SOCI_3430_Exam_Review_notes.docx.pdf

SOCI 3430 Exam Review notes • Conceptualizing settler colonialism/imperialism – With a focus on aboriginal – non-aboriginal relations in the Canadian context Tuhiwai-Smith: Resistance to the idea that the ‘post-’ in postcolonial would indicate the end of actual colonialism (Cluster 1)  Critique of History – Maps figure centrally in how we get socialized into geopolitical constructs (while we live and experience place differently, maps construct an objectified space) – Maps & mapping play a pivotal role for the national belonging (perceiving ourselves as part of a territorially bounded community of the nation) – Maps & mapping depend on a technology of production (this process is often linked to exercises the authority to produce and use such maps) – Maps shape the political terrain inasmuch as they claim to represent it – However: Maps & mapping can also be contested on various levels  Notion of Decolonization – It is a body of texts that contest the ways ‘the West’ has written the history of modernity and civilization – We find authors who often emerge from postcolonial countries and academic institutions that have emerged in colonial contexts – An overall interest in pluralizing the event of colonialism, while demonstrating both, the violent underpinnings and the context-specific “rules of practice” that make the event uneven – An attempt to open up new archives outside of official historical texts (e.g. vernacular stories, myths, popular culture, autobiographies) – An attempt to show the continuous effect of colonial discourses on contemporary politics and social relations  Imperialism - As economic expansion - As the subjugation of others: the colonized population are underneath you, Britain is inferior) - As an idea of spirit with many forms of realization (imperialism uses methods, moral beliefs and ideologies to brainwash the colonized country) - As a discursive field of knowledge (intellectual mentality): gain of knowledge through experience in the colonized community) discursive representation of the others “the colonized”, produced internally) Haig-Brown  Aboriginal education Founding vision and reality o “for the welfare and education of aboriginal children”? Disease and Death o 1922 Bryce report “Story of National Crime” reports to Parliament about the crisis in sanitation, hygiene and health that has led to staggering number of child death and illness Neglect and Abuse o “parent” function of staff not conducive to well-being of children; at times harsh disciplinary measures into a environment of physical and sexual abuse o State officials routinely failed to come to rescue despite reports on the abuses – “In 1922, the issue of Aboriginal people had long since been swept into the darker reaches of national consciousness. The deaths, and the condition of the schools pricked no collective conscience, wrought no revolution in policy, or even any significant reformulation. … There was no reconsideration, no second thoughts, no questioning of the assumptions of assimilation or of residential schools as an appropriate method of achieving that end. There appeared to be no though or reaction at all – Ideological level – “Kill the Indian in him and let the man live” o Aboriginal way of life seen as failure, leading to extinction o Solution: Separate children from families and “re-educate,” with the hope that they would merge with mainstream white society – Technologies of power – Discipline: o the individual mind and body is seen as the site of a pedagogical intervention, based on a rigorous religious discipline and forms of physical and emotional punishmen  Indian Act Legislation Officially recognized categories o Numbers according to 2001 census :  Status-Indians (First Nations) 690,101  Inuit 300,000-800,000 (est.)  Metis 55,700 (est.)  Non-Status Indiana 440,000 (est.) What defines a “Status Indian”? o 1876 Indian Act provides the legal framework for inclusion  1867 British North America Act already allocates “Indian Affairs” to federal government (rather than the provinces) o What is being regulated under the Indian Act:  Policies around education, health care, social services remain provincially regulated  Land, treaties, reserves under federal regulation  Indian Act provides official recognition of who counts and who does not count as an Indian person  key consequences in summary: o Issue of (self-) definition and legal rights continues to cause tensions  E.g. hunting rights o Issue of sovereignty in a cultural and political sense remains legally contested o Issue of autonomy and self-determination on Indian reserves remains uncertain  E.g. 2011 Housing crisis in Attawapiskat o Issue of the long-term outfall of assimilationist politics remains the overarching problem Razack  European settler discourse (spatial metaphors) – A white settler society is one established by Europeans on non-European soil. Its origins lie in the dispossession and near extermination of Indigenous populations by the conquering Europeans. As it evolves, a white settler society continues to be structured by a racial hierarchy. In the national mythologies of such societies, it is believed that white people came first and that it is they who principally developed the land; Aboriginal peoples are presumed to be mostly dead or assimilated. European settlers thus become the original inhabitants and the group most entitled to the fruits of citizenship” (RAR, p. 74) – understanding the legacy o Shift from ‘indirect rule’ to settler colonialism  Imperial power roots itself through long-term settlement and appropriation of land o Shift between forms of accommodation and assimilation  The forms of exercising (white) dominance take on different forms in different historical contexts (e.g. early French settlers and later settlers)  White settler narratives cast history in a light of progress and emancipation o Multination-models  Recognition of various indigenous and immigrant groups leads to specific articulations of multicultural citizenship in present times o Contested sovereignty claims – Distortion of historical representations by prioritizing the advent of colonization – Setting the transplanted institutions and values as normative and superior – Physical and/or symbolical erasure of indigenous societies through assimilation – Fabrication of a social structure with long-term discriminatory effects against articulations of indigenous culture and sovereignty  How is racial otherness linked to place? • Some key points to remember: – Focusing on the intersection between race, place, class and gender – Historical mapping of bodies and spaces in relation to each other – Paying attention to how the structure of urban space and its representation signifies and reifies social inequalities and racism – Conceptualizing space as a social product through which power is exercised – Demonstrating the shift form racialized discourse to culturalist discourse • in current neoliberal forms of reshaping and revitalizing urban space • Conceptualizing race, racialization, migration – With a focus on race discourses in relation to the history of migration and immigration practices in Canada – Mongia