THE |
|
a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects. |
To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.lucky.w,alt.religion.orisha,alt.pagan.magick,talk.religion.misc,alt.pagan,talk.religion.newage From: nagasiva@luckymojo.com (lorax666) Subject: Syncretism and Cultural Appropriation (was Religiomagical Terminology ...) Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 17:19:49 GMT 50001014 Vom eballard@sas.upenn.edu (E. C. Ballard) writes of Mexican Buddhas: > ...No, they know nothing of Gautauma nor the entertaining 19th > century fictions about Christ visiting India. yes, that is what I understood, and therefore to claim that these people "integrate Buddha into their religion" is fallacious. as you say so well below, we're talking about appropriations of imagery for a fit on what already existed in the culture doing the appropriating. > When the Chinese laborors came to Cuba like most regular people > (they were not the educated priviledged classes) they brought > the images and statues and the practices they used in their > everyday lives. So, when Afro-Cubans encountered an image of > chinese deities such as Sang Fan Kang they saw the image and > heard the name and associated him for function and appearance > with Kimbambula and Orula (themselves earlier associated in > the same manner). When they saw Kun Kang, they associated that > chinese deity with Chango and Nsasi. this kind of appropriation is going on all the time and is something of a deliberate practice in Hermetic/Neopagan and New Age subcultures. I feel that these people should be treated the same way for the personal usage they wish to make of the iconography and religious fragments they absorb from cultures not their own (or to which they are born but from which they pick and choose to create their own spiritual path). I've heard a good deal of criticism of Neopagans and New Agers for their "religious smorgasboard" by more conventional religious, and it is valuable to compare and contrast the variety of syncretism and appropriation which does occur so as not to observe it out of the context of global religious cultural borrowing that actually does go on. > This is a process of loose alignment of varying cultures. > Consider it a method of shorthand which ascribes equivalencies > to those things it encounters when it can or when such > asociations serve a functional purpose at the time. It does > not work in the linear and literature focused manner > of our society. here we agree strongly and I'm glad to hear you say this, thanks. lorax666 -- FREE HOODOO CATALOGUE! send street address to: catalogue@luckymojo.com mailto:nagasiva@luckymojo.com ; http://www.luckymojo.com/nagasiva.html ; mailto:boboroshi@satanservice.org ; http://www.satanservice.org/ emailed replies may be posted; cc replies if response desired Path: typhoon.sonic.net!vnetnews.value.net!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gblx.net!newsfeed.skycache.com!Cidera!news.maxwell.syr.edu!xfer13.netnews.com!netnews.com!news.voicenet.com!nntp.upenn.edu!18-111.002.popsite.net!user From: eballard@sas.upenn.edu (E. C. Ballard) Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.lucky.w,alt.religion.orisha,alt.pagan.magick,talk.religion.misc,alt.pagan,talk.religion.newage Subject: Re: Syncretism and Cultural Appropriation (was Religiomagical Terminology ...) Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 19:32:46 -0400 Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 33 Sender: eoghanballard@18-111.002.popsite.net Message-ID:References: <8s65jd$9s6@bolt.sonic.net> <39E74DFA.7E57@luckymojo.com> <8s9695$10r@bolt.sonic.net> <8sa4re$9ve@bolt.sonic.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: 18-111.002.popsite.net Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.magick.tyagi:25719 alt.lucky.w:8416 alt.religion.orisha:7713 alt.pagan.magick:25078 talk.religion.misc:325980 alt.pagan:272368 talk.religion.newage:132684 Well, the difference is the people who are doing this sort of parallelism, and it really isn't the same at all as what newagers and neopagans are doing as I will explain, are for the most part also the decendants of the same chinese who came to Cuba. For that reason and because there has been a gradual incorporation of both those people and their beliefs into a mainstream tradition in Cuba, it is far different than the rather more hegemonic practice you so aptly describe as spiritual smorgasboarding. The difference is that first these changes took place organically over a period of time as people from the new culture (the Chinese) intermarried and assimilated into the existing creole culture of the island. These were traditions and the remnants of traditions that were a part of family life and their own cultural history. This is a far cry from some neopagan or new ager sitting in an apartment or dorm room in San francisco or New york, or where ever, getting things out of Bullfinches mythology or Campbell's books or worse yet, something published by llewellyn and then deciding to throw it on the altar and take off with a magic spell. To equate them is to totally misunderstand the context in which such practices developed. My godfather in Cuba is known by the nickname "el Chino". To look at him you would think he was only Afro-Cuban. However, his mother's photo which hangs in a place of respect in his parlor is that of a woman who would have looked at home in Beijing. Eoghan -- +o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o+o E. C. Ballard Debajo del Laurel yo tengo mi confianza
The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org. |
Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site. |
The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories, each dealing with a different branch of religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge. Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit: |
|
interdisciplinary:
geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc. |
SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):
OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST
Southern
Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo,
including slave narratives & interviews
|