Contact zone

Last updated April 26, 2024

In ethnography, a contact zone is a conceptual space where different cultures interact.

In a 1991 keynote address to the Modern Language Association titled "Arts of the Contact Zone", Mary Louise Pratt introduced the concept, saying "I use this term to refer to social spaces where cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they lived out in many parts of the world today".^[1]^[2] Pratt described a site for linguistic and cultural encounters, wherein power is negotiated and struggle occurs.

Although when introduced this term was in the context of literacy and literary theories, the term has been appropriated to conversations across the humanities and has been used in the context of feminist theory, critical race theory, postcolonial theory and in discussions of teaching and pedagogy. The contact zone is similar to other concepts that address relationality and contiguity such as positionality, standpoint theory, perspectivism, intersectionality, and relationality.^[3]

"Arts of the Contact Zone"

In "Arts of the Contact Zone", ^[1] Pratt describes a manuscript from 1613 penned by Andean man named Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. The manuscript was a letter written to King Philip III of Spain and was titled The First New Chronicle and Good Government. The manuscript details Spanish conquest in South America. Pratt cites the manuscript as an example of autoethnography. She writes, "Guaman Poma's New Chronicle is an instance of what I have proposed to call an autoethnographic text, by which I mean a text in which people undertake to describe themselves in ways that engage with representations others have made of them" (35).^[1] The New Chronicle ends with a revisionist account of the Spanish conquest. Pratt uses the manuscript as an example of an oppressed person or group resisting hegemony, and she connects the practice of autoethnography, critique and resistance to the creation of contact zones.^[1]

Transculturation

Pratt also shares the example of Poma's New Chronicle to give an example of " transculturation " or a term that ethnographers have used "to describe the process whereby members of subordinated or marginal groups select and invent from materials transmitted by a dominant metropolitan culture".^[1] Additionally, Pratt gives the origin of the term "transculturation," writing, "The term, originally coined by Cuban sociologist Fernando Ortiz in the 1940, aimed to replace concepts of acculturation and assimilation used to characterize culture under conquest" (36).^[1] Pratt confirms "Transculturation, like autoethnography, is a phenomenon of the contact zone".^[1]

Purpose of the Contact Zone

Pratt states that one of the purposes of the contact zone is "intended in part to contrast with ideas of community that underlie much of the thinking about language, communication and culture that gets done in the academy".^[1] Pratt takes issue with the notion of communities as "imagined entities"^[1] and that this line of thinking creates a type of problematic nationalism.

Other uses

The contact zone has been used outside of its original spatial concept to describe connections between identity groups that are interacting outside of a specific, local, physical space.^[4]

The notion of the contact zone has been used to facilitate discussions within composition studies on the topics of multiculturalism, multilingualism and critical pedagogy. The contact zone is used by scholars as a trope for visualizing solutions to conflicts. Marilyn Edelstein discussed the contact zone and multiculturalism. In Edelstein's article, "Multiculturalisms, Past and Present, and Future"^[3] questions of inclusion versus difference are prominent. In "Professing Multiculturalism: The Politics of Style in the Contact Zone,”^[5] Min-Zhan Lu discussed multilingualism and the contact zone, where the student text is the site of struggle. Pratt also uses the contact zone to discuss the classroom space. Pratt writes, "All the students in the class had the experience... of having their cultures discussed and objectified in ways that horrified them; all the students experienced face-to-face the ignorance and incomprehension, and occasionally the hostility of others ... Along with rage, incomprehension, and pain, there were exhilarating moments of wonder and revelation, mutual understanding, and new wisdom—the joys of the contact zone".^[1]

Patricia Bizzell went so far as to suggest that English studies be organized around "contact zones" rather than historical periods.^[6] Bizzell proposed, "I am suggesting that we organize English studies not in terms of literary or chronological periods, nor essentialized racial or gender categories, but rather in terms of historically defined contact zones, moments when different groups within the society contend for the power to interpret what is going on" (167).^[6] Bizzell uses the term to refer to moments in space and time, rather than abstract spaces in the mind or in literature. She describes contact zones as "circumscribed in time and space, but with elastic boundaries".^[6]

James Clifford applies the notion of contact zone to the museum studies in his book "Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century" (1997).^[7] Drawing on the ethnographic research among museum curators, anthropologists, experts on Northwest Coast art, and a group of Tlingit elders in the basement of the Portland Museum of Art (Oregon) in 1989, Clifford shows that the museum is more than just a place of consultation or research. He states, "When museums are seen as contact zones, their organising structure as a collection becomes an ongoing historical, political, moral relationship -- a power-charged set of exchanges, of push and pull. [...] A centre and a periphery are assumed: the centre point of gathering, the periphery an area of discovery. The museum, usually located in a metropolitan city, is the historical destination for the cultural productions it lovingly and authoritatively salvages, care for, and interprets".^[7] Some scholars, however, question such an approach. For example, Robin Boast returns to the original meaning of the contact zone developed by Pratt^[2] and writes about the neo-colonial context of contact zone. He states, "on one hand, I welcome the new collaboration, and, on the other, I raise a serious concern that the neocolonial nature of these contact zones could destroy the very empowerment that it is meant to engender."^[8] In his article Boast draws attention to the important but rather underappreciated part of contact zone, authoethnography. He concludes that the autoethnography is a "fundamental neocolonial rhetorical genre and even instrument of appropriation".^[8]

Related Research Articles

Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining the behavior of the participants in a given social situation and understanding the group members' own interpretation of such behavior.

Transculturation is a term coined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in 1940 to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures. Transculturation encompasses more than transition from one culture to another; it does not consist merely of acquiring another culture (acculturation) or of losing or uprooting a previous culture (deculturation). Rather, it merges these concepts and instead carries the idea of the consequent creation of new cultural phenomena (neoculturation) in which the blending of cultures is understood as producing something entirely new.

Proxemics is the study of human use of space and the effects that population density has on behavior, communication, and social interaction.

Cross-cultural communication is a field of study investigating how people from differing cultural backgrounds communicate, in similar and different ways among themselves, and how they endeavor to communicate across cultures. Intercultural communication is a related field of study.

Acculturation is a process of social, psychological, and cultural change that stems from the balancing of two cultures while adapting to the prevailing culture of the society. Acculturation is a process in which an individual adopts, acquires and adjusts to a new cultural environment as a result of being placed into a new culture, or when another culture is brought to someone. Individuals of a differing culture try to incorporate themselves into the new more prevalent culture by participating in aspects of the more prevalent culture, such as their traditions, but still hold onto their original cultural values and traditions. The effects of acculturation can be seen at multiple levels in both the devotee of the prevailing culture and those who are assimilating into the culture.

Intercultural communication is a discipline that studies communication across different cultures and social groups, or how culture affects communication. It describes the wide range of communication processes and problems that naturally appear within an organization or social context made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. In this sense, it seeks to understand how people from different countries and cultures act, communicate, and perceive the world around them. Intercultural communication focuses on the recognition and respect of those with cultural differences. The goal is mutual adaptation between two or more distinct cultures which leads to biculturalism/multiculturalism rather than complete assimilation. It promotes the development of cultural sensitivity and allows for empathic understanding across different cultures.

Autoethnography is a form of ethnographic research in which a researcher connects personal experiences to wider cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings. It is considered a form of qualitative and/or arts-based research.

Cross-cultural may refer to

A chasqui was a messenger of the Inca empire. Agile, highly trained and physically fit, they were in charge of carrying messages –in the form of quipus or oral information– and small packets. Along the Inca road system there were relay stations called chaskiwasi, placed at about 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) from each other, where the chasqui switched, exchanging their message(s) with the fresh messenger. The chasqui system could be able to deliver a message or a gift along a distance of up to 300 kilometres (190 mi) per day.

Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala, also known as Huamán Poma or Waman Poma, was a Quechua nobleman known for chronicling and denouncing the ill treatment of the natives of the Andes by the Spanish Empire after their conquest of Peru. Today, Guaman Poma is noted for his illustrated chronicle, El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno.

The Wiphala is a square emblem commonly used as a flag to represent some native peoples of the Andes that include today's Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, northwestern Argentina and southern Colombia. The 2009 Constitution of Bolivia established the southern Qullasuyu Wiphala as another national symbol of Bolivia, along with the red-yellow-green tricolor.

Indian reductions in the Andes were settlements in the former Inca Empire created by Spanish authorities and populated by the forcible relocation of indigenous Andean populations, called "Indians" by the Spanish and "Andeans" by some modern scholars. The purpose of the Spanish Empire was to gather native populations into centers called "Indian reductions", to Christianize, tax, and govern them to comply with Spanish customs and economic interests.

Mary Louise Pratt is a Silver Professor and Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures at New York University. She received her B.A. in Modern Languages and Literatures from the University of Toronto in 1970, her M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1971, and her PhD in Comparative Literature from Stanford University in 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heterotopia (space)</span> Describing a place that is in some way different

Heterotopia is a concept elaborated by philosopher Michel Foucault to describe certain cultural, institutional and discursive spaces that are somehow "other": disturbing, intense, incompatible, contradictory or transforming. Heterotopias are worlds within worlds, mirroring and yet upsetting what is outside. Foucault provides examples: ships, cemeteries, bars, brothels, prisons, gardens of antiquity, fairs, Muslim baths and many more. Foucault outlines the notion of heterotopia on three occasions between 1966 and 1967. A lecture given by Foucault to a group of architects in 1967 is the most well-known explanation of the term. His first mention of the concept is in his preface to The Order of Things, and refers to texts rather than socio-cultural spaces.

The cultural studies theory of composition is a field of composition studies that examines both writing as an artifact of culture and the contexts of writing situations. It also examines what happens to writing when cultures come into contact with each other, situations often referred to as "contact zones".

In the Inca Empire the ushnu was an altar for cults to the deities, a throne for the Sapa Inca (emperor), an elevated place for judgment and a reviewing stand of military command. In several cases the ushnu may have been used as a solar observatory. Ushnus mark the center of plazas of the Inca administrative centers all along the highland path of the Inca road system.

Robin Benville Boast is the Professor Emeritus at the University of Amsterdam, Department of Media Studies. Until the end of 2012 Prof. Boast was an Associate Professor and Curator for World Archaeology at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge. In December 2021, Prof. Boast retired from the University of Amsterdam where he taught for nine years on Cultural Information Science, Neo-colonial information governance, and the history and sociology of digitally and collecting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yupana</span> Incan abacus

A yupana is a counting board used to perform arithmetic operations, dating back to the time of the Incas. Very little documentation exists concerning its precise physical form or how it was used.

Yanaca is a group of ancient, pre-Incan towns located in Peru in Apurimac Region, Aymaraes Province, Yanaca District. These towns were located in the area surrounding the present-day town of Yanaca in the Andes mountain range, between the Quechua and Suni regions.

Visual autoethnography is an autoethnographic qualitative research method in which an author uses self-reflection and visuals, including photography, painting, drawing, video extracts, film, and/or other forms of visual expression to engage with personal experiences and connect them to wider cultural, political, and social phenomena. Visual autoethnography has been cited as useful to convey feeling or affect to the viewer while challenging conventional research methods. Visual autoethnographers use visuals to represent and reflect on potential shared experience with viewers, "facilitating commonality while simultaneously providing individual moments of subjective reflection." The use of imagery varies in visual autoethnographic examples. Related approaches include musical autoethnography.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pratt, Mary Louise (1991-01-01). "Arts of the Contact Zone". Profession: 33–40. JSTOR 25595469.
1 2 Pratt, Mary Louise (2007-09-26). Imperial Eyes. doi:10.4324/9780203932933. ISBN 9781134071937.
1 2 Edelstein, Marilyn (2005-09-01). "Multiculturalisms Past, Present, and Future". College English. 68 (1): 14–41. doi:10.2307/30044661. JSTOR 30044661.
↑ Radermacher, Martin (2017-01-05). Devotional Fitness: An Analysis of Contemporary Christian Dieting and Fitness Programs. Springer. p. 207. ISBN 978-3-319-49823-2.
↑ Lu, Min-Zhan (1994-12-01). "Professing Multiculturalism: The Politics of Style in the Contact Zone". College Composition and Communication. 45 (4): 442–458. doi:10.2307/358759. JSTOR 358759.
1 2 3 Bizzell, Patricia (1994-02-01). ""Contact Zones" and English Studies". College English. 56 (2): 163–169. doi:10.2307/378727. JSTOR 378727.
1 2 Clifford, James, 1945- (1997). Routes : travel and translation in the late twentieth century. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-77960-6. OCLC 35285449.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
1 2 Boast, Robin (2011). "NEOCOLONIAL COLLABORATION: Museum as Contact Zone Revisited". Museum Anthropology. 34 (1): 56–70. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1379.2010.01107.x. ISSN 1548-1379.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[:0-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pratt, Mary Louise (1991-01-01). "Arts of the Contact Zone". Profession: 33–40. JSTOR 25595469.

[:6-2] 1 2 Pratt, Mary Louise (2007-09-26). Imperial Eyes. doi:10.4324/9780203932933. ISBN 9781134071937.

[:1-3] 1 2 Edelstein, Marilyn (2005-09-01). "Multiculturalisms Past, Present, and Future". College English. 68 (1): 14–41. doi:10.2307/30044661. JSTOR 30044661.

[:4-4] Radermacher, Martin (2017-01-05). Devotional Fitness: An Analysis of Contemporary Christian Dieting and Fitness Programs. Springer. p. 207. ISBN 978-3-319-49823-2.

[5] Lu, Min-Zhan (1994-12-01). "Professing Multiculturalism: The Politics of Style in the Contact Zone". College Composition and Communication. 45 (4): 442–458. doi:10.2307/358759. JSTOR 358759.

[:2-6] 1 2 3 Bizzell, Patricia (1994-02-01). ""Contact Zones" and English Studies". College English. 56 (2): 163–169. doi:10.2307/378727. JSTOR 378727.

[:3-7] 1 2 Clifford, James, 1945- (1997). Routes : travel and translation in the late twentieth century. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-77960-6. OCLC 35285449.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[:5-8] 1 2 Boast, Robin (2011). "NEOCOLONIAL COLLABORATION: Museum as Contact Zone Revisited". Museum Anthropology. 34 (1): 56–70. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1379.2010.01107.x. ISSN 1548-1379.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]