Month: April 2020

We thought about this through the experience of watching Netflix (something we’ve all been doing a lot of). There are so many options available on this new media/digital platform, it allows for a better understanding and dissemination of cultural knowledge. When watching Netflix, you have the ability to view different world perspectives through many different cultures, or different perspectives of one culture. By watching multiple experiences, it allows viewers to not think of culture as just one thing, but as a range of varied culture. 

Going back to the rhetorical practices as a means of conversation in social discourse, the engagement in cultural conversation impacts the knowledge transferred from one generation to the next. One can say that an effective measure for professional communicators to disseminate knowledge on a digital scale would be the use of modern media such as Ted Talks. Through thorough research, scholars can breakdown and create a comfortable environment to have these discussions.

-First Jesuit missionaries who went to Goa found it in their best interest to learn the local language to most effectively spread the Christian word in the local language. In doing this they were able to gain the trust of the community. 

-One of the ways that the Christian and Hindu practices collided followed how the bible was difficult to translate into the language of Hindu. There were many phrases that could not be directly translated therefore, Stephen had to create new words or ways to describe many important details from the text (pg 215).

-Jesuit and Hindu cultures also collided in dress, nutrition, traditions. At times these differences were embraced by those like Nobili and at others, they were not (the Portuguese who demonized any Hindu values.

-The cross-fertilization of religion occured after the missionary scholars also took a distinct interest in Hindu religious literature and by doing so, they used rhetoric skill in their compositions of Indian-language to Christian texts which enabled them to translate Christian meanings to Indian idioms. Learning the other person’s language in your own language makes it more acceptable and easier to understand. We feel this was an effective way to communicate their religion to the people. 

-They were able to use mimetic methods and borrowed from poetic models and various styles of the local Hindu religious literature. Translating the stories from the bible were difficult because of the difference in text and  symbols used to communicate the language. 

-One of the ways the Christian values collided against each other in the 16th century was when combined forces of the Portuguese crown and the Catholic Church were launching a violent campaign of destruction against Hindu culture.

-Similarities in theology e.g the Christian Trinity and the Hindu Trimurti, and the  Christian Mother of God and the Hindu  Devi.

-It all comes down to power and control. No matter how the Jesuits were communicating the word of God, it was all in an effort to assert control over a population, so of course, cultures would collide. But if they tried to communicate the religion in the local language, it at least feels as though they had some investment in the prosperity of the people.