OK everyone. This is our final group blog assignment for the semester and I invite you to comment on the Greenblatt, Sahlins, Chatwin, Eco, and Zhang in the context of the rise and development of theoretical curiosity. In the spirit of this exercise permit me to share a reflection of my own that appears on page 119 of my book _Manufacturing Confucianism_. In this instance I am addressing how we can see in the European reception of 17th century Jesuit missionary works in translation a critical movement away from the religious to the real, from divine to empirical authority. "Travel literature became increasingly popular in the late seventeenth century because something akin to ethnographic authority was developing, which was, in turn, part of a larger epistemological shift away from faith and insight to experiment and observation as the basis of reliable knowledge. In this intellectual context the Jesuits and their Chinese texts were construed as scientific authorities providing testimony on behalf of the universality of divinely authored creation." This development was a misconstrual, but still a meaningful misapprehension (of the sort discussed by Eco and Zhang) that revealed the self-assertion of the European imagination at the same time that it closed the gap between western self and Chinese other. So, as we glance back across the sweep of the last fifteen weeks let us reflect on the complex history of cultural encounter and take some inspiration from the philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, who once wrote (rather apropos of the disorientation of the encounter):
A traveller, who has lost his way, should not ask, "Where am I?"
What he really wants to know is, "Where are the other places?
He has got his own body, but he has lost them.
Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality
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Throughout the readings of the past fifteen weeks, many of the pieces of literature have involved the rise and development of theoretical curiosity. Specifically, this development is noteworthy in Greenblatt’s “Marvelous Possesions,” Sahlins’ “Islands of History,” and Chatwin’s “Songlines.” These authors gave examples of people of different cultures, whether knowingly or not, closed the gap between themselves and the “other.”
ReplyDeleteIn Greenblatt’s “Marvelous Possesions,” Greenblatt documents the encounter of early “Western” explorers with the Native Americans. This encounter at first glance seems to be a search for wealth and the intention of religious missionary work, but truly exemplifies the difficulty in understanding and accepting all aspects of the “other” culture. The development of theoretical curiosity is the development of “Western” interest in understanding the world beyond their means of encountering and experiencing the world, which is abetted by details of travels such as your Jesuits or Greenblatt’s Mandeville. Greenblatt makes mention of another, more salient example of Europe’s growing theoretical curiosity: Montaigne is a rich European bound to his land physically, yet with a curiosity and thirst for knowledge unbound. Thus, he sends a go-between, an agent of his curiosity, to experience the world outside for him, thus providing Montaigne with an understanding of Brazil; this theoretical understanding (theoretical in the sense that he has not directly experienced it) does not supplant his theoretical curiosity, but rather displaces it to further unknowns, which he seeks to understand, as well, finding natives who could describe this alien world, imaginary until he can interact with it.
Chatwin expanded upon this idea by exploring the world to experience it directly, thus conquering theoretical curiosity through direct experience rather than go-betweens. His direct encounter with the Aboriginals of the Australian outback led to a more concrete, and therefore less fantastical, representation of “the other.” There was a shift in the epistemological approach to understanding “the other,” going from outsider information from go-betweens, to a more intense, involved first-hand experience. Because he had this more involved experience, the reader gets a less romanticized view of the other, as the book is written with one go-between between the experience and the reader rather many previous writings with multiple go-betweens that skewed the experience. Yet whereas the aboriginals were forced into continuous communication with the “West”, thus wearied of that culture and disillusioned, the Hawaiian people were limited to intermittent interaction with envoys of that distant culture, fueling their thirst for understanding it.
In Sahlins’ work, the “other,” being the Hawaiins, also experienced this theoretical curiosity towards Cook and the Europeans. This theoretical curiosity led to a structure of conjuncture. Because both sides adapted to “the other,” through sexual relations, cultural adaptations, and “cultural taxonomy,” a new social category formed that resembled both original ones but was inherently different as well. This example shows that unlike the encounter with the Aboriginals and the European-Native American encounter, the merge of two cultures can be peaceful rather than violent. In the case where theoretical curiosity is experienced by both cultures, the interaction seems more docile and full of exchange but still misinterpretations. Much as the Hawaiians quickly tried to adapt quickly to “Western” culture through apparel, the interaction between Japan and France led to vast misinterpretations with both French Japonisme and the seemingly illogical “Western” dress of the Japanese.
These diverse examples of the development of theoretical curiosity share a common theme of encounter through go-betweens in order to shift from theoretical curiosity to direct knowledge and an imperfect understanding of the “other.” Through these works, the reader can learn how history has shaped relations with different ethnicities because of cultural encounters.
ReplyDeleteAndy, Kelly, Mark, Nevin, Tom
ReplyDeleteChange is an inevitable part of life. Whether it is with nature, individuals, or entire cultures, all things undergo some amount of change throughout their existence. Since its beginnings, the human race has undergone a gradual change from a faith-centered intelligence to a line of reasoning more centralized in scientific proof and logic. Following this change, perspectives of other cultures have shifted from unsupported assumptions to more evidence based reasoning.
In the prompt, the theory put forward suggests that in the seventeenth century, a large shift occurred in thinking from the inner self to the rest of the world. No longer were missionaries such as Cabeza de Vaca worried about transforming the faith of the new world. Instead, explorers of these new lands became concerned with understanding the other in order to ultimately comprehend themselves. Although this holds true in many circumstances, it is a rash generalization about the history of exploration. In fact, many pre-seventeenth century explorers did not involve faith into their missions at all. For instance, Marco Polo motives for exploring China were not based in his faith. He was drawn to the wonder of China and simply wanted to learn more about the otherness of Chinese culture. Although Marco Polo’s descriptions of China often contain a significant amount of wonder, he analyzes these cultures in a fairly scientific manner with the goal of learning about the cultures rather than simply having faith-based motives.
This type of thinking is not exclusive to Marco Polo, as we learned through Umberto Eco’s description of Dante. Although Dante was from the late 13th century, he analyzed language and studied it extensively with the goal of finding a language that could properly express what he witnessed in the world. We learn about Dante’s method of searching for language in Eco’s “Languages in Paradise” when he says:
“Yet unlike those in the Renaissance who wished to restore the Hebrew language itself to its original magic and divinatory power, Dante’s goal was to reinstate these original conditions in a modern invention: an illustrious vernacular, of which his own poetry would constitute the most notable achievement, was, to Dante, the only way in which a modern poet might heal the wound of Babel” (40)
This shows that Dante had a scientific purpose rather than a religious one like many of his Renaissance contemporaries. While other proponents of a restoration of the perfect Hebrew language mainly wanted this so that they could be closer to God, Dante sought to purify language for a more pragmatic purpose. In Dante’s mind, the perfect language would better describe the true essence of the world.
While we are not denying a shift in intellectual thinking from insight to observation as a basis of reliable knowledge, we are questioning the time the shift occurred. As shown in the previous examples, thinkers and explorers took secular stances long before the seventeenth century. Instead of a specific time shift such as the Renaissance in Europe, we are suggesting that is was just a gradual shift over the course of time. What is undeniable is that this shift towards secular thinking greatly enhanced the anthropological way of thinking and allowed objectivity to reign supreme.
Throughout the semester we have read a number of authors’ and explorers’ comments on the world. There are at least three divides between their reasons for exploration: the search for land, the search for people, and the search for unity.
ReplyDeleteMarco Polo set out to explore Asia. The intriguing style of descriptions is one of the more prominent features of his commentary. Often he describes the agriculture, land usage, and domesticated animals in just as precise detail as he describes the people of the area. This exploration pushed for an idea of where cities were in relation to each other. Polo takes care to describe the direction from one city to the next, as if he is creating a mental map for his readers. The explorers of the Middle Eastern area also focused on precise mapping of the world. Columbus, in attempting to reach Khan, rejected the Middle Eastern mapmakers calculations as to the location of Asia, which many now believe to be more accurate than Columbus’ own calculations. This emphasizes the importance of exploration not only for learning about different cultures, but for the purpose of charting land as well.
Polo’s description of the people he encountered pushed Columbus to begin his exploration. Columbus set sail for the distinct purpose of meeting the Khan. This transitioned the world into focusing on the search for people and cultures as opposed to the search for land. Sahlins suggests through his idea of the structure of the conjuncture that when an overlap of cultures is discovered, the push is then to determine why the overlap exists. This is the first step towards a search for unity. Columbus, however, believed in the myths perpetuated in Polo’s Travels and had set ideas in his mind about the land he set off to explore. When Columbus reaches the New World he digresses from the progress made in Europe to search for a common unity and instead sees the signs in the New World as mirrors of his own culture. Greenblatt believes that the sighting of similar objects or rituals, such as crosses or religious events, sparks the interest in how the world can be connected. Columbus, however, expects the cultures he encounters to be like the ones he has read about. Instead of looking at the differences, he molds them to fit his idea of the New World. In this way, he fails to a true connection between his own culture and the new cultures because he sees no difference.
Zhang pushes the idea that if one explores to find the commonalities it forces the explorer to find similarities as they exist, not as they want to see them. This, Zhang believes, is when truths can be discovered. Eco and Zhang both write about a search post-Columbus’ that focuses on finding unity throughout the world. While Columbus did not admit to recognizing the difference between his own language and the native peoples, or at least not admit the sounds coming out of their mouths were language, future explorers did accept this difference. Once explorers returned for multiple trips to the same area, the mythical perception is difficult to continue because the similarities are found. In an effort to find unity from this commonality, the search for the first language began. By finding a common language, it was believed people could prove how all the foreignness was unified. This allowed them to see the universe as ordered and then show God as the ruler of the order.
Chatwin’s Songlines symbolizes the unity of cultures despite the differences. The original people of Australia each have unique historical ancestries and songs, yet they find the commonality of shared experiences and similar rituals to be a unifying force. This bringing together of many cultures to one which identifies and accepts its differences but recognizes its unity is the model Zhang and Eco are pushing toward in their search for the original language.
At the chronological commencement of the conjuncture between cultures, understanding of the actual culture and not simply the myth of the other increased. Nevertheless, blockage was never completely overcome and the desire to have real understanding of the other culture was not actualized. For example, the Catholic Spaniards exploring the New World were unable to see the parallels between the symbolic cannibalism and sacrifice in their own religious practices and the literal equivalents in Aztec religious practice. This blockage inhibited the rise of theoretical curiosity for other cultures, because the Europeans wanted to believe they communicated in a universal language of gesticulation with the natives while still viewing the other culture as totally foreign. Through the go-betweens, Europeans became more aware of the actual cultural practices of other cultures as opposed to the misconceptions that the Europeans previously held. These go-betweens could come from either culture, but through interacting with the culture that was foreign to them, they became something separate from either culture. For example, Doña Marina, through her interaction with the Spanish conquistadores, gained some of their outlook on the world, while serving them as a translator. Even though Europeans may have gained a better understanding of the other cultures, there was still an epistemological murk resulting from errors in translation. However, the Europeans believed (or at least were able to fool themselves into believing) that they were gaining a full and complete understanding of the other culture. This led some Europeans to theorize about the universal traits of human cultures based on a perceived ethnographic authority, starting the rise of theoretical curiosity.
ReplyDeleteRestating the basic anthropological principle, Zhang Longxi states “The departure from the self is the approach to the other.” Part of human nature is to seek to know the other, so therefore we seek to know all that is foreign to ourselves. The effort to understand other cultures through ethnographic theory helped Europeans to fulfill this intrinsic human desire. Theoretical curiosity arises largely from the idea Whitehead obliquely addresses that humans are driven by an insatiable desire to delve into the unknown.