The historical relationship with colonialism and ethnocentrism

[0:03]As you have seen, conceptualizing culture is challenging. This is because of its multiple meanings and how the term has been employed historically. Unfortunately, the notion of culture has not always been used in ways to establish peaceful dialogue and cooperation, but rather to justify some unsavory practices. First and foremost is the connection between culture and the spread of empires through colonization. Building empires clearly began long before the word culture became a part of the English language. One important facet of empire building was the spread of ideas, practices and beliefs, but in many cases, they were not presented as options to those being overrun. Moreover, during the time of the British Empire, most would agree that the driving force behind colonization was primarily profit and economic exploitation. However, the idea of spreading culture was arguably used as the justification. This connects closely to Ingrid Pieler's description of a common viewpoint held during the time of colonialism when each culture was located somewhere on a specific point on a general path of human development from savagery to civilization. And that this was a part of the justification for colonialism as a civilizing effort, a moral obligation, the white man's burden. In Whitby, North Yorkshire, there stands a large statue of the explorer Captain James Cook, gazing out over the ocean. Cook's voyages were made during the colonization of the Americas, and adventures took him to distant lands including what is now modern day Hawaii. His third arrival in Hawaii was during the time of the harvest festival, and legend has it that he was mistaken for the incarnation of the Hawaiian's fertility God Lono. This auspicious arrival was then rather unfortunately ruined by his later return in 1779, when trying to repair a damaged vessel at the end of the harvest festival, Cook perished at the hands of the indigenous population. On this occasion, the indigenous population avoided having their islands renamed The Sandwich Islands and won a small battle against the colonizing force. However, on most occasions, indigenous populations were much less fortunate and suffered greatly. Their treatment entailed economic exploitation where resources were exchanged in an imbalanced fashion or simply taken, while at the same time practices including language and religion were spread. Imperial powers believe that the spread of empire was for the good of the conquered, a decidedly ethnocentric view of their actions. Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture and can be displayed either consciously or unconsciously. We can look back into history at countless examples of colonization, such as the Arcadian, Arab, Han, Mongolian, Greek, and Roman Empires. And arguments can be made for the benefit of imperialism. Advocates might point to wide ranging examples of the cultural mix between the colonizers and colonized. For example, syncretic religions, sports, Creoles, pidgin languages, new forms of music, and even broader ideas such as democracy. We should not fall into the essentialist trap of believing that colonization was a mixing of once pure and separate culture. While we cannot mask the unequal power balance between the colonizer and the colonized, we should recognize our cultural legacy, as Yuval Noah Harari said. Thus, the history of empire building and colonization can never be a simple narrative of good and evil. Nor can we lump all forms of empire building and colonization into one single form or meta-narrative. Or assume that colonization happened in the distant past. Indeed, colonization can take different forms and some would argue that empires exist today, but operate through different guises such as linguistic imperialism and globalization. While the connection of culture to colonization is complex, in many instances, it has been problematic.