Colonial Discourse of Otherness: stereotyping and fetishism

Posted at Feb 20/2007 08:02PM:
Colonial Discourse of Otherness: stereotyping and fetishism

For a country to be successful in colonization the country must believe that their society/culture is better than the conquered society. It is based on an ethnocentric belief that the morals and values of the colonizer were superior to those of the colonized. The way that the colonizers were successful is by using stereotyping, fetishism, and the concept of otherness to promote their superior society.

According to Bhabha, stereotyping is, “knowledge and identification that vacillates between what is always already known, and something that’s repeated.” Stereotyping was used by the colonizers because it creates an identity with a large group of people, whether is it correct or not. It employs a system of representation. An example that was not used in class is the colonization of South Africa and the Hottentot Venus. The Khoisan people were the natives who lived on the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The colonizers were first infatuated by the Khoisan women. They believed they had sexual power because of there large buttocks. The large buttocks of the women spread from the colonizers to there home country, where they believed that all women from Africa would have this large behind. It was so different from their own bodies, that they found it to be humorous. In this story, the Hottentot Venus, whose name was Saartjie Baartman was actually brought to Europe were she was exhibited as a sideshow attraction. A fate that was even worse then staying in her homeland, where they were used almost as slaves in the settlements of the Europeans. Her culture ended up dwindling in its numbers and now only a few kept the Khoisan morals and values. Stereotyping is a reductionist view of a society. And usual only portrays outward appearances. It allows the colonizers to extend critical political objectives.

Fetishism was used similarly by the colonizers as stereotyping was. First, fetish was an ambiguous space/ a way to distinguish between cultures. Material things/material objects that hold human value as a collective whole are fetish. Therefore, if fetish is the object which people hold valuable and significant, and since different cultures have different values, it is a way to distinguish between cultures. One example of a specific fetish is blood. Some cultures put blood on their bodies like paint before a ritual ceremony or before a battle. To them the blood holds significant powers, usually a form of protection. Fetishism emerged from the colonial contact, because it is what the colonizers’ saw. During observation and surveying of the new territories the colonizers would distinguish different areas with what they termed as different fetishes between the people. Similarly to stereotyping fetish discourse involves unifying a geographical area as the same.

However, fetishism did not have the same political consequences. Stereotyping has an agenda of bringing a society down while bringing another society up. Therefore, stereotyping creates a kind of hierarchy, where the colonizers are on top. Fetishism does not have the same political agenda. Fetishism was used as a way to distinguish father than a force of power.