Primitivism and Orientalism in Popular Culture

What Is Anthropology? ANTH 2301 Primitivism and Orientalism in Popular Culture When was the last time you saw an image of an African person? Take a moment to consider. Was it, maybe, a picture of a wide-eyed girl in ragged clothes in a development agency's ad asking for a gift to a good cause? Alternatively, it may have been a picture from the news media showing a young soldier brandishing an AK-47 in a battle zone in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or another African nation. Africa continues to be portrayed in the public eye as a desolate, hopeless continent. Africans are often treated like helpless infants in need of the guidance and support of White Western carers. You can argue that poverty and violent conflict are common in Africa, but is that really the case? Is the portrayal not, in part, accurate? The most violent and cruel parts of European colonisation occurred in the most problematic areas of Africa. Leopold II, the Belgian ruler, imposed fear on the native population in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo and promoted their enslavement for the profitable rubber trade. In other parts of Africa, native populations were enslaved to reserves by European colonial rulers, who also made them labour on European plantations in exchange for taxes. Colonial administrators suppressed certain ethnic groups and promoted others, which fueled strife. The colonial era is frequently the source of today's bloodshed and strife in Africa. Are depictions of Africa in America incorporating this traumatic past? Furthermore, Africa has a lot of positive locations, including Ghana and Botswana, which have stable democracies and expanding economies. Did you know that Ghana has a space programme? Would that surprise you? that in Kenya, there are more cell phones than people? that a number of electric vehicles are produced in Africa? Native Americans are subjected to similar inaccuracies; they are usually portrayed as historical victims who are destitute, defenceless, and in need of outside assistance. The image of Native Americans in museums is shaped by the primitivist gaze; these depictions typically include dioramas of lowly people with buckskin clothing, stone implements, and tepees, either leading a simple life among nature or fighting for their tribes, their bodies painted in vivid colours. Although Native Americans no longer live in this manner, these are the pictures that most people associate with them. Naturally, it is crucial for non-Native Americans to study about Native American cultures both before and after they came into touch with European settlers. However, it is just as vital to comprehend how history has shaped Native communities' current lifestyles and activities. Instead of portraying Native Americans as helpless victims, popular culture need to highlight their vibrant and inventive reactions to the various types of cultural abuse they have experienced. For example, did you know that there is a growing Native American food movement in American cities as well as on Native reservations? The well-balanced, healthful foods of their ancestors are being revived and reinvented by Native food advocates like Karlos Baca and Sean Sherman, who are serving up delicacies like braised elk leg and maple red corn pudding. North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NATIFS), a nonprofit organisation dedicated to protecting Native foodways, was established by Sherman and his girlfriend, Dana Thompson. The organisation gives tribes the chance to open restaurants serving Native food, bringing revenue and jobs to areas with high rates of unemployment. See the following video to find out more about Sean Sherman and the Native Food movement: https://openstax.org/r/sheansherman. Similar to primitivism, orientalism has persisted in European and American societies. The idea that all Muslims are extremists and violent has been the most notable manifestation of orientalism in American society in the twenty years after al-Qaeda attacked American targets on September 11, 2001. The 2003 US invasion of Iraq, a nation that had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks, was greatly influenced by the indiscriminate application of this stereotype to Islamic peoples throughout the Middle East. Politicians used the orientalist stereotype—which proved to be untrue—that Iraq was a violent, illogical nation storing WMDs in order to justify the attack. Iraqis became classified as either "unlawful combatants" or defenceless victims of a despicable ruler as the conflict dragged on. According to American leaders, the Iraqis need the assistance of American forces in order to be freed from their oppression and taught democracy. These types of ethnocentric prejudice skew perceptions of individuals who inhabit vast geographic areas of the world for a big number of Europeans and Americans. This kind of cultural ignorance can lead to military operations and policies that don't have the desired effects. Furthermore, in multicultural communities, ethnocentric attitude fosters and perpetuates social group inequity. People of certain ethnic or racial identities encounter prejudice in their pursuit of justice, employment, and education when they are perceived as weak or aggressive.