in the Philippines is a process whereby the body, mind and spirit are engaged. Even though Filipinos are predominantly Catholic, many believe that creative energy, in the form of spirits, dwells in nature. These spirits must be respected or else they can unleash their wrath through sickness and natural calamities. As a contribution to preserving Filipino indigenous knowledge, this paper will explore whatok, the tattooing tradition of the Butbut people of Kalinga and t’nalak, the weaving tradition of the T’boli people of Mindanao. The aim of this paper is to preserve the unique culture of the Philippines’ indigenous peoples’ while sharing a decolonized perspective on reading. The term “decolonized” is used to mean peeling away the layers of nearly 400 years of Spanish and American colonial influence on Filipino culture. I will do this by studying the ways in which indigenous Filipino people record memory. The Philippines has an ancient syllabary system, but I will focus on older forms of transmitting ancestral knowledge, tattooing and textile making. Hopefully, this method will challenge readers to see tattoos and textiles as a valid means of documentation beyond printed text.

THE LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL CHALLENGE IN AFRICA

The African continent is multilingual and multicultural in nature. Foreign languages and cultures have come to be accepted and integrated in daily life. The existence of African languages and cultures is still very vital for the continent. This paper examines the colonial influences and a way forward in Education and literacy. My personal experience as an African and researcher are at the bases of the analysis on the context, identity, education, policies, implementation and development.

Cultural Landscape Design in Nigeria during the Pre-Colonial, Colonial and Twenty-First Century.

Landscape is an integral part of man’s environment and the term in relation to a place may invoke the creation and experience of multiple meanings. This research investigates the relationship between landscapes in Nigeria during the precolonial, colonial and the twenty-first century. It looks at the influences of colonialism on landscape design, which seeks to find out how Nigeria has fared in its land use planning. The research highlighted the continued importance of historically constituted landscape upon which present-day activities in Nigeria are performed, and also considered the existing relationships of the present to the past. This paper through intensive review of relevant literature - books, journals and seminar papers amongst other documents, critically examined the factors that best answer the objectives of the study. The paper also outlines outdoor spaces that connect individuals to their social, economic and religious or cultural activities. It reviewed reasons that necessitate the proper organisation or arrangement that landscape design is concerned with. The paper recommended adequate implementation of town planning laws such as the active participation of the masses. Keywords: architecture, cultural landscape, design, environment DOI : 10.7176/CER/11-2-08 Publication date :March 31 st 2019

The Metropolitan Effect: Colonial Influence on the Internationalization of Francophone African Firms

ABSTRACTDrawing on the experience of firms of various sizes from Francophone Africa, we explore how the internationalization trajectories of frontier economy firms may vary from those predicted by theory. The firms studied followed social, linguistic, cultural, and institutional gradients to internationalize first to France, rather than to neighboring countries, and did so in search of not only markets and resources but also legitimacy. In turn, the sales, resources, and legitimacy acquired in France supported further international expansion, sometimes even to neighboring countries. Although our insights derive from the experience of Francophone firms from Africa, we argue that for firms from all former colonies, the internationalization trajectory leads through the colonial center. Our findings underline the roles of legitimacy-seeking and network ties in the internationalization of frontier market firms and serve as a salutatory reminder of the lingering influence of colonial ties on international business.

The Politics of Home and Identity in V.S. Naipaul's The Mimic Men

The motive of "home" and "identity" seems to be a recurrent one in African-Diasporan literature, especially the literature of the Caribbeans. This study presents V. S. Naipaul's The Mimic Men as a postcolonial novel that depicts the effects of colonialism on colonized people. The article clarifies the influence of colonialism on identity and how it affects the social, political, and psychological aspects of the people of a small Caribbean Island. The study highlights the manifestations related to the impact of colonization on self-identity and psychological confusion. The paper concludes that characters are emblematic of home and identity crisis and attest to the mimicry of displaced men.

Domesticity and Consumer Culture in Iran: Interior Revolutions of the Modern Era

Domesticity and Consumer Culture in Iran: Interior Revolutions of the Modern Era

‘HAVE YOU EVER CAPTURED ANYTHING FOR YOUR PARENTS?’ WAR, CAPTIVITY, AND SLAVERY ON THE PRECOLONIAL SOUTHERN AFRICAN HIGHVELD, C.1800–71

AbstractThe article analyses various cases of captivity in a region comprised within modern-day South Africa and Lesotho in the late precolonial period. Focusing on a single social institution, bohlanka, the article follows its traces scattered among the Batlhaping, the Basotho, the Barolong, the Bataung, and other smaller precolonial communities. Generally considered by scholars as a form of clientship based on cattle-loans, bohlanka is here redefined as originating from warfare and captivity, and later expanding to include the destitute. The fundamental elements of the institution — violence, natal alienation, and suspended death — lead to the conclusion that bohlanka constituted a local form of slavery that pre-dated colonial influences.

Confronting “dark” colonial pasts: a historical analysis of practices of representation in Belgian and Congolese schools, 1945–2015

ABSTRACT Over half a century since the last wave of political decolonisation, the handling of “dark” colonial histories remains topical. Influenced by the postcolonial turn, this study aims to examine, from a novel historical and comparative perspective, evolving textbook representations of Belgian colonialism and its legacy in Belgian and Congolese school history education since 1945. Its diachronic and synchronic narrative analysis identifies continuity and change, and convergences and divergences, in perspectives, emphases, and silences in textbook narratives. Pinpointing the influence of colonialism and postcolonial discourse on educational practices of representation, the study explores the sometimes contradictory influences on these practices of politics, academic historiography, popular historical culture, and processes of educationalisation. The analysis illuminates parallel shifts in the two countries from triumphalist colonialist ideologies towards more critical postcolonial perspectives. In relation to educational practices of representation, often aimed at socialising citizens into worldviews sanctioned by the political dispensation of the time, the traces of these shifts have reflected dominant societal discourses while being largely at odds with historiographical advances. These dynamics are evidence of a slow process of decolonisation of existing power structures and knowledge systems which only gradually gave way to a postcolonial world still in the making.