Assimilation an Identity Crisis
Assimilation an Identity Crisis
Kyle De Jan
Professor Berliner
World History 102.010
05/08/10
Assimilation is the process of changing oneself with the goal of integrating into another group of people. Usually this process begins with outward pressure from a group presumed to be dominant over this person or peoples. Colonization provided this for many people over the 19th and 20th centuries. Ultimately, the colonial system would be responsible for the creation of a need to assimilate leaving the indigenous people in the middle of an identity crisis where there was much strife between modernity and traditionalism. Identity was a very important thing in the eyes of the colonized peoples for various reasons. They viewed identity as the one thing that separates them from everyone else making them feel a sense of pride in being different. Without a specific identity the colonized peoples would cease to be themselves and would become an empty shell void of culture. Many people felt that identity was important because without it they did not know who they were or what they stood for. For example, in the Zulu nation virginity testing was banned and this led to a movement to have the ban removed. In an article for the New York Times, Sharon LaFraniere writes, “In Pietermaritzburg and in Durban, hundreds of bare-breasted women and girls in traditional Zulu short skirts and beaded necklaces marched in opposition to the ban.” (LaFraniere) The Zulu women here are fighting the ban places on an ancient tradition where women were checked for their virginity as a coming of age ceremony where virginity and purity were celebrated. Zulu leaders felt as though this tradition gave them a link between their present and their past. King Zwelithini says, in the same article by LaFraniere, “the tests are an umbilical cord between modern Zulus and their ancestors.” (LaFraniere) To the Zulus this process was one factor that identified them back to their ancestors and it was
Kyle De Jan
Professor Berliner
World History 102.010
05/08/10
Assimilation is the process of changing oneself with the goal of integrating into another group of people. Usually this process begins with outward pressure from a group presumed to be dominant over this person or peoples. Colonization provided this for many people over the 19th and 20th centuries. Ultimately, the colonial system would be responsible for the creation of a need to assimilate leaving the indigenous people in the middle of an identity crisis where there was much strife between modernity and traditionalism. Identity was a very important thing in the eyes of the colonized peoples for various reasons. They viewed identity as the one thing that separates them from everyone else making them feel a sense of pride in being different. Without a specific identity the colonized peoples would cease to be themselves and would become an empty shell void of culture. Many people felt that identity was important because without it they did not know who they were or what they stood for. For example, in the Zulu nation virginity testing was banned and this led to a movement to have the ban removed. In an article for the New York Times, Sharon LaFraniere writes, “In Pietermaritzburg and in Durban, hundreds of bare-breasted women and girls in traditional Zulu short skirts and beaded necklaces marched in opposition to the ban.” (LaFraniere) The Zulu women here are fighting the ban places on an ancient tradition where women were checked for their virginity as a coming of age ceremony where virginity and purity were celebrated. Zulu leaders felt as though this tradition gave them a link between their present and their past. King Zwelithini says, in the same article by LaFraniere, “the tests are an umbilical cord between modern Zulus and their ancestors.” (LaFraniere) To the Zulus this process was one factor that identified them back to their ancestors and it was