Western Cultural Imperialism Research Articles

Self-realizing a lived existence in service of emancipation: Tsenay Serequeberhan’s activist hermeneutics

Through his own activistic hermeneutics, Sereque­ berhan crafts a philosophy which allows African(a) persons pathways to self­-realization and self­-eman­cipation from Western cultural imperialism. He does this through a unique reading of Heidegger to arrive at a hermeneutics of existence, and through Gadamer to posit a specific historicity which he calls ‘our heritage’. This article first charts how Serequeberhan articulates these concepts, and then explores their prescriptive, activist intent. The upshot of this is a stronger appreciation of Serequeberhan’s work and how it provides a fresh approach through which we can better understand existence in a globalized, post­colonial, late capitalist society. For Western readers especially, it offers a framework to better describe the relationship between, the self, others, and the historical interactions between them in a world fraught with enclosure and harmful ideologies.

Posthuman Destinations: Indigenous Cultures in Leonora Carrington’s Mexican Oeuvre

ABSTRACT When surrealist Leonora Carrington (1917–2011) arrived in Mexico in 1943, she found herself in a post-revolutionary country seeking to steer its new identity away from colonial influence. Carrington’s orientation away from Europe resonated with Mexico’s quest for a new cultural identity, no longer inflected by colonial powers. This article examines the extent to which Carrington’s Mexican oeuvre exhibits an immersion within its post-colonial identity in a way which synthesises with her own revolutionary, feminist politics. I consider how her embrace with Mexico’s indigenous past in her mural “El Mundo Magico de Los Mayas” (1963) connects with a culture which eschews the centrality of the speciesist human for a more balanced ecology, giving voice to the more-than-human sphere and thus loosening European colonial ties. I suggest that Mexico’s embrace with its indigenous heritage is one that aligns with Carrington’s feminist exploration of a pre-patriarchal past, where Goddess figures emerge, and a non-Eurocentric culture of myth and magic is evoked. Examining her evocation of Chiapas Indian culture, Goddess motifs, and images of indigenous flora and fauna, this article suggests that Carrington demonstrates how indigenous philosophies guard against human exceptionalism, thus providing a perspective and portal outside of Western cultural imperialism.

Decolonizing Coptic (Music) Studies


 
 
 In this discussion, I consider the rising ambivalences of situating Coptic (music) studies within their lived encounters of Western colonialism and continued Western cultural imperialism. In many ways, Coptic (music) studies is the direct result of Coptic colonial encounters, as Western scholars first categorized, transcribed, and studied Coptic music and Copts as colonial subjects. In turn, Copts too have strategized their subaltern status as a beleaguered religious minority in Egypt to cultivate a critical indigeneity movement that continues today. Here, I argue that to dismiss Coptic ongoing experiences of coloniality, both in Egypt and in Copts’ new North American homelands, exacerbates the gendered and classed exclusions of non-canonical voices in Coptic music’s lived experiences, in this case, women’s voices. Only by situating Coptic scholarship, histories, and music culture within these larger contexts can we begin to reckon with how European powers, extractive scholarly wealth, and Eurocentric imperial structures continue to shape the ways in which we engage with Coptic Christianity, either as pious believers, clerics who administer the Church’s most Holy rites, or as scholars both within and outside of the community. In the end, we may even work towards decolonizing ourselves and learn how to be active allies and advocates for others who, like us, share an ongoing and dialectical history with coloniality and cultural sovereignty.
 
 

Travelling Noodles and Migrating Pieces of Raw Fish

Travelling Noodles and Migrating Pieces of Raw Fish

Varia: Cultural Nationalism and Postcolonial Imperatives in Irene Salami-Agunloye’s Emotan: A Benin Heroine and Emmy Idegu’s Ata Igala the Great

This article examines the efforts of postcolonial creative writers, particularly dramatists, who attempt to rethink the seeming erosion of African culture in the face of western cultural expansion. The present research adopts the methods of descriptive and content analysis, as it dwells on books, journal articles, and internet materials to examine its subject. Of immediate interest are two Nigerian plays, Ata Igala the Great by Emmy Idegu and Emotan: A Benin Heroine by Irene Salami-Agunloye, which are read as paradigmatic texts for interpreting problematic postcolonial relationships. The article contributes to discussions related to colonialism and the hidden agenda of neo-colonialism, which are often interpreted in terms of western economic interests underlying cultural expansion. The article demonstrates how African postcolonial writers have striven to reverse this trend by promoting Africa’s cultural aesthetics as they represent indigenous ways of life and their problematic interaction with western cultural patterns. The discussed works focus on cultural canons related to African life, such as consultation with oracles, ancestor worship, and festivals; and they demonstrate the aesthetic specifics of African dance, music, songs, and their semiotic significance. The article concludes that even though the two plays “speak back” to power, their strength lies in the articulation of certain aesthetic patterns that contribute to African self-location. Thus, the plays not only attempt to assert African culture, but they also strive to rethink the meanings of western cultural imperialism.

NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AS A SOURCE OF WESTERN CULTURAL IMPERIALISM IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF AWKA METROPOLIS IN ANAMBRA STATE

This study aimed at investigating new communication technologies as a source of western cultural imperialism in Nigeria; a study of Awka metropolis in Anambra State. Anchored on the framework of the Social Learning Theory, it delved into investigating the nature and the extent of domination using a survey of 100 respondents from Awka metropolis in Awka South local government area of Anambra State. The study adopted Survey method as the research design .A sample of 100 respondents were selected via the multi-stage approach. Data analysis was quantitative using simple percentages and Pearson’s Chi square test. Findings indicate that residents of Awka metropolis are adequately exposed to these new electronic communication technologies and that these technologies are potential channels for foisting western (and in particular American) culture on the people while possibly eroding the indigenous culture. For this reason, it is recommended among others that Nigeria should adopt protectionism (a system of using legal mechanisms to regulate media content so as to guard against domination) as a means of controlling western cultural imperialism.

Luxury for the Many: Politics and Virtues of the Knockoff

The object and subject of this paper is the luxury knockoff. Cheap, primitive, fragile and shiny, the fake’s omnipresence makes luxury logos common, it instils doubt at the sight of what was designed as undeniable proof of wealth. Though theirs depends on the existence of exclusive desirables, the analysis shows by way of examples how different types of counterfeits – such as Yuandan goods – come to question the nature and notion of luxury. It examines fakes in their materiality: textiles and labels, the language of misspelt brand names that Lin and Tatarsky read “as a subversion … of Western cultural imperialism”. It then considers their reproduction, tracing back the spillage and trajectories of counterfeits’ diffusion from their birthplace – the Pearl River Delta region in China, for the most part – across cultural and physical borders. An argument is made for thinking counterfeits’ consumption through Jean Baudrillard’s notion of hyperconformity: as a “refusal by over acceptance” of neo-colonial consumerism. The aim is to demonstrate that the destabilising potential of fakes does not rely on the motivations and intentions of the humans who produce and consume them, but that objects produced and consumed in response to a culture of extreme materialism may inadvertently become allies in the resistance against global capitalism, and the system of values of Western import that it imposes.

Narratives of Transfer, Dependence, and Resistance: Rastafarian Perspectives on US Colonialism in the Virgin Islands

AbstractIn 1917, the United States purchased the Virgin Islands—and the people living on them—for $25 million from Denmark. The US Virgin Islands is currently one of 16 remaining non‐self‐governing territories in the world. This political (and necessarily) economic status is fundamentally identical to the “colony.” The territorial status of the Virgin Islands severely hampers the human rights and social, economic, and political potential and autonomy of the dependents of the Virgin Islands. My work focuses on the ways in which Rastafarians on St. Croix, USVI resist, negotiate, accommodate, and internalize their dependent territorial status and the ways in which they critique Western cultural, economic, and political imperialism through historical narrative, personal history, and political commentary during ritual reasonings or sessions. Much of the following article is in narrative form, so that Rastas can speak on colonialism and hegemony in their own words.

‘Development’ as Both Idea and Action Represents a Contemporary Version of Western Economic, Political, Cultural and Ideological Imperialism

The discourse surrounding development has for some time created a well circumscribed paradigm for states to work within in order to be seen to progress. Moreover, the increasing demand to keep up with globalization has further given weight to this discourse. However, the notion of development itself is arguably inextricably linked to western ideas of ‘progress’. As a result, the development discourse is deployed as a strategic means of propagating imperialistic endeavors. Thus, to begin to consider if we can think beyond the paradigm of development, this article will deconstruct the contemporary version of imperialism whereby western states are able to grow influence in economic, political and cultural terms.

The Public Interest Behind #JeSuisCharlie and #JeSuisAhmed: Social Media and Hashtag Virality as Mechanisms for Western Cultural Imperialism

As social creatures, humans are highly involved in storytelling. With the continued advancement of communication systems, the mechanisms for telling the narrative of human events also have evolved. Social media and the memetic properties of hashtags’ going viral are the apex of modern, digitally mediated, storytelling tools. This critical essay discussed two hashtags, i.e., narratives, of the Charlie Hebdo Paris shooting to illustrate how hashtag virality can be a mechanism for the spread and enforcement of Western perspectives. It then explored precedents under which international law could potentially warrant regulation of such behavior. Concerned with the protection of human diversity and cultural pluralism, this essay advanced a normative course of action to facilitate social change as conceived by an interdisciplinary framework.

Pussy Provocations: Feminist Protest and Anti-Feminist Resurgence in Russia

The Russian feminist punk-art group Pussy Riot sparked a remarkable series of responses with their provocative “punk prayer” in a Moscow cathedral in 2012. This article analyzes the social, political, and cultural dynamics of provocation (provokatsiya) by examining everyday conversations, speeches, articles and other linguistic acts through which Russian Orthodox, feminist, and left-leaning and liberal participants in the anti-Putin opposition made sense of Pussy Riot. A provocation violates norms in ways that compel observers to name and defend those norms. This process simultaneously invigorates norms and helps people shore up their own senses of self amid uncertainty. Yet what observers identify as the provocation — what norms are perceived to be violated — shapes what values they reinforce. Responding to Pussy Riot, Russian Orthodox activists asserted themselves as defenders of tradition against the forces of Western cultural imperialism, including feminism and LGBT rights. Yet most responses from the anti-Putin opposition focused on norms related to speech and protest rights, while Russian feminists were often reluctant even to claim Pussy Riot as feminist at all. Due to this asymmetry, Pussy Riot’s feminist protest revitalized anti-feminism in Russia without a concomitant strengthening of feminist values among supporters.

A Game for the Global North: The 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang and South Korean Cultural Politics

The South Korean region of Pyeongchang will host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Using Wallerstein’s world system theory and Collins’s notions of zones of prestige and emulation as a conceptual framework, this paper examines the South Korean Government’s intention to stage the winter sporting spectacle. As the Winter Olympics is arguably considered a game for the relatively affluent global north, South Korea, as a semi-core state, attempts to elevate its position to a global economic and cultural powerhouse through being a host of this winter sports mega-event. However, it should be noted that the Winter Olympic Games is an event through which white supremacy and Western cultural hegemony are continuously reinforced. Therefore, the South Korean ambition to enhance its international standing by staging the Winter Olympic Games paradoxically reflects Western cultural imperialism and Orientalism embedded in South Korean cultural politics associated with the winter sporting contest.

Place, Space, and Time in MC Solaar’s American Francophone

Place, Space, and Time in MC Solaar’s American Francophone

Are Human Rights Universal or Culturally Relative?

What are human rights? Are human rights universal or culturally relative? Is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) a manifestation of Western cultural imperialism? Since the UDHR was cre...

Protecting the Majority of Humanity

Protecting the Majority of Humanity

Beyond homogenization discourse: Reconsidering the cultural consequences of globalized medical education

Introduction: Global medical education standards, largely designed in the West, have been promoted across national boundaries with limited regard for cultural differences. This review aims to identify discourses on cultural globalization in medical education literature from non-Western countries.Methods: To explore the diversity of discourses related to globalization and culture in the field of medical education, the authors conducted a critical review of medical education research from non-Western countries published in Academic Medicine, Medical Education and Medical Teacher from 2006 to 2014. Key discourses about globalization and culture emerged from a preliminary analysis of this body of literature. A secondary analysis identified inductive sub-themes.Results: Homogenization, polarization and hybridization emerged as key themes in the literature. These findings demonstrate the existence of discourses beyond Western-led homogenization and the co-existence of globalization discourses ranging from homogenization to syncretism to resistance.Conclusions: This review calls attention to the existence of manifold discourses about globalization and culture in non-Western medical education contexts. In refocusing global medical education processes to avoid Western cultural imperialism, it will also be necessary to avoid the pitfalls of other globalization discourses. Moving beyond existing discourses, researchers and educators should work towards equitable, context-sensitive and locally-driven approaches to global medical education.

Beauty and Benevolence: A History of the Cosmetics Industry’s Globalization through Philanthropy

This research demonstrates how after World Warii, theuscosmetics industry was able to feminize cultural imperialism by using philanthropic efforts in order to expand its influence within the global market. This article presents four important frameworks in order to understand the role of capitalism, consumerism, and the cosmetics industry in a global arena: first, the cosmetics industry’s increased globalization after World Wari; second, the emergence of corporate social responsibility and philanthropy; third, selling products and advertising through philanthropy; fourth, the use of beauty and cosmetics as a way to employ a softer side of western cultural imperialism.

Perspectives for a Social Integration of Human Rights in the Muslim World

Human Rights are defined as sort of humankind “Esperanto”, a neutral language able to promote the difficult task of dialogue across communities. When speaking about “Islam”, it is easy or generates a misunderstanding, because the word Islam does not refers to a monolithic entity: Ummah, the global community of all Muslim believers, is indeed plural and fragmentary from both a geographical and a cultural perspective. In the course of my essay, I will start from the work of John Rawls and Abdullahi Ahmed An- Naim, then focus on a new concept of Human Rights, stressing practical tools rather than hermeneutical ones. As a matter of fact this project should start within the Islamic world in order to be more easily accepted. Furthermore, it is necessary to firstly undertake this task there, so that it cannot be claimed to be the result of western cultural imperialism. The Islamic countries ought to rethink the idea of “public reason”, which must not be confused with the “reason of the sovereign” and should instead outcomes from the dialogue between people. This is possible thanks to a progressive rooting out of the traditional concept of Shari’a and a renovated concept of ijtihad, the concept of personal reasoning, so that the Islamic world can achieve a stronger critical sense towards itself and its religious dogmatism.

Sexuality and the official construction of Occidentalism in Maoist and early post-Mao China

In Occidentalism, Xiaomei Chen observes that the West was employed by the opponents of official institutions as a liberating force against the Chinese government in the post-Mao period. As her arguments are premised on the basis that the government views the West as the contrary, the book briefly delineates ‘official Occidentalism’ that serves for domestic oppression of its citizens, and occasionally cultural imperialism toward its socialist brother. Nevertheless, this observation, as she admits, does not intend to totalize all cultural aspects and diversities. Encapsulating highly controversial and contested categories, as well as complicated or even contradictory sentiments, sexuality broaches a new subject matter on the study of Occidentalism. Situated in the genealogy of representing the West in Maoist and early post-Mao China by the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, the People’s Daily, this article argues that, while sexuality had been silenced and suppressed under administrative penalties and Party disciplinary sanctions, it was powerfully embedded within and stereotyped by socialist ideologies, serving as a tool for the government to construct socialist superiority and capitalist inferiority, by means of which ‘new China’ gets healed from historical trauma, the socialist regime is justified, Western cultural imperialism is resisted, political allegiance is sustained, sino-centrism is re-established within the domestic sphere and the identity of the party-state is mediated. In doing so, the article aims to provide a theoretical construction of ‘official Occidentalism’ from the multiple lens of sexualities in Maoist and early post-Mao China.

Colonialidad, descolonización e interculturalidad: Apuntes desde la Filosofía Intercultural

This short essay reframes the debate on the subject stated in the title from the perspective of an intercultural philosophy and liberationist, seeking to clarify the concepts involved and distinguish between postures more or less naive or celebratory of the interculturality/decolonization, on one hand, and critical and emancipatory postures on the other hand. We are at an historic point in which the discourse of interculturality and decolonization undergoes a process of wear and cooptation by the hegemonic monocultural and globalizing model in the sense of a Western cultural imperialism and of a postmodernity in consumerism key.