To start class, we broke up into our teams to discuss:

1. What is your tradition’s history in relation to empire, colonialism, settler/domination colony. Did your tradition experience French, British or American style empire? Trace its experience through time, up to today.
2. What is your traditions social location today in regards to empire, colonialism?

Wes explained some further guidelines to the wiki projects, and presented some links that could be helpful for managing research.

UNIVERSALITY AND DIFFERENCE


Universalism—The idea that a particular culture is true for all cultures everywhere and for all time. These assumptions ignore the vast differences between cultures

• Those who do not talk about universalisms are those who are typically most dominant in the world.
• Colonial powers think their ways are the universal ways

People who use universal application usually live in the dominant culture. It often goes with colonial power who think their ways are the only way.

Euro-Centrism—the process whereby European ideas and assumptions are considered to be natural, universal, and normal.

• English literature as the discourse of universal values (i.e. Shakespeare reveals the universal state of all people, not just the English).
• Math- Is it math or Western math? This questions explores a deeper question. While there have been many ways of counting, the Western approach won out. However, today we assume that such counting practices are universal, but that may not be accurate.
  • In Ashcroft, 2+2 = 4 but why is it that these expressions are utilized
  • Historically there have been hundreds of counting systems but why chose this one
    • Because those who are most powerful have their ways/systems utilized by the rest of the world
  • These things that we think are universal have a history, this is the way we are going to do things and this comes from cultures.
  • Education was crafted in such a way as to buttress the ideologies and purposes of colonial powers.
  • The way Math is done came from colonial powers
    • Colonialism had a big impact on the math that was used
• Four values of Western Math
  
  • Rationalism - the desire to quantify everything
  • Objectism - remove things from their context and know them quantitatively
  • Control
  • Universality/cultural neutrality - the belief that one culture exists and it is taught from the dominant perspective, i.e. not European way but THE way. Local ways are discarded and replaced with the colonizers ways which are seen as normative and natural.
    
  The drive to classify or contain, this is one aspect of the modern world. The idea to quantify everything. This was seen as “the way” to do things.
  
  • These ways are neutral and your ways are inferior
    • Thus those under colonial power were in essence told to disregard their way and follow the way of the colonial power
• Kissing- Is it universal? The association between kissing and romance was likely birthed in India (Kamasutra), and spread to the Greeks and Romans. Most cultures have "kissing", but the meaning of the act differs. Idea of a romantic kiss: Thomas Hardy’s novel From from the Madding Crowd, kiss was centrality. Difference in African literature in that romantic theme wasn’t centrality of literature, but friendship and death were common themes. 85% of our Western stories have to do with them male resolving whether he is going to settle down and be in a relationship/get married. 95% of our Western stories are romantically driven.

• Maps- This is a good example of something that may be considered universal but is actually "biased." Maps have different focal points and different centers. (Ex: America, Europe, may be at the center of the map.) Also, in naming, the map- maker is free to name regions and people groups. The map depends on the maker, it is not a neutral thing. For example, the word "Cannibal" was once used for a part in Africa, though it was a misspelling of "Caribbean" in Spanish. Indigenous peoples had no say in how their region(s) of the world were named. Map making has been a political act.
• Church Structure-Euro-centrism has lead to the domination of church structure throughout the colonized world. Why does a hillside church in rural Ecuador look exactly like the church building in Madrid, Spain? How much influence has the universalism had on the way the world does church?

Worlding- outside world brought into the world of the Europeans.