Blog Post 1. Cultural Death: The Apotheosis of Captain Cook

Obeyesekere’s text begs the question of the basis on which we believe the repetitive narratives of the ‘apotheosis’ of Captain Cook. Was this hailing of Captain Cook as the god Lono really something the ingenious people did? How can we believe in stories that the explorer/discoverer tells about the reactions of those explored and discovered when their voices are never heard? This, as I understand represents the process of cultural death the colonizer/explorer inflicts on a native population when it steals their right to their own narrative, their own stories. We can think of this process of myth creation as an integral part of the wider process of the colonizers whereby there is an onslaught of epistemological violence.

This text offers an insight into the dubious ways of the British explorer who enjoyed his god-like status, which stemmed from the same rationality of the native people that was dismissed as preliterate and child like. The locals were punished severely for offences like theft. The irony of this is that the things they are ‘stealing’ belong to them, but Cook is able to, through the European myth of superiority and civilization punish those he oppresses. 

It is not just physical punishment that falls under the realm of epistemological violence but I would argue that more important is the psychological domination of the people and the justifications for it. These justifications believe that the native peoples are ‘pre-logical’, irrational, childlike and European systems of belief and knowledge are inherently superior and far more evolved.  

Obeyesekere pushes us to see the whole story in a different light and highlights how the colonizers push their narrative of a more far reaching ‘logos’ as compared to the primitive ‘mythos’ the natives rely on. This allows us to see how a cultural death of sorts is experienced by the people with the constant force of such narratives.  Cultural death as I understand here signifies how the indigenous people do not have the ownership they should of their own history, culture and customs because of the imposition of the European myth of civilization that strips them of this voice. Not only do the Europeans frame the indigenous people in a particular way but also speak from their perspective, assuming a better understanding of where they're coming from simply by virtue of their inherent superiority. Cultural death is a concept or phenomenon we can observe in the history of colonization in every instance where indigenous voices are silenced.