Allegories of Imperialism: Barbarians and World Cultures

18 Pages·2015·4.32 MB·English

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CULTURA
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE
CULTURA AND AXIOLOGY
Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of
2015
2015 Vol XII No 1
Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devo- 1
ted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to pro-
mote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in
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OG
regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages Y O
HL
the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are PO
OXI
judged to make a novel and important contribution to understan- LOSD A
ding the values and cultural phenomena in the contempo rary world. HIN
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ISBN 978-3-631-66651-7
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CULTURA 2015_266651_VOL_12_No1_GR_A5Br.indd 1 01.06.15 KW 23 13:21
A
R
U
T
L
U
C
CULTURA
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
OF PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE
CULTURA AND AXIOLOGY
Founded in 2004, Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of
2015
2015 Vol XII No 1
Culture and Axiology is a semiannual peer-reviewed journal devo- 1
ted to philosophy of culture and the study of value. It aims to pro-
mote the exploration of different values and cultural phenomena in
FY
OG
regional and international contexts. The editorial board encourages Y O
HL
the submission of manuscripts based on original research that are PO
OXI
judged to make a novel and important contribution to understan- LOSD A
ding the values and cultural phenomena in the contempor ary world. HIN
A
OF PRE
U
L T
AL
NU
RC
U
O
J
L
A
N
O
TI
A
N
R
E
T
N
I
www.peterlang.com
CULTURA 2015_266651_VOL_12_No1_GR_A5Br.indd 1 01.06.15 KW 23 13:21
CULTURA
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
PHILOSOPHY OF CULTURE AND AXIOLOGY
Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology
E-ISSN (Online): 2065-5002
ISSN (Print): 1584-1057
Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. David Altman, Instituto de Ciencia Política, Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile
Prof. Emeritus Dr. Horst Baier, University of Konstanz, Germany
Prof. Dr. David Cornberg, University Ming Chuan, Taiwan
Prof. Dr. Paul Cruysberghs, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Prof. Dr. Nic Gianan, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Philippines
Prof. Dr. Marco Ivaldo, Department of Philosophy “A. Aliotta”, University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy
Prof. Dr. Michael Jennings, Princeton University, USA
Prof. Dr. Maximiliano E. Korstanje, University of Palermo, Argentina
Prof. Dr. Richard L. Lanigan, Southern Illinois University, USA
Prof. Dr. Christian Lazzeri, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, France
Prof. Dr. Massimo Leone, University of Torino, Italy
Prof. Dr. Asunción López-Varela Azcárate, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain
Prof. Dr. Christian Möckel, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
Prof. Dr. Devendra Nath Tiwari, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
Prof. Dr. José María Paz Gago, University of Coruña, Spain
Prof. Dr. Mario Perniola, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italy
Prof. Dr. Traian D. Stănciulescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Iassy, Romania
Prof. Dr. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Purdue University & Ghent University
Editorial Board
Editor-in-Chief: Co-Editors:
Prof. dr. Nicolae Râmbu Prof. dr. Aldo Marroni
Faculty of Philosophy and Social- Dipartimento di Lettere, Arti e Scienze Sociali
Political Sciences Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Via dei Vestini, 31, 66100 Chieti Scalo, Italy
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[email protected] PD Dr. Till Kinzel
Executive Editor: Englisches Seminar
Dr. Simona Mitroiu Technische Universität Braunschweig,
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Alexandru Ioan Cuza University 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
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Editorial Assistant: Dr. Marius Sidoriuc
Designer: Aritia Poenaru
Cultura
International Journal of Philosophy
of Culture and Axiology
Vol. 12, No. 1 (2015)
Editor-in-Chief
Nicolae Râmbu
Guest Editors:
I-Chun Wang and Asun López-Varela
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Umschlagabbildung: © Aritia Poenaru
ISSN 2065-5002
ISBN 978-3-631-66651-7 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-653-05998-4 (E-Book)
DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-05998-4
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CONTENTS

ALLEGORIES OF IMPERIALISM: BARBARIANS AND
WORLD CULTURES

I-Chun Wang & Asun López-Varela 7
Allegories of Imperialism: Barbarians and World Cultures

David Lea 17
Sovereignty, Linguistic Imperialism and the Quantification of
Reality

Abobo Kumbalonah 31
The Invention of a Philosophy: Postcolonialism in the Context of
Akan Proverbs

Antonia Peroikou 45
Speaking (of) the Unspoken: Exploring the Mystery behind Friday’s
Severed Tongue in Coetzee’s Foe

Temisanren Ebijuwa &Adeniyi Sulaiman Gbadegesin 57
Mediating Ethnic Identities: Reaching Consensus through Dialogue
in an African Society

Shiuhhuah Serena Chou 71
Claiming the Sacred: Indigenous Knowledge, Spiritual Ecology, and
the Emergence of Eco-cosmopolitanism

Stephen Joyce 85
The Fearful Merging of Self and Other: Intra-civilizational and
Inter-civilizational Colonial Cultures in Richard E. Kim’s Lost
Names
Oxana Karnaukhova 99
Tracing the Roots of Colonial History and Orientology in Russia

Michaela Keck 115
Culture-Crossing in Madison Smartt Bell’s Haitian Trilogy and
Neo-Captivity Narrative

Mary Theis 129
Ideal Isolation for the Greater Good: The Hazards of Postcolonial
Freedom

Maximiliano Korstanje 145
Constructing the Other by Means of Hospitality: the Case of
Argentina

Liudmila Baeva & Anna Romanova 159
Challenges to Frontier Allegories: the Caspian Sea Region in
Southern Russia

Soon-ok Myong & Byong-soon Chun 173
Cultural Politics of Otherizing Hijabed Muslims in Kazakhstan

Nurlykhan Aljanova & Karlygash Borbassova 18(cid:26)
Etiquette Rules and Intercultural Relations in Kazakh Society after
Independence from the Soviet Union

Jinghua Guo 197
The Multi-dimensional Model of Cross-Cultural Interpretation as
an Anti-centralist Tool in World Literature Perspectives

Huiyong Wu 211
The Impact of Confucianism on Chinese Representations of
Japanese Imperialism as well as on International Relations

Simon C. Estok 221
Bull and Barbarity, Feeding the World
10.5840/cultura20151211
Cultura. International Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology 12(1)/2015: 07–16
Allegories of Imperialism: Barbarians and World Cultures
I-Chun Wang
Center for Languages and Culture
Kaohsiung Medical University
Kaohsiung, 80708, Taiwan
[email protected]
Asun López-Varela
English Studies
Universidad Complutense Madrid
Madrid, 28040, Spain
[email protected]
Originating from the Latin word imperium, the concept and practice of
imperialism, like that of empire, is a bio-political production (Michael
Hardt and Antonio Negri, 2001: 29) that refers to the “polity of extend-
ing a country’s power and influence through colonization, use of military
force, or other means” (Oxford English Dictionary, 1998: 877). Although
since the 18th century, European expansion has been at the center of de-
bates on imperialism and colonialism, the imposition of foreign control
over other territories is a practice that has always existed. The prototype
of imperialism can be referred back to the Roman Empire, which set up
coloniae in many areas, of the conquests of Genghis Khan and the Mon-
gol Empire, the Persian and the Egyptian Empires, the Aztec the Incan
Empires, and many others all over the world. Geographical extension,
dynamics of rule, as well as exploitation, and even extermination of cer-
tain groups, are among the hegemonic and coercive socio-political struc-
tures put forth by empires within their conquered territories. In the case
of the Romans, for instance, they established tribute systems, degraded
heterogeneous groups to the condition of the slaves, and sent military
forces to cripple and humiliate those beyond their borders, regulating
their rights “with the most scrupulous exactness,” and showing “neither
mercy nor justice for foreigners” (Hardt and Negri, 2001: 38).
All empires were characterized by the reinforcement of internal rule,
the development of highly centralized cultures, and the control over the
borders. In all the cases, the empires tried to integrate their neighboring
cultures into their own orbits of dominance. An important factor was to
7
Wang &López-Varela / Allegories of Imperialism: Barbarians and World Cultures

put in motion cultural politics that emphasized the superiority of the
conquering nation, perverted the traits of the colonized, and used cer-
tain forms of naming to degrade the status of the Others. In naming,
demonization rather than valorization was a common practice. This was
achieved by means of discursive tropes such as the term “barbarian,”
borrowed from Greek and originally signifying the heterogeneous quality
of those who could not speak that language. The term “furor barbari-
cus” came to signify the uncivilized and untamed nature of populations
that threatened the realm of civilization, such as Scythians, Celts, Ger-
mans, Vikings, Huns and other tribes beyond the Greco-Roman Empire.
This is seen, for instance, in the rhetoric of naming and the description
of barbarians as described by Roman historians and writers such as Pub-
lius Cornelius Tacitus (c. AD 56 – after 117) and Diodorus Siculus (90–
30 BC), among others. Tacitus classifies the barbarus according to the re-
gions they inhabit, and his descriptions of barbaric behavior are tinted
with moral assertions; as when he praises the Roman soldiers fighting
with gloria while he uses the word praeda, meaning plundering and greedi-
ness, to describe the barbarians, including the Iceni, the Parthians, and
the Gauls, among others, who are also seen as lacking of self-discipline
(Hist. 4.78).
All empires went to great length in promoting cultural politics of dif-
ference and prerogative power, employing sophisticated mechanisms for
defining and constructing the identities of barbarian aliens. Denigration,
marginalization and obliteration are the core concept created by imperial-
ists and oppressors (Simerka, 2003: 2-15). In the territories conquered by
imperial powers worldwide, barbarian histories were wiped out, and simi-
lar politics to those displayed by the Roman Empire were adopted in
East Asian, where civilizing politics involving neighboring countries were
practiced by the Han and Tang dynasties of China. Like the Romans
who subdued the nomads, the emperors of prosperous Chinese dynas-
ties would use strategies of legitimation to “civilize” their barbarian
neighbors and make them into their loyal subjects, allies or tributary
states.
After the consolidation of nation states throughout the world and the
gradual abandonment of forms of conquest, various other mechanisms
of sophisticated political and cultural configurations to control and legit-
imize dominance have been put in motion, including globalized mecha-
nisms for economic and technological supremacy.
8