Transculturation

 My understanding of the term transculturation is that it is the meeting of two cultures and how they affect each other. In some cases they merge and in some cases one culture completely eradicates the other. An example of two cultures merging is like in Home Fire. Aneeka, both do not fully follow American or Muslim cultures, but a combined mix of the two. For instance, Aneeka wears the hijab, as in Muslim culture, but she chose to follow American hookup culture and lose her virginity to Eamonn before marriage. In American culture, hijabs are looked down upon, while in Middle Eastern culture losing your virginity before marriage is looked down upon. By doing both of these, Isma is following a mix of the two cultures that she personally accepts. In The Secret River, the Aboriginal culture is essentially wiped out by the New South Wales settlers. Almost none of the settlers picked up the culture of the Aboriginals besides Blackwood and Dick, so the culture is essentially lost after almost all the people of the Aboriginal tribe were killed. The culture of the New South Wales settlers was then the only culture left during that meeting between the cultures. Assimilation is also an example of a culture being wiped out during the meeting of 2 cultures. In Equiano’s life, he seems to be slowly completely assimilating to European culture as he became a Christian and is dropping the African traditions, for the practices he is noticing and being told about by the ladies in Europe.

Comments

  1. Eloise DanielloFebruary 5, 2023 at 8:32 PM

    Hi Paulos! I love how you included multiple examples rather than just one because it shows that you really understand the term. I also think that transculturation is just an underlying theme of this class in general and can really be applied to every book we've read so far. I think the example you used in Home Fire was particularly interesting because it isn't totally obvious at first like some of the other ones. I'm not sure if Aneeka is necessarily a victim of transculturation and more one of assimilation and pressure to fit into society. Either way, it is sad that she feels as if she has to change.

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  2. Critical Thinkers and WritersFebruary 9, 2023 at 8:52 AM

    You are certainly right that the aboriginal culture is far more disempowered in the Secret River, but it is important to note that it was not wiped out or eradicated; it still exists, much as indigenous culture still exists in the US today, as Tommy Orange's book points out.

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