CULTURAL DEATH

Recently, an image has been doing rounds on social media, which shows a white-American “Instagram influencer” sitting atop one of the magnificent pyramids of Egypt, a historically sacred site for the people. While the image sparked great outrage in today’s world including the West, it does not seem to be very different from the attitude of the famous Western hero – Captain James Cook.

The forced domination of one race over another, or rather a group of different peoples, is a multifaceted process. Part of this is the epistemic violence inflicted by the invaders – stripping the cultural agency of the peoples. Often, this process is slow and subtle, like the British outlawing suttee, state by state. At other times, however, it can be as blatant as the figure of James Cook, shoulders squared, proudly striding on a piece of land sacred to the ancient people of Hawai’i. This image encapsulates the phenomenon of cultural death, as well as the common behavior of such explorers, toward the peoples of the lands they routinely “discovered” and invaded.

When the Europeans intruded into the lands and lives of peoples all over the Earth, in their “explorations”, they examined cultures from their own lens. They wrongly believed themselves to be neutral observers of sorts, judging from a vantage point only they could access, superior to the rest – a point of rationality. This is evident, for instance, in Todorov’s description of the Aztec culture, that was “overdetermined” by signs, according to him. The agency of the Aztec people was virtually non-existent in these accounts, with no individual ability to think; it was through the Spaniards’ genius of improvisation, then, that they dominated the Aztec people. Such studies, especially the account of Cortes, present a false picture of a culture entirely alien to those writing about it (who are today taken as authorities on the subject, since they annihilated the people of the culture). Similarly, as torchbearers of rationality and enlightenment, James Cook and his men were deeply critical of the Polynesian customs, such as the social hierarchy. Not only were they too uninformed to comment, but additionally, they seemed oblivious to the same hierarchies inside their own ship; such was the extent of irrationality!

Obeyesekere’s work dissects the (in)famous voyages of James Cook to these islands. Various incidents that the author also attributes to Cook’s deteriorating mental state, are emblematic of the larger phenomenon of the Europeans bringing about cultural death for the peoples of the lands they discovered, i.e. brought to the knowledge of their ignorant nations. The most obvious one is the construction of the myth that Cook was welcomed by the peoples of Hawai’i as their god, Lono. This myth was constructed by and for the Europeans, based on misinterpreting the local culture. Ancient and elaborate ceremonies of the land were seen by them as nothing but reaffirmations of their imagined superiority. This attitude could be seen in all of Cook’s actions. With no authority or place in the social hierarchy of the land, Cook deems himself fit to punish those who transgress his (European) notions of justice, while being ignorant of the norms of the peoples. Cook goes as far as mutilating the people and burning their houses down. Worse yet, he punishes one of the local chiefs in front of the people. On another occasion, in Huahine, he takes the family of a chief as hostage until his ship’s deserters are brought back. Violating the sanctity of the local customs by humiliating the chiefs in their own homes shows the extent of disrespect, as well as Cook’s illusion of superiority. In Tahiti, also, Cook interferes in an internal war between two groups, solely based on his European ideas of political traditions and sense of justice. Additionally, Obeyesekere highlights Cook’s tendency to engage with local nobility, such as those of the Tongan islands, entirely on his own terms, showing a brazen disregard of their rules and norms. Cook, thus, uses his distorted lens to view the culture of the peoples, and not only violates its sanctity backed by the threat of violence, but also presents his distorted image to the world as the rational truth.