Critical Issues

Western hegemony and ontology

Monday November 22 2010

Lecture 12: Western hegemony and ontology

PS 2A03: Conflict Transformation

Dr Colin Salter, Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University

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 Heterosexuality is not normal, it’s just common.
Dorothy Parker

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 Outline

• Epistemology and • Epistemologies of

Ontology Ignorance

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 Epistemology & Ontology

The study of how we Study of the nature of

know being and existence

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 The epistemology of ignorance is an examination of the
complex phenomenon of ignorance, which has as its
aim identifying different forms of ignorance, examining
how they are produced and sustained, and what roles
they play in knowledge practices.
Shannon Sullivan and Nancy Tuana (2007)

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 Especially in the case of racial oppression, a lack of
knowledge or an unlearning of what was previously
known often is actively produced for purposes of
domination and exploitation.
Shannon Sullivan and Nancy Tuana (2007)

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 ‘women of cover’

I mischievously asked whether she had done segments

on the women of Guatemala, Ireland, Palestine, or
Bosnia when the show covered wars in those regions...

Lila Abu-Lughod (2002)

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 ...tracing what is not known and the politics of such
ignorance should be a key element of epistemological
and social and political analyses, for it has the potential
to reveal the role of power in what is the construction
of what is known and provide a lens for the political
values at work in our knowledge practices.
Shannon Sullivan and Nancy Tuana (2007)

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 Rabbit Proof Fence

• Phillip Noyce (2002)

• Doris Pilkington
Garimara (1996)

• Many challenging themes

and issues portrayed

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Monday, 22 November 2010 10
 Rabbit Proof Fence

• Phillip Noyce (2002)

• Doris Pilkington
Garimara (1996)

• Many challenging themes

and issues portrayed

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 Can we only free Afghan women to be like us or might
we have to recognize that even after ‘liberation’ from
the Taliban, they might want different things than we
would want for them?
Lila Abu-Lughod (2002)

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 BabaKiueria

• Don Featherstone (1986)

• Satirical 30 minute film

• 1987 United Nations

Media Peace Prize

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 Burnum Burnum

• January 26, 1998

• Burnum Burnum
Declaration

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 I, Burnum Burnum of the Wurundjeri Tribe, do hereby
take possession of England on behalf of the Aboriginal
Crown of Australia.
Burnum Burnum (1988)

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 Summary

• Epistemologies of • Western ontology and

Ignorance hegemony

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 Citations & further reading
Lila Abu-Lughod (2002) ‘Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological
Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others’, American Anthropologist,Vol. 104,
No. 3: pp. 783-790.

Sullivan, N. & Tuana, N. (eds.) 2007. Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance, Albany: State
University of New York Press.

Amanda Hess (2010) ‘Rubber Barons: Why Doesn’t Your Boyfriend Know Jack About
Contraception?’ The Sexist/Washington City Paper, March 4.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/sexist/2010/03/04/rubber-barons-why-
doesnt-your-boyfriend-know-jack-about-contraception/

John Ramsland (2004) ‘Bringing up Harry Penrith: Injustice and Becoming Burnum
Burnum The formative years of a Child of the Stolen Generation’, Education
Research and Perspectives,Vol. 31, No. 4: 94-106

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 Citations & further reading
Elvi Whittaker (1994) ‘Public Discourse on Sacredness: The Transfer of Ayers Rock
to Aboriginal Ownership’, American Ethnologist,Vol. 21, No. 2 (May, 1994), pp. 310-334

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 Image sources
Dave Boldingers Cartoons & Stuff —
http://www.dbaldinger.com/opinion_cartoons/second_page/dear_world.html

James Garvin Ellis. Rodney Powell (standing) talks with other sit-in participants at Walgreens drugstore in Nashville,
Tennessee, Friday March 25, 1960 — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_sit-ins

Marc Riboud. Jan Rose Kasmir, protest against the Vietnam War outside the Pentagon, Arlington County,Virginia, Saturday,
21 October 21, 1967 — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Rose_Kasmir

Shaney Komulainen. Canadian soldier Patrick Cloutier and Saskatchewan Native Brad Laroque alias 'Freddy Kruger'
come face to face in a tense standoff at the Kahnesatake reserve in Oka, Quebec, Saturday September 1, 1990 —
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oka_Crisis

Babakiueria [DVD cover] http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=738460

Peter Zageris (1989) Portrait of Burnum Burnum, National Library of Australia — http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-
an9846585

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 Video sources
Don Featherstone (1986) BabaKiueria, ABC TV

The Sexist presents: Men explaining birth control (March 3 2010) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=NtB_4SRLhlU

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