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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: December 5, 2002
Latest Update: December 8, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Who Am I? Have I Changed?

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, December 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

• Identity of Belonging:

  Sororities, Fraternities, and Essentialism.

  Essentialism is an assumption that we know who or what a person or complex situation is on the basis of who they are. "This is what a woman does, or thinks, or feels." That is essentializing gender. "This is what sororities do." That is essentializing group membership. "This is what African American sororities do." That is essentializing both race and group membership.

  Postmodernism resists such essentializing tendencies that most of us find in our day to day thinking. Postmodernism, at least the variants of it we hope to see survive, would suggest that no one knows what "a woman" or "women" do, think, or feel, for such defining acts are yet to occur, and will occur in interdependent interactions with others whom we cannot predict and cannot at this point essentialize, since they are as yet unknown.

  Our tendency to essentialize, which sometimes also including what is called "standpoint theory," makes too many assumptions about individuals and communities that cannot be "known" in such a limited definition of knowledge. There is much more to humans than the essential status characteristics of groups into which we can categorize them, like gender, age, membership, geographical location, ethnicity, color, etc. A part of RESPECT FOR OTHERS is the good faith acceptance that I do not and cannot "know," in any meaningful, spiritual and cognitive sense, the Other of my own family or any other. The unpredictable actions of those we thought we knew are the constant source of amazing "stories." Always, those stories include what we have remained unaware of in our essentializing tendencies.

• Identity of Belief:

  Islam's Outdated Domination Theology "Only when Muslims accept religious pluralism will peace have a chance." Los Angeles Times, Friday, December 4, 2002. Comments on the fact that most religions are founded as being "true" in the sense of a single truth which overrides all other truth. As the postmodern concern with multiple perspectives in a new global order overrides our once arrogant conception of "knowing" as it applies to all, religious pluralism becomes a major issue. We have lived peacefully with religious pluralism in the past, when technology has not forced us so egregiously into awareness of one another. Well written article, that Arnold graciously handed to me at midnight last night. My whole family's getting caught up in illocutionary discussions on peace and social justice. jeanne

  The Hundred Years War, and other wars over domination theory in the Christian Faith. See references below on domination practiced by many religions, not just Islam. jeanne.

• Identity of Knowledge:

  There's an article in the CSUDH student newspaper on our Anti-War Teach-In. Irma brought it into me Thursday. I have a LOT to say about it, including a drawing, that may soon become a painting. I felt hurt and insulted that a colleague in the communication department decided to accuse me of what I would call inexcusable neglect of ethics in teaching you. Of course, she accused us all, excepting of course herself. I need to cool off a little before I respond in an illocutionary manner. If you saw the article, you'll understand. If you didn't, I'll tell you about it. I doubt she'd give me permission to put it up on the site, but I guess good faith hearing of all validity claims requires that I ask. More soon. gotta go now. jeanne

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References

• Religion and the Modern World Stage By Stanley Kober. Wednesday, August 07, 2002. Backup. Take the time to look at the About Us section to get a sense of where the site is coming from. Note that Dinesh D'Souza is included on their team of writers. He would qualify as conservative. Link added December 8, 2002.

• Missionaries and Colonization Hilde Arntsen, Lecturer, Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo. Backup. On the Zimbabwe site. Link added December 8, 2002.

• Abstract of RELIGION AND RACIAL IDENTITY IN THE MOVIMENTO NEGRO OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN BRAZIL by Alan Myatt. "This project is a study of the interaction of religion with the process of racial identity construction in the black movement within the Brazilian Roman Catholic Church. The fundamental problem facing the movement is how to construct a viable black identity in the midst of a social situation filled with ambiguity and opposition. The process of this social construction of racial identity is the key problem explored in this dissertation." Link added December 8, 2002.

• Cultural Criticism Series Series Editor: Björn Krondorfer. Published by the American Academy of Religion through Oxford University Press. This call for manuscripts will give you some idea of the newness of cultural criticism in religion, and of the idea of the "lived experience" as a methodological approach to theory and criticism. Link added December 8, 2002.

• The Relevance of ReligiousTolerance in a Pluralistic Society by Nithiya Sagayam. Commission for Justice, Peace and Ecology, Italy. Story of how a cat came to be needed in every Buddhist monsastery. Delightfully told. Backup. Link added December 8, 2002.