Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Miscellaneous South American colonialsim South American colonialsim South America is a primary example of a setting in which colonialism led to the infusion of two distinct cultures, becoming one through time. The potential of economically valuable areas lead colonizers to become intertwined with the culture of indigenous populations in South America. The Spanish first came to South America in search of gold and later with hopes of taking advantage of the natural resources again through the rubber industry. As the transformational period of colonization took place, two cultures came in contact. They both perceived their cultures as distinct and separate entities, complete cultural opposites with distinctly different lifestyles of subsistence. Both began contact with very ethnocentric views of each other’s culture, as could be expected. Yet, the reality of the situation was that they would be and become interconnected as their histories were now linked together. One distinct way that this is evident is through the evolution of healing practices and spiritual beliefs of the indigenous South American population as a reaction to colonization. In addition, the stereotype of the “wild savage” by the European colonizers, the instituted religion of Catholicism, the complex relationship between the healer-patient relationship within shamanism and the creation of a “colonial consciousness” all serve to show elements of cultural fusion as a result of dominance. Indigenous people and the dominant white culture became integrated to the point that certain beliefs now coexist between both groups. ‘What distinctly happened within the culture of the South American indigenous population was syncretism, or the synthesis of both old and borrowed traditions, a common occurrence of colonization in which one civilization dominates the other and forces elements of conversion’(Kessing, 394). In addition to this process of syncretism, both of these cultures became stronger, more diversified and open to new ideas. Due to similar preexisting beliefs, the Natives largely openly accepted Catholicism. Catholicism was accepted by indigenous people into their culture and the transition in religion was not very difficult for them to accept. “Catholicism embodied a rich pageantry and complex ceremonial cycle. It offered roles to men and women, young and old. Its priests believing in the devil, spirits and magic, could deal with the older religion in ways that Meso-American people could squarely comprehend. And Catholicism provided, in its multiple manifestations of the Virgin and Trinity, both an approximation of multiple deities and physical object for veneration”(Kessing, 394). This was very similar to the practices of their native religion and allowed them to perceive the spirit in much the same way as they already had been without devaluing the lasting elements of their own religion. One of the most important examples of syncretism in South America is through the examples provided from hallucinogenic trances, via the intake of yage. Shamans utilized this during their curing rituals. The images developed from the trances have been recounted to show images that represent a blending of traditional indigenous beliefs with that of Christian beliefs. A visionary example of this is seen in the visions of a shaman as a tiger and of people receiving the blessing from the Virgin Mary. Both of these symbols ,one of the Native Indian’s culture and the other from the dominant culture, can coexist within the same image during a yage trance. This serves as a representation of assimilation of Indigenous culture to particular Western themes while still valuing the ideas, commonly seen in hallucinogenic ritual. This was a strong force for the Indigenous people to justify their coexistence with the Western World from a cultural basis. The hallucinogenic ritual, as an important element in the cultural life of South American indigenous people, gave them a justification to adapt to many of the elements of the new culture they were being exposed to. Other themes that are shared today by both cultures include: “New World version of the theme of descent, ascent, and salvation is the way by which the tropical hell of jungle and jungle natives is so clearly opposed to the terrestrial paradise of the highlands above. The imagery proper to each realm, as well as the cycle of death and rebirth connecting them, reappear persistently down through the ages-as we shall see in curing visions of pure white colonists, Indians and Capuchin missionaries in the twentieth century in the Putumayo”(Taussig, 292). Their religious beliefs were not identical, but the larger foundations of the Christianity were deemed acceptable on the basis of vital tentets. Another common after effect, as a result of colonization, is the creation of myths that combine deities, and the members of the two separate cultures. This idea is not new; it occurred even in ancient times when one Greek city-state would conquer another. Stories would be constructed, finding a way to link together particular concepts of both the conqueror and the conquered to serve as an identifying force for both of the groups to relate with. In many of the mythic stories involving Catholic saints within South America, there is an indigenous person involved, serving as a link to their historical narratives. One such example is the Legacy of the Wild Woman of the forest, otherwise known now as Our Lady of Remedies(Taussig, 188-189). In the setting just north of the city known as Cali, around the year of 1560, a South Amerindian told a missionary that they knew of an existing statue just like the one that the missionary was using to worship. The Indians believed that if they made offerings to her that she would make their hunting and harvests plentiful, giving her the symbolic name of “Wild Woman of the Forest”. This missionary was taken to the jungle to see the statue of this woman that they claimed to have. He than ordered the statue to be cut down and brought back to the convent. A few times, the statue of her disappeared only to be found in the jungle again until finally a chapel was built to shrine the statue by itself. She was reputed to work miracles for the white Europeans and her name was changed to “Our Lady of Remedies”. Today, her statue is surrounded by figures of semi-naked Indians. (Taussig, 188-189). Tying Christian mythology to South American indigenous mythology and therefore changing the course of remembered history symbolizes an attempt of both cultures to integrate or assimilate certain aspects of one culture into the other. More than anything it serves an ideological basis for the culture’s reciprocity and unity. “This seems tantamount to saying that the historical function of the Virgin is the political one of accommodating the pagan to the conqueror’s god and thereby, in this case, establishing the divine legitimacy of the white man’s rule”(Taussig, 196). It seems that the colonists often were more concerned with showing a respect to natives, but only in the defined inferior role. It is also ironic to note that in most of the mythic stories, it is the Indian who happens to discover the Catholic saint. “It is the Indian who is chosen by history to provide the civilized and conquering race with a miraculous icon figure. As a slave attends the need of the master, so the conquered redeem their conquerors”(Taussig, 189). These stories help to keep social relations through positive memories of historical myth. By labeling many of the natives as icons of myth, it provides the necessary means of friendly ties in order to use them as their pawn. The view of the Indians as “wild savages” was not truthful in reality, but only how people perceived them to be. “It is not the Indian’s belief that is the issue here, but the whites’ belief of the Indians’ beliefs”(Taussig, 197). This image that was created by the colonizer was often used to justify the spread of imperialism and domination, as well as used to further develop economic and political causes. “In thus using the Indians, the company objectified its fantasies concerning the people of the forest, creating very real savages from its mythology of savagery in order to coerce the people of the forest into collecting rubber for them”(Taussig, 391). The rubber industry boom is a demonstration of this technique and all of the atrocities that developed from it. The historical myths involving Indians as positive figures in the dominant white man’s life is a manipulative task to gain positive social relations for their own material advantage. The South Amerindian was the slave of the colonist, but these colonists were able to manipulate it so that there was no uproar or reaction from the conquered. They were made to feel no matter what that this was in their best interests and some of it could have been. It is important to note that the South American Indians were not the only ones to synthesize new customs into their culture. In many situations, whites would rely on the Indian shamans for healing illnesses, curing famine and crop problems and even for wisdom in helping to solve problems. The white man’s perceived concept of “Indian” is illustrated in the following quote: “As with their manual labor, skills and land, this power of the primitive can be appropriated, in this case by grafting it onto the mythology of conquest so that illness can be healed, the future defined, farms exorcised, wealth gained, wealth maintained, and, above all, envious neighbors held at bay. But unlike land and labor, this power did not lie in the hands of the Indians or blacks. Instead it was projected onto them and into their being, nowhere more so than in the image of the shaman. In attempting to appropriate this power, we see how the colonists redefined their mythology of the pagan savage, became subject to its’ power, and in doing so sought salvation, from the civilization that tormented them as much as the primitive onto whom they projected their anti-selves”(Taussig, 168). The white man benefited and learned from these people, but it gets distorted and overlooked in the rapid transformation that takes place within the native lives. Accompanied with the act of colonization comes the creation of the colonial consciousness for South American Indians (Keesing, 402-412). This consists of two main parts: one psychologically based and the other economically based. The first part of this process is when the South American native people begin to conceptualize and acknowledge the colonizer’s concept of what it means to be “native” and the negative form of the meanings that are implied by the term. In order for the dominant group to actually suppress new elements of culture upon them without extreme forceful aggression, the weaker group has to begin to believe that they are an inferior group. “It was more reassuring to deny the humanity of the natives and decry the barbarism of their customs, and then seek to uplift them. One could rationalize exploitation with a sense of moral responsibility”(Keesing, 412). Culturally reproduced stereotypes will generally take the form of perceived social facts as time passes. In addition, the development of an economy and the introduction of a world market, society evolves and goes through changes. Capitalism and class systems are subsequently the predominant results. With that in mind, it generally is the “elites” of the Native population, those who went on to missionary schools and those assimilated the most to the dominant Western culture, that achieve the greatest success in this system. These people most frequently become the upper class and set up a neo-colonial form of rule in which they imitate the values and lifestyles of the former colonists. It is taught and grounded into the minds of the natives that they must assimilate or else will live an invaluable, pointless life. In essence, it was to the point where there minds became jaded and they began to believe it. Finally, it is the role of healer-patient relationship essential to shamanism that was affected by the colonization process in South America. It would seem as if the shaman would be used by the patient for healing power, wisdom and other powerful aid. While that is true, the shaman also relies on the patient heavily. The patient needs the shaman to see, while the shaman needs the patient to act as his voice in all that he sees. The shaman uses the body of the patient as almost an intermediary for divine intervention. “Yet both figures, that as the shaman of certainty and the patient of doubt, only acquire this configuration by their coming together, because both contain within themselves, taken as individuals, the same vexation with the guard to the credible impossibilities that course through life’s contingencies as much as through the ambiguities of social relations”(Taussig, 462). In actuality, Shamans become shamans to eventually heal themselves, but there is a patience that needs to be had in order for this to happen. The role of the shaman became a part of the dominant world as much as the shaman used the white man, as healer, for his own benefit. The use of the yage in shamanism is important and necessary to understand. The use of yage is to see, to cross over into the death space, to use information that is not merely physically existing, but is spiritually existing too. “The healer-patient relational model also differs in that included in the sense of data of raw experience are not merely sensory impressions of light and sound and so forth, but also sensory impressions of social relations in all their moody ambiguity of trust and doubt and in all the multiplicity of their becoming and decaying. By excluding the sensations of human interrelatedness, the knowledge with witch traditional Western philosophy from Plato to Kant is concerned cuts itself off from the type of sensory experience and power-riddled knowledge-implicit social knowledge-on which so much of human affairs and intellection rest. Sorcery and (so called) shamanism, on the other hand, present modes of locally built experiences and image formation in which such social knowledge is scored by two forms of looming otherness, the envious other and the colonial other”(Taussig, 463). This area of shamanism goes beyond what we can see, hear or even take for granted. It relies on a deeper part of human, similar to that of instincts. The belief is in that which is spiritual and intangible. It puts a faith in symbolism and yage visions. It shows us what our inner soul is trying to tell us. Adopting Catholicism and still maintaining the role of the shaman in their culture offered a more complete spiritual side to be had by the colonists and very likely the natives too. In conclusion, it can be said that there has been a significant adoption of the Western culture as a result of colonization. This adoption of dominant cultural traits blends with their own original beliefs to create new combinations of traditions and customs, revolutionizing to form new ways of spiritual thinking. It opens more outlets of contemplation and more meaningful intellectual perceptions on life. In some ways it is like a collage made up of little pieces coming together to represent religion and science, economics and politics, shamanism and Christianity, colonized and colonizer, church and yage. The most profound symbolization of this is none other than in the representative Christianized Indigenous South American shaman. What is quite vital is the importance of realizing the impact of the dominant Western colonists preconceived images of the Indians. It created a powerful reality with ramifications on the colonizer and the colonized. The indigenous population of South America has undergone a psychological and spiritual development in an attempt to preserve a sense of space for themselves to exist in the midst of European domination. It is essential to take into consideration the blending of beliefs, stereotypes associated within the relationship, as well as the relationship between shaman and patient that combines physical and spiritual experience into meaning. Two cultures, one trying to dominate the other through colonization, find themselves in the present very much connected and dependent upon each other for a more well-rounded existence. Bibliography: Word Count: 2662
Copyright © 2005 College Term Papers, INC All Rights Reserved.