Home | Join! | Help | Browse | Forums | NuWorld | NWF | PoPo   
















actual interesting classes
Wednesday. 2.5.14 7:45 pm

So I'm taking a history class, and it's the first history class I've taken where I'm not so much "History class..." as I am, "~*~*~*~HISTORY CLASS!!~*~*~*~"

It's on monsters in pre-modern history and it's SO...WOW. We've been going through different stories about monsters, such as Gilgamesh, serpents and dragons, mythical hybrid creatures in Chinese culture, and, most recently, Polyphemus from The Odyssey. So, one day, we're talking about Polyphemus the clyclops whose home Ulysses basically breaks into. He kills the guy's sheep, eats his cheese...just kind of generally douches around. I raise my hand because my parallel senses are tingling.

So I say, "I feel like a common thread with everything we read is that some guy comes bumbling into the monster's territory, imposes on the monster, threatens it, and is then surprised when the monster feels the need to attack. And then the human kills or disables the monster and leaves again with some sense of victory and glory."

And she thinks this is an interesting talking point to lead from, so she asks why we think that is.

"Propaganda," says Adam, who sits a couple rows behind me (I'm trying to learn all ~40 names). He's right, but then she asks about the Chinese literature we read where they essentially revere monsters and treat them very respectfully, and that's an excellent point, but I like the answer of propaganda so much that I can't get off of that mental path.

--And suddenly, there it is. See, I've been studying the colonial period in Latin American countries in three of my classes--Latin American and Carribbean Studies has been focusing on Brazil, lately, Mexican Culture has been focusing on Mexico, and then Service Learning has been focusing on generalized oppression and prejudice--and that includes the study of slavery, so it's on my mind already. The question is obvious, when your mind is already kind of there.

Did China ever keep slaves?

Turns out, they did. During the Qing Dynasty, they held what would be considered to be slaves, but the Chinese treated their slaves much differently than slaves were treated in, say, the Americas. They dined together and formed legitimate and respectful relationships (which doesn't excuse the slavery--I'm getting to a point, with this). They refer to the Qing Dynasty's treatment of enslaved individuals as more of a codependent relationship; it did become more brutal as we came from the pre-modern era to the modern era, although in a different manner and for different reasons than the Americas.

Now, I'm not calling slaves monstruous. I think that should be obvious, but I'm going to clarify, just in case. I'm implying that mythology about monsters was used as propaganda towards imperialism and the idea of a "superior race."

This Chinese example reveals a very obvious pattern in the morality of different cultures and the treatment of individuals that they see as "lesser," especially groups of individuals who are depicted by many imperialist nations as "hostile" natives. The morals expressed in tales about monsters, from what I've seen so far, are directly parallel to how they viewed indigenous and enslaved individuals.

whOaaAoOaAhOH.
1 Comments.


Didn't the Greeks generally treat their slaves nicely? Like they didn't consider them subhuman the way people in America did, at least.
» randomjunk on 2014-02-05 11:14:51

Sorry, you do not have permission to comment.

If you are a member, try logging in again or accessing this page here.

Unicornasaurus's Weblog Site • NuTang.com

NuTang is the first web site to implement PPGY Technology. This page was generated in 0.244seconds.

  Send to a friend on AIM | Set as Homepage | Bookmark Home | NuTang Collage | Terms of Service & Privacy Policy | Link to Us | Monthly Top 10s
All content © Copyright 2003-2047 NuTang.com and respective members. Contact us at NuTang[AT]gmail.com.