The Impact of Colonization

Before there could be any serious attempt to clarify the categories used in the religious studies, there is an other problem to face: the culturally dependent nature of the research itself. The narrative that describes the world by the categories used in the religious studies is not a general, not a cross-cultural perception. It is a part of, and emerged from a specific socio-cross-cultural medium – as we described it before -, so it is limited to that medium's ideological manifestations. The difficulty to realize this lies not only in the fact that if one belongs to a specific cultural medium then one would unintentionally follow the distinctive categories of that thought-system, but also in the accepted ideology's prevalent nature, viz. the so called 'western' way of thinking and lifestyle has been exported to the most part of the world. At least it is true, that it has been exported to those parts where this kind of studies were made, and the researchers all shared a similar narrative background.

The created categories are maintained and recreated in the daily language, through the media, laws etc., and even in the academical world.

The origin of this kind of narrative on the one side is the English language, and indirectly the Latin, with its vocabulary and categories shaped by a Christian culture. On the other side is the political and cultural ideology based on the interests of the Euro-American colonial powers, and their effect on the social life, for example by the separation of church and state.

The unique situation of the English language as a general medium of communication in the world, and often in the scientific world, is evident, and the pervasiveness of the 'western' culture and ideologies too. To understand how did it came to this we have to go back in time, at least to the 16^th century. The spreading of the 'western' culture can be traced back to the process of colonization. In the beginning this expansion was made by physical force, leaning on one country's superiority over

an other in technology, especially in warfare³⁹. The process of colonization started with the forceful elimination of physical resistance, and with the establishment of alien rules in politics and social life. Then the conquered country has been “educated”, usually by repressing the local culture. After long time of domination the categories that the conquerors were using to describe the conquered became the part of the narrative that has been used by the conquered too to describe themselves, even if these categories were non-existent before. In this re-education, the establishment of a new language - the language of the colonizing countries - as official language has a great importance.

With the new language new words are used to describe the world, this also means a new categorization of the reality. This way new, formerly unknown concepts appeared and has been mixed with the original ideas. With time, by the education of the new generation, the local language became secondary, even almost forgotten. The “education” also forced new costumes, and value system on the locals, and the formerly important ones often has been degraded into the categories of superstition, or primitive habits.

In this paper by the word 'colonization' we refer manly to the colonial activities of the Western European countries from the 16^th century until the very beginning of the 20^th century. The countries of The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, France and the Kingdom of England, from the 18th century Great Britain, all had important colonial roles during the history. There was a time when most part of the world was under colonial control: the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania too. At one time, Great Britain, for example, ruled almost fifty percent of the world.⁴⁰ The European empire have held around eighty-five percent of the world by the time of the First World War. This great number assures that the European ideas not only could be reached almost every part of the world, but had a great influence on them.

Although there were significant changes in the dominant thoughts of the colonial countries by the 19^th century, and these changes amplified the tension between the colonial practice and the liberal thought, this effected only the material exploitation of the counties. The new liberal ideas wanted to lift up the colonized countries from a slave-like state, and wanted to give them more political freedom, but not in every aspect of life. At the same time most of the political philosophers were propagating the legitimacy of colonialism and imperialism in order to “educate” the

39 We would like to emphasize that this is not a superiority in knowledge or understanding of the world, nor in morality or any other human values.

40 Ferguson (2004) p.15

“uncivilized” societies. Behind the idea of equality the European values, languages, categories of thinking and political constructions were forced upon the colonized societies. All of these activities were formulated as a “civilizing mission” that meant to serve the best interests of the oppressed countries. The controlling power had to be maintained until a similar socio-political structure has been recreated and the newly formed society has been capable of sustaining similar kind of liberal institutions and self-government.⁴¹ But even after the withdrawal of the formal colonial control, its effect on the culture could not be dismissed. The local people already organized themselves based on the ways of the oppressors. And the leading elite usually had been educated in foreign environment, often working for the former colonizing powers. We also have to emphasize that by the creation of a new political and social order, which has been manifested through a 'secular' state, a totally new perception of life emerged. The religious-secular distinction has been forced upon the people this way, letting them no choice for an alternative living of life. This situation destroyed their originally different understanding of life, where these categories were unknown.

From the 20^th century, mainly after the Second World War, a new process, the neo-coloniazation took place with a new method of control. The main tool of power from the direct use of political and military force is changed into the propagation of global political, ideological and economical views usually by military, political and economical pressure from behind. At the same time the mainstream media and the education was still controlled on some level. For example, by the decision of what the correct interpretation of the history is and what the fundamental human values are. The withdrawal of the colonial powers might be experienced as a liberation by the formerly dominated societies, but the cultural effect of the long years of oppression remained already integrated into the society. This caused the maintenance and reproduction of the foreign ideologies by the local communities. Most of the locals accepted the new values and goals and because they are just started to construct the western kind of society, they immediately placed themselves in an inferior position. They needed further help from the west to create a western-like social, cultural, political and academical life.

By the spreading of the liberal capitalism and free market, the business interests are often become culture forming powers. Some of the cultural or religious days have been transformed in order to serve business interests. Usually it took form in the reshaping of an ancient or holy day, that people celebrate, by preserving some of its elements, but alter it in a way that will promote

41 Same kind of situation and similar rhetoric can be seen even recently, for example: the invasion of Iraq.

consuming different, usually that day's specific products. The original meaning of that day soon forgotten, only a simplified message remained, but actually not as the main center of that day, but only as a reason for consuming goods. One good example of this is the character of Santa Claus.

The well known form that usually appears everywhere is the joyous, white-bearded man wearing a red coat and red trousers with white collar and cuffs, black leather belt and boots. This kind of characterization started to appear already in the 19^th century in commercials, but this specific illustration was created by the Coca-Cola Company to propagate its product in the beginning of the 20^th century. Today the main symbol of Christmas is this figure, even outside of the US. The many different illustrations in the European traditions slowly has been forgotten, and the stories behind it has been replaced by the artificial fairy-tale like stories. There were numerous traditions having some kind of celebration around the day 25^th December, and stories about a person who later became Santa Clause. The origin of this character is a 4^th century Greek saint Nikolaos of Myra. He was also called Nikolaos the Wonderworker or Saint Nicholas. He was the Bishop of Myra in Lycia.

According to the stories, he was a good hearted man who often gave gifts to the poor, sometimes left money secretly at poor houses. If people left their shoes out for him for the night, he would put in some coins by the morning. In some countries on the 6^th of December children clean their boots and put it at the window, in hope to get some gifts and sweets. In Hungary they are calling him the 'Winterfather' or 'Mikulas' which is a derivation of the name Nikolaos. Besides the strong effect of American culture during the last decades there were no Santa Claus in Hungary before. But there is still a gift giving habit at Christmas eve, although the gifts are not from Santa, but form the 'Baby Jesus'.

In America it is common to see 'Christmas Stockings' on Christmas Eve. These are empty socks or sock-shaped bags usually hanged close to the fireplace so Santa Claus can fill it up with gifts, small toys, candies or fruits. This custom originates from a very old story about Saint Nicholas.

There was a poor man who had three daughters. Because he was very poor, he could not afford a proper dowry for them which would be a requirement to find a husband. Saint Nicholas wanted to help him, but without anybody else to discover it. There are many different versions of the story, but they are common in one thing: after two gracious offerings the poor man wanted to find out the identity of their benefactor. In one version, Saint Nicholas figures out that the man is waiting for him, so he drops the third bag of money down the chimney which falls into the stockings of the

daughter, who just washed them that day and hanged them there to dry.

The historical Saint Nicholas and his miraculous stories are still remembered and he is well respected among Catholic and Orthodox Christians. He is the patron saint of many professions and cities. Probably not many people are really aware of the connection between him and Santa Claus.

Similar transformations can be seen in the 'marketization' of other religious, cultural days as the Halloween, Eastern or the Valentine's Day. These, mainly Christian days after a time changed to a kind of fun, consuming day. They have been imported as a product, a business model to many countries around the world. This kind of effects on culture sometimes called coca-colonization⁴². Of course, the numerous special days from the east, the Chinese, Indian or Muslim holidays not only never made it to the west, but never even heard of.

All these modern holidays are religious in their origin, but in their modern form only a few people celebrate it as a religious day, and almost nobody would consider the acts during these times, for example the decoration of the Christmas Tree, as a religious ritual. Why is it so? Why do we call customs with similar actions from non-western countries religious? And why would anybody think that these kind of habits in non-western countries are indicating something more, something more 'spiritual' than the western ones? These are questions that every student of the religious studies should ask.

The important in these processes for us is that it shows how the newly formed ideas and concepts, supported by oppression of former ideas or by advertising new ones, easily can change the people's relationship with their daily lives. The fundamental changes in a culture are not necessarily can be seen clearly, because even long existing concepts and ideas can disappear, and their former existence can be unknown for an outsider. The understanding of the importance of these events and their effect on human thinking will help to see the dependent nature of the categories used in the field of religious studies.