There is an obvious pattern to one culture dominating another. It can be seen in the school we walk in. The pattern covers every continent and island. It can easily be found and traced in every culture in the world.
It begins with the dominating culture entering into the area. The older cultures are pushed back and made to quarrel among themselves. The dominated cultures slowly gains power back and then dominates. This pattern can take a few months or millennia to fully take place.
The culture that enters may not actually win the great wars and battles. In the beginning, the culture may actually help stop a previous dominant culture. For example, the Manchu empire saved China from bandits and began the Qing dynasty.
The dominating culture may actually seem like the lower culture. Although the Manchu dominated China, the culture was entirely based on Chinese Confucianism. Kang Xi, the second emperor of the dynasty, outlawed footbinding, but near the end of the empire every woman had the broken feet and small high heeled shoes of a Confucian. The entire Manchu culture is nearly gone today, replaced by the Chinese Han Culture.
The next step in cultural domination will actually take a while, but involves the consolidation of power and creating a power myth of domination. The myth of domination is something that doesn’t get explored very often. The dominant culture tells of how they easily took over because of their own great and divine powers. They will place the dominated culture as foolish and stupid within this myth. The Spanish claimed that the Aztecs believed in Quetzalcoatl, a white god that promised to return someday. The myth was made up several years after the fall of the Aztecs.
The idea idea that the dominating culture is naturally better will be promoted throughout the media. Such stories as Tarzan, Birth of a Nation, and our own modern Avatar have stories of a culture proving itself to be dominant and more important. Tarzan and Avatar tell the story where the good guy is better at doing things than even the natives. Birth of a Nation makes a particular culture seem evil and deserving of being dominated.
The promoted idea of the dominating culture would be pious, pure, intelligent, and capable. The dominated will be said to be stupid, lazy, sexually deviant, superstitious, and evil. An example of this would be Orientalism, or the stereotype ideas of cultures from Arabia to China. Pictures describing these cultures show the women as sensual and at least partially naked. The men are shown as stupid and evil. The cultural beliefs of the culture are given a special mystical power. In fact, when attempting to explain these cultures, the common response is to use the foreignness as the explanation for everything.
The dominant cultures uses this to give the reason for domination and control of the people. During the reconstruction of the South after the American Civil War, many of the former slave owners said that the African Americans were too lazy and stupid to survive alone.
The USSR used the next tactic perfectly. The different dominated groups would be compared to the dominant culture and given perks for being closer than others. One group would be given a great reward for one thing, and then another would be given different praise. The infighting and attempts for other perks kept dominant culture on top and created a caste system beneath it. The reasons for much of the unrest in the Eastern European countries was caused by the USSR doing this. The same pattern can be found in the Philippines, South and Central America, and the entire African continent.
The dominated culture slowly moves up and gains more and more power. Usually the reason for this is the dominant culture has fewer and fewer children to do the more manual labor type of jobs. The dominated culture will have plenty of children and desperation to take any job at all. This will eventually lead to a need for education, and then to rise up in greater and better jobs.
Slowly this makes the dominant and the dominated begin to equalize in power. The closer to equalization the more strange things happen.
The dominated culture begins to assert its own culture as more important and even better. They will use the entire culture and not pick and choose parts. If there is an evil part it will be promoted as good and even better than it really is. This promotion will be given powers so the dominated culture has an excuse to fight back. The leaders will claim powers beyond human to promote their own ideals. Papa Doc from Haiti promoted his ideas by claiming to be a witch doctor that would hurt the people if they went against him.
This comparison has problems with it. Even after the dominant/dominated history goes away, there will be signs of the old thoughts. After decades of work to build black culture up in the United States, black girls still think that the black doll is ugly and evil compared to the white doll.
The next problem with the promotion of the dominated will be for customs that were only in the culture for a certain era. This will be said to be exactly as the culture should be, even though there are examples that the culture has changed since that time. This era will be the promoted golden time that everyone wishes they could return to.
During this equalization the dominant group continues to use the different stereotypes built up about the dominated culture. The mystical powers will be seen in a new light and said to be good. The stereotypes do no change. Likewise, the dominated culture will promote many of the made up stereotypes as important to the culture.
Within the Navajo Rez, and many other reservations the promotion of clothing and cultures that are from a different tribe are promoted. Cherokee tribes dress up in "Chiefs clothing" even though they have no real connection to Chiefs. Tee Pees will be promoted even when no one has or ever will live in one.
There will be a very strange item that needs to be mentioned here. When the dominated culture is able to see the dominant culture at home, there will be problems. The dominant culture promotes itself as better and greater than the dominated. The idea of a near paradise will be promoted as the natural home of the dominant culture. When the culture is seen, the dominated will reject the promotion almost completely. Gandhi was a lawyer in England, he saw London and knew its culture very well. When the English attempted to prove they were greater, he rejected their promotions and promoted his own culture instead.
There will also be attempts by the dominated to equalize that will be rejected by the dominant. This rejection was part of holding power earlier in the dominant/dominated culture but will do the exact opposite when the dominated have actually seen the life the dominant live. The greatest case would be the American Revolution when the higher up land lords of the American Colonies were treated as lower class citizens by England. The attempts to control this were lost, because many of the Colonists had been back to England and knew what the state of life in the country really was like.
When this equalization of the dominant and dominated cultures begin to equalize, there are three things that could happen. The first is the cultures simply stop being seen as dominant and dominated, the dominated becomes the dominant culture, and the previously dominant culture leaves.
The first happens when someone says the name of their culture, and no one negatively reacts to it. There may be odd reactions because of the unfamiliarity of that culture. This would be solved by simply being exposed to the culture without a negative problem.
The PCC helps in this by giving people a way to see the Polynesian cultures without any negative moments. It is only an open door and not a complete experience, so the tourist may be able to learn more later. The cultural rejection will not happen in either way.
Within the United States, an example of equalization would actually be holidays. St. Patrick's day which we just celebrated, Cinco de Mayo, Oktoberfest, and Black History Month are ways to show that everyone celebrates the cultures within these holidays. In the native lands they are usually not seen as important. St. Patrick's Day was a religious day and not the great time to party as is shown today.
Within these holidays you will find promotion of cultural beliefs and attempts to make good stereotypes to others. Oktoberfest is the most prevalent in my mind. The attempt to change the cultural understanding of Germans from that of the horrible Nazis to Bavarian is very much promoted.
The greatest example of equalization is modern TV. We see Jewish, Italian, Scottish, Irish, Black, Asian, and Mexican cultures as just common people. No one would reject an O'Brien today. No one would think twice on seeing a Jahnke -the origin of the term Yankee.
The next cultural response to equalization is the switching of dominant to dominated. The cycle begins all over again and should be feared. The previous group will be seen as the reason for several problems and the dominant culture will promote the ideas of revenge. Many of the people who had been living in the area for generations will be made out to be less than human and foreign.
Zimbabwe has had this problem. The president promotes himself by blaming the formerly dominant white culture. White landowners are kicked out for their land and money.
It was expected that the same thing would happen in South Africa, but Nelson Mandela specifically worked to stop this.
The third option is the dominant culture leaves. This can mean that they physically leave, are kicked out, or are wiped out. This leaves the most mystery in history. The dominant culture remains, and the former dominant culture can be found using archeology. This subject becomes difficult to talk about because it can involve the consideration of genocide. The dominant culture could still be trying to control from a long distance away, it could leave nothing but artifacts and bones. As examples, the mound builders near the Mississippi river are completely gone, along with them are the Anasazi, and then the Olmecs are all lost cultures that at one time dominated the area around them, and for whatever reason left.
In conclusion, the culture understanding of the pattern of domination lets a person see the various stages cultures around the world are in. The future dominant culture arrives, and then slowly takes over. Myths are made up on how this domination happened. The dominated people create a culture of survival and accept they are inferior. Slowly the dominated and dominant become equals. The end result can restart the cycle over again, or allow for an equalization of the people. This pattern continues today.
It begins with the dominating culture entering into the area. The older cultures are pushed back and made to quarrel among themselves. The dominated cultures slowly gains power back and then dominates. This pattern can take a few months or millennia to fully take place.
The culture that enters may not actually win the great wars and battles. In the beginning, the culture may actually help stop a previous dominant culture. For example, the Manchu empire saved China from bandits and began the Qing dynasty.
The dominating culture may actually seem like the lower culture. Although the Manchu dominated China, the culture was entirely based on Chinese Confucianism. Kang Xi, the second emperor of the dynasty, outlawed footbinding, but near the end of the empire every woman had the broken feet and small high heeled shoes of a Confucian. The entire Manchu culture is nearly gone today, replaced by the Chinese Han Culture.
The next step in cultural domination will actually take a while, but involves the consolidation of power and creating a power myth of domination. The myth of domination is something that doesn’t get explored very often. The dominant culture tells of how they easily took over because of their own great and divine powers. They will place the dominated culture as foolish and stupid within this myth. The Spanish claimed that the Aztecs believed in Quetzalcoatl, a white god that promised to return someday. The myth was made up several years after the fall of the Aztecs.
The idea idea that the dominating culture is naturally better will be promoted throughout the media. Such stories as Tarzan, Birth of a Nation, and our own modern Avatar have stories of a culture proving itself to be dominant and more important. Tarzan and Avatar tell the story where the good guy is better at doing things than even the natives. Birth of a Nation makes a particular culture seem evil and deserving of being dominated.
The promoted idea of the dominating culture would be pious, pure, intelligent, and capable. The dominated will be said to be stupid, lazy, sexually deviant, superstitious, and evil. An example of this would be Orientalism, or the stereotype ideas of cultures from Arabia to China. Pictures describing these cultures show the women as sensual and at least partially naked. The men are shown as stupid and evil. The cultural beliefs of the culture are given a special mystical power. In fact, when attempting to explain these cultures, the common response is to use the foreignness as the explanation for everything.
The dominant cultures uses this to give the reason for domination and control of the people. During the reconstruction of the South after the American Civil War, many of the former slave owners said that the African Americans were too lazy and stupid to survive alone.
The USSR used the next tactic perfectly. The different dominated groups would be compared to the dominant culture and given perks for being closer than others. One group would be given a great reward for one thing, and then another would be given different praise. The infighting and attempts for other perks kept dominant culture on top and created a caste system beneath it. The reasons for much of the unrest in the Eastern European countries was caused by the USSR doing this. The same pattern can be found in the Philippines, South and Central America, and the entire African continent.
The dominated culture slowly moves up and gains more and more power. Usually the reason for this is the dominant culture has fewer and fewer children to do the more manual labor type of jobs. The dominated culture will have plenty of children and desperation to take any job at all. This will eventually lead to a need for education, and then to rise up in greater and better jobs.
Slowly this makes the dominant and the dominated begin to equalize in power. The closer to equalization the more strange things happen.
The dominated culture begins to assert its own culture as more important and even better. They will use the entire culture and not pick and choose parts. If there is an evil part it will be promoted as good and even better than it really is. This promotion will be given powers so the dominated culture has an excuse to fight back. The leaders will claim powers beyond human to promote their own ideals. Papa Doc from Haiti promoted his ideas by claiming to be a witch doctor that would hurt the people if they went against him.
This comparison has problems with it. Even after the dominant/dominated history goes away, there will be signs of the old thoughts. After decades of work to build black culture up in the United States, black girls still think that the black doll is ugly and evil compared to the white doll.
The next problem with the promotion of the dominated will be for customs that were only in the culture for a certain era. This will be said to be exactly as the culture should be, even though there are examples that the culture has changed since that time. This era will be the promoted golden time that everyone wishes they could return to.
During this equalization the dominant group continues to use the different stereotypes built up about the dominated culture. The mystical powers will be seen in a new light and said to be good. The stereotypes do no change. Likewise, the dominated culture will promote many of the made up stereotypes as important to the culture.
Within the Navajo Rez, and many other reservations the promotion of clothing and cultures that are from a different tribe are promoted. Cherokee tribes dress up in "Chiefs clothing" even though they have no real connection to Chiefs. Tee Pees will be promoted even when no one has or ever will live in one.
There will be a very strange item that needs to be mentioned here. When the dominated culture is able to see the dominant culture at home, there will be problems. The dominant culture promotes itself as better and greater than the dominated. The idea of a near paradise will be promoted as the natural home of the dominant culture. When the culture is seen, the dominated will reject the promotion almost completely. Gandhi was a lawyer in England, he saw London and knew its culture very well. When the English attempted to prove they were greater, he rejected their promotions and promoted his own culture instead.
There will also be attempts by the dominated to equalize that will be rejected by the dominant. This rejection was part of holding power earlier in the dominant/dominated culture but will do the exact opposite when the dominated have actually seen the life the dominant live. The greatest case would be the American Revolution when the higher up land lords of the American Colonies were treated as lower class citizens by England. The attempts to control this were lost, because many of the Colonists had been back to England and knew what the state of life in the country really was like.
When this equalization of the dominant and dominated cultures begin to equalize, there are three things that could happen. The first is the cultures simply stop being seen as dominant and dominated, the dominated becomes the dominant culture, and the previously dominant culture leaves.
The first happens when someone says the name of their culture, and no one negatively reacts to it. There may be odd reactions because of the unfamiliarity of that culture. This would be solved by simply being exposed to the culture without a negative problem.
The PCC helps in this by giving people a way to see the Polynesian cultures without any negative moments. It is only an open door and not a complete experience, so the tourist may be able to learn more later. The cultural rejection will not happen in either way.
Within the United States, an example of equalization would actually be holidays. St. Patrick's day which we just celebrated, Cinco de Mayo, Oktoberfest, and Black History Month are ways to show that everyone celebrates the cultures within these holidays. In the native lands they are usually not seen as important. St. Patrick's Day was a religious day and not the great time to party as is shown today.
Within these holidays you will find promotion of cultural beliefs and attempts to make good stereotypes to others. Oktoberfest is the most prevalent in my mind. The attempt to change the cultural understanding of Germans from that of the horrible Nazis to Bavarian is very much promoted.
The greatest example of equalization is modern TV. We see Jewish, Italian, Scottish, Irish, Black, Asian, and Mexican cultures as just common people. No one would reject an O'Brien today. No one would think twice on seeing a Jahnke -the origin of the term Yankee.
The next cultural response to equalization is the switching of dominant to dominated. The cycle begins all over again and should be feared. The previous group will be seen as the reason for several problems and the dominant culture will promote the ideas of revenge. Many of the people who had been living in the area for generations will be made out to be less than human and foreign.
Zimbabwe has had this problem. The president promotes himself by blaming the formerly dominant white culture. White landowners are kicked out for their land and money.
It was expected that the same thing would happen in South Africa, but Nelson Mandela specifically worked to stop this.
The third option is the dominant culture leaves. This can mean that they physically leave, are kicked out, or are wiped out. This leaves the most mystery in history. The dominant culture remains, and the former dominant culture can be found using archeology. This subject becomes difficult to talk about because it can involve the consideration of genocide. The dominant culture could still be trying to control from a long distance away, it could leave nothing but artifacts and bones. As examples, the mound builders near the Mississippi river are completely gone, along with them are the Anasazi, and then the Olmecs are all lost cultures that at one time dominated the area around them, and for whatever reason left.
In conclusion, the culture understanding of the pattern of domination lets a person see the various stages cultures around the world are in. The future dominant culture arrives, and then slowly takes over. Myths are made up on how this domination happened. The dominated people create a culture of survival and accept they are inferior. Slowly the dominated and dominant become equals. The end result can restart the cycle over again, or allow for an equalization of the people. This pattern continues today.
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