Week Two
(I completely forgot to post my blog... better late than never?)
The problematic notion of cultural appropriation and colonialism are concepts that I'm beginning to see a greater awareness of, primarily due to looking into my own history as a second generation kid.
What I find interesting about Columbus is that he is just as much a concept synonymous with the aforementioned appropriator and spokesman for colonialism as he is a figure who made decisions in the "discovery" of America. His name becomes a bit of a synecdoche for the entire movement of imperialism in America. In class we had 3 questions (which I think are student asked?), but there arae 2 I would like to address and share (I suppose this is the nice thing about being late, you can kind of have thoughts percolate throughout the day?)-
How much is Columbus to blame?
This was an interesting question to have off the bat, as it's not about "what" Columbus is to blame for, but the quantification of how much he is to blame for the repercussions of his actions. Though Columbus was not the sole perpetrator of abusing and invading upon the spaces of the Native people, Columbus is the man who set the plan into motion for hundreds of years of abuse. He may have been set out to fulfill a goal re: looking for trade routes(?), but what he did to the Native settlers of America (instilling of religion for example) created a trauma. Trauma is typically based upon the very negative reception of a mentally stressful event. Much of trauma is built upon hindsight of these negative events, and they can be applied as traumatic when these events are in the past. Trauma recontextualizes the past in order to rationalize aspects and actions of the present and future. So if anything, I suppose Columbus's blame is reliant on the group he/what he represents illicited upon people.
What is a hero?
Our group had an interesting discussion on this, and I didn't have a firm answer on this one until I thought about it for a few minutes. It kind of came to a simple answer- a hero is contextualized by a narrative an individual/group sets out. Heroism is crafted when a distinct narrative of "good" vs "bad" comes into play. The terrifying part about heroism is that it can be altered to cater and fir the interests of a political party to instil and control groups of people. A hero is a a character in a narrative who is representative of a moral (Within the following group) "good", it's able to help outline a distinct dichotomy between two opposing forces. There is a cliche that indicates that "history is written by winners", and I wouldn't be so hard pressed to say that a hero adheres distinctly to this aphorism.
The problematic notion of cultural appropriation and colonialism are concepts that I'm beginning to see a greater awareness of, primarily due to looking into my own history as a second generation kid.
What I find interesting about Columbus is that he is just as much a concept synonymous with the aforementioned appropriator and spokesman for colonialism as he is a figure who made decisions in the "discovery" of America. His name becomes a bit of a synecdoche for the entire movement of imperialism in America. In class we had 3 questions (which I think are student asked?), but there arae 2 I would like to address and share (I suppose this is the nice thing about being late, you can kind of have thoughts percolate throughout the day?)-
How much is Columbus to blame?
This was an interesting question to have off the bat, as it's not about "what" Columbus is to blame for, but the quantification of how much he is to blame for the repercussions of his actions. Though Columbus was not the sole perpetrator of abusing and invading upon the spaces of the Native people, Columbus is the man who set the plan into motion for hundreds of years of abuse. He may have been set out to fulfill a goal re: looking for trade routes(?), but what he did to the Native settlers of America (instilling of religion for example) created a trauma. Trauma is typically based upon the very negative reception of a mentally stressful event. Much of trauma is built upon hindsight of these negative events, and they can be applied as traumatic when these events are in the past. Trauma recontextualizes the past in order to rationalize aspects and actions of the present and future. So if anything, I suppose Columbus's blame is reliant on the group he/what he represents illicited upon people.
What is a hero?
Our group had an interesting discussion on this, and I didn't have a firm answer on this one until I thought about it for a few minutes. It kind of came to a simple answer- a hero is contextualized by a narrative an individual/group sets out. Heroism is crafted when a distinct narrative of "good" vs "bad" comes into play. The terrifying part about heroism is that it can be altered to cater and fir the interests of a political party to instil and control groups of people. A hero is a a character in a narrative who is representative of a moral (Within the following group) "good", it's able to help outline a distinct dichotomy between two opposing forces. There is a cliche that indicates that "history is written by winners", and I wouldn't be so hard pressed to say that a hero adheres distinctly to this aphorism.
That's a very interesting question about what a "hero" is. I am the way I have always thought about it is that a hero is someone who does good and helps other people. By that definition, Columbus most definitely is not a hero, but that opinion is based on my definition of what is "good". From the perspective of the missionaries who wanted to spread the word of Christianity and the monarchy who wanted to establish new trade routes, he did in fact do a lot of "good" and helped them to a great extent. Which is why it is probably important to look at history from multiple perspectives, because I'm sure most "heros" have some people who see them as "villains". - Ruze Guvenc
ReplyDeleteI think your analysis of what a hero is is spot on. I am American and we are having a reckoning moment over whether many of our cultural heroes are all they are chocked up to be. It is interesting how many of our "heroes" do not fit the moral criteria you bring up. Columbus' character clearly outweighs any characteristics of what a hero is. I enjoyed your excerpt about the use of a political party or organization to instill a person as a hero. Maybe this new definition of hero you bring up is a good starting point going forward for society to resolve these conundrums. -Brendan Bayer
ReplyDeleteYour thoughts on Columbus's direct responsibility are very interesting and i tend to agree. Although I do believe that it takes a particular type of person to use such violence and deception to achieve ones goal, he himself was merely a precursor to the hundreds of years of colonization that followed him is "discovery." Therefore, the trauma that is associated with colonization cannot fairly be blamed on him.
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