What are some characteristics of orientalism? I have to list two to three characteristics of Orientalism and how it and prejudice contribute to hate crimes against Muslims, Arabs, and any other related group. Best Answer
Zsoka answered 8 years ago
Found this for you. Hope it helps cheers, For the book by Edward Said, see Orientalism (book). This article is part of the series on Eastern culture Culture • Society Philosophy • Medicine Religion • Cinema Asian art, culture, Korea • China • Philippines • Thailand Persia • India • Japan • Vietnam V ietnam Taoism • Confucianism Buddhism • Hinduism Shintoism • Sikhism • Zoroastrism West/East distinction Eastern world • The Orient • Orientalism ed Orientalism is the study of Near and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages and peoples b y Western scholars. It can also refer to the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists. In the former meaning the term Orientalism has come to acquire negative connotations in some quarters and is interpreted to refer to the study of the East by Westerners shaped by the attitudes of the era of European imperialism impe rialism in the 18th and 19th centuries. When used in this sense, it implies old-fashioned and prejudiced outsider interpretations of Eastern cultures and peoples. This viewpoint was most famously articulated and propagated b y Edward Said in his h is controversial 1978 book Orientalism, which was critical of this scholarly tradition and of modern scholars including Princeton University professor Bernard Lewis.
Contents [hide] 1 Meaning of the term 2 History of Orientalism 3 Orientalism in the arts 3.1 Imitations of Oriental styles 3.2 Depictions of the Orient in art and literature 3.3 Examples of Orientalism in the arts 3.3.1 Literature 3.3.2 Opera, ballets, musicals 3.3.3 Shorter musical pieces 3.3.4 Theater 3.3.5 Painting 3.3.6 Movies 4 Edward Said and "Orientalism" 4.1 Criticisms of Said 5 From "Oriental Studies" to "Asian Studies" 6 A mirror image: Eastern views of the West 7 See also 8 Notes 9 External links 10 Further reading
[edit] Meaning of the term Like the term Orient itself Orientalism derives from a Latin word Oriens referring simply to the rising of the sun, to imply "the East" in a relative sense. This is the opposite of the term Occident, which has largely dropped from common c ommon usage. Similar terms are the French-derived Levant and Anatolia, from the Greek anatole, two further locutions for the direction in which the sun rises. In terms of The Old World, Europe was considered to be 'The West' or Occidental, Occiden tal, and the furthest known Eastern extremity 'The East' or 'The Orient'. From at least the time of the Roman Empire until at least the Middle Ages, what is no w considered 'the Middle East' was then considered 'the Orient'. During that period, the flourishing cultures of the Far East were little known, just as Europe was essentially unknown in 'the Far East. Over time, the common understanding of 'the Orient' has continually shifted East as Western explorers traveled deeper into Asia. In Biblical times, the Three Wise Men 'from the Orient' were actually Magi from "The East" (relative to Palestine) meaning 'the Persian Empire'. After all period, as Europe gained knowledge of countries further to the East, the definition of the limit of 'the Orient' progressively shifted eastwards, until the Pacific Ocean was rea ched, in what is also
known as 'the Far East'. This can cause some confusion about the historical and geographic scope of Oriental Studies. However, there still remain some contexts where 'the Orient' or 'Oriental' refer to older definitions. For example, 'Oriental Spices' typically come from regions extend ing from the Middle East through the Indian sub-continent to Indo-China. Also, travel on the Orient Express (from Paris to Istanbul), is eastward bound (towards the sunrise), but does not reach what is currently understood to be the Orient. In contemporary English, Oriental is usually a synonym for the peoples, cultures and goods from the parts of East Asia traditionally occupied by East Asians and Southeast Asians, excluding Indians, Arabs and other more westerly peoples. In some parts of America it is considered derogatory to use this term to refer to Asians (whether East, South, West or Central Asians). For example, in Washington state it is illegal to use the word 'oriental' in legislation and government documents [citation needed]. [edit] History of Orientalism It is difficult to be precise about the origin of the distinction between the "West" and the "East". However the rise of both Christianity and Islam produced a sharp opposition between European Christendom and the Muslim cultures to the East and in North Africa. During the Middle Ages Islamic peoples were the "alien" enemies of the C hristian world.[citation needed] European knowledge of cultures further to the East was ve ry sketchy. Nevertheless, there was a vague va gue awareness that complex civilizations existed in India and China, from which luxury goods such as woven textiles and ceramics were imported. As European explorations and colonisations expanded a distinction emerged between non-literate peoples, for example in Africa and the Americas, and the literate cultures of the East. In the 18th century Enlightenment thinkers thinke rs sometimes characterized aspects of Eastern cultures as superior to the Christian West. For example Voltaire promoted research into Zoroastrianism in the belief that it would support a rational Deism superior to C hristianity. Others praised the relative religious tolerance of Islamic countries in contrast with the Christian West, or the status of scholarship in Mandarin China. With the translation of the Avesta by Abraham AnquetilDuperron and the discovery of the Indo-European languages by William Jones complex connections between the early history of Eastern a nd Western cultures emerged. However, these developments occurred in the context contex t of rivalry between France and Britain for control of India, and it is sometimes claimed were associated with attempts to u nderstand colonised cultures in order more effectively to control them. Liberal econo mists such as James Mill denigrated Eastern countries on the grounds that their civilizations were static and corrupt. Karl Marx characterised the "Asiatic mode of production" as unchanging unch anging and praised British colonialism in India. Christian evangelists sought to denigrate Eastern religious traditions as superstitions (see Juggernaut).[citation needed] Despite this, the first serious European studies of Buddhism and Hinduism were und ertaken by scholars such as Eugene Burnouf and Max Müller. In this period serious study of Islam also emerged. By the mid-19th century centur y Oriental Studies was an established academic discipline.
However, while scholarly study expanded, so d id racist attitudes and popular stereotypes of "inscrutable" and "wily" orientals. Often scholarly ideas were intertwined with such prejudicial racial or religious assumptions. Eastern art and literature were still seen as "exotic" and as inferior to Classical Graeco-Roman ideals. Their political and economic s ystems were generally thought to be feudal "oriental despotisms" despot isms" and their alleged cultural inertia was considered to be resistant to progress. Many critical theorists regard this form of Orientalism as part of a larger, ideological colonialism justified by the concept of the "white man's burden". [edit] Orientalism in the arts [edit] Imitations of Oriental styles Chinesischer Turm in the Englischer Garten of Munich. Initial structure built 1789-1790Similar ambivalence is evident in art and literature. From the Renaissance to the 18th centur y Western designers attempted to imitate the technical sophistication of Chinese ceramics with only partial success. Chinoiserie is the catch-all term for the fashion for Chinese themes in decoration in Western Europe, beginning in the late 17th century and peaking in waves, especially Rococo Chinoiserie, ca 1740-1770. Early hints of Chino iserie appear, in the 17th century, in the nations with active East India companies: England (the British East India Company), Denmark (the Danish East India Company), Holland (the Dutch East India Company) and France (the French East India Company). Tin-glazed pottery made at Delft and other Dutch towns adopted genuine blue-and-white Ming decoration from the early 17th century, and early ceramic wares at Meißen and other centers of true porcelain po rcelain imitated Chinese shapes for dishes, vases and teawares (see Chinese export porcelain). But in the true Ch inoiserie décor fairyland, mandarins lived in fanciful mountainous landscapes with cobweb bridges, carried flower pa rasols, lolled in flimsy bamboo pavilions haunted by dragons and phoenixes, while monkeys swung from scrolling borders. Pleasure pavilions in "Chinese taste" appeared in t he formal parterres of late Baroque and Rococo German palaces, and in tile panels at Aranjuez near Madrid. Thomas Chippendale's mahogany tea tables and china cabinets, especially, were embellished with fretwork glazing and railings, ca 1753 - 70, but bu t sober homages to early Xing scholars' furnishings were also naturalized, as the tang evolved into a mid- Georgian side table and squared slat-back armchairs suited English gentlemen as well as Chinese scholars. Not eve ry adaptation of Chinese design principles falls within mainstream mainstream "chinoiserie." Chinoiserie media included imitations of lacquer and painted tin (tôle) ware that imitated japanning, early painted wallpapers in sheets, and ceramic figurines and table ornaments. Small pagodas appeared on chimneypieces and fullsized ones in gardens. Kew has a magnificent garden pagoda designed by Sir William Chambers. After 1860, Japonaiserie, sparked by the arrival of Japanese woodblock prints, became an important influence in the western arts in particular on man y modern French artists such as Monet. The paintings of James McNeill Whistler and his "Peacock Room" are some of the th e finest works of the genre; other examples include the Gamble House and other buildings by California architects Greene and Greene.
[edit] Depictions of the Orient in art and literature "Le Bain turc," (Turkish Bath) by J.A.D. Ingres, 1862Depictions of Islamic "Moors" and "Turks" (imprecisely named Muslim groups of North Africa and West Asia) can be found in Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque art. But it was not until the 19th century centur y that "Orientalism" in the arts became an established theme. In these works the myth of the Orient as exotic and corrupt is most fully articulated. Such works typically concentrated on Near-Eastern Islamic cultures. Artists such as Eugène Delacroix and Jean-Léon Gérôme painted many depictions of Islamic culture, often including lounging odalisques, and stressing lassitude and visual spectacle. When Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, director of the French Académie de peinture painted a highlycolored vision of a turkish bath (illustration, right), he made his eroticized Orient publicly acceptable by his diffuse generalizing of the female forms, who might all have been of o f the same model. If his painting had simply been retitled "In a Paris Brothel," it would have been far less acceptable. Sensuality was seen as acceptable acc eptable in the exotic Orient. This orientalizing imagery persisted in art into the early 20th century, as evidenced in Matisse's orientalist orientalist nudes. In these works the "Orient" often functions as a mirror to Western culture itself, or as a way of expressing its hidden or illicit aspects. In Gustave Flaubert's novel Salammbô ancient Carthage in North Africa is used as a foil to ancient Rome. Rome . Its culture is portrayed as morally corrupting and suffused with dangerously alluring eroticism. This novel proved hugely influ ential on later portrayals of ancient Semitic cultures.
Orientalism refers to a particular academic tradition in the West, preoccupied with conceptualising and representing the Oriental, albeit non -Western societies/cultures as the opposite - or the ‘other’ of the Occident (Said 1979]). The emergence of orientalism has a particular historical context, that is, the global ascendancy of the West, with the development of capitalism. What is wrong with Orientalism? First, it misrepresents the social-cultural reality of both the East and the West in an attempt a ttempt to present the latter as rational, forward looking, humane, and civilised, the characteristics typically absent in the latter, resulting in two types of society: one, with history and the other, without history. It tends to turn history into a "moral" project (Wolf 1982), with the good side emerging victorious in humanity’s quest of progress. By presenting the progress of the West as a natural consequence of the intrinsic virtues of Western Western culture, it distorts the historical reality of Western modernity that is far from idyllic. It ignores the real history of the progress of the West in which the histories of the East and the West are intricately intertwined. Historically, the development of capitalism was premised on colonialism. Colonialism was a coercive process. In the realisation of this project of Western domination, Orientalism serves an important ideological function. It not only justifies West’s exploitation of the rest, rather, it turns it into into a historic mission of West’s noble attempt to help the 'other', the backward, the uncivilised, savage Orient to "assimilate" with the West.
