Module 2: A Sense of Place

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Module 2 A Sense of Place
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AAP on the Web

• Go to USQ Connect
• http//www.usq.edu.au/course/material
• Then click on AST 1000
• Lecture slides will be put up after the lecture
  has been delivered

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The big regional picture .

• We can identify a range of events and issues
  which link Australia to nations and peoples of
  the Pacific
• War in Afghanistan, Bali bombing, people
  smuggling, human rights issues, Asian economic
  crisis impact on Australia, education links
  (overseas students in Australia), strong economic
  relations, Fiji coup, Bouganville crisis, boat
  people
• These points provide the background for AAP

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Our Objectives in Module 2 Part II

• Have a look at page 2.2 in the Study Book where
  our objectives are listed.
• Module objectives are listed at the beginning of
  every module in the Study Book
• Objectives are important for you they state what
  you are expected to know or what you are expected
  to be able to do

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Our Objectives in Module 2 Part II

• After Studying this module you should be able
  to
• Describe early contacts between Aborigines and
  Asian visitors
• Outline 18th century European perceptions of Asia
  Pacific landscapes and people
• There are more please read

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Overview

• In this module, our attention is on
• The ideas
• The prejudices
• The knowledge
• The fantasies
• European Australians have had, and perhaps still
  have about Asia and the Pacific

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Classical geographer Ptolemy

• Imagined the Asia Pacific region as
• A fantastic world
• Wonderfully rich
• Full of rare animals
• Asia and the Pacific were fantastic, exotic,
  fabulous

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An Indigenous Sense of Asia

• Aborigines on the northern coast of Australia had
  annual contact with Asian fishermen for 200-300
  years
• Fishermen from Macassar (now Ujung Pandang in
  Sulawesi) loaded up with trepang the sailed home
  on the South East winds

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Aborigines and the Macassans exchanged

• Makasans offered
• Steel axes and knives
• Food
• Alcohol
• Cloth
• Tobacco
• Canoes

• Aborigines offered
• Labour
• Local knowledge
• Relationships

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Cultural Influences

• We all carry cultural luggage the ideas, values
  and beliefs that have influenced us and which
  affect our behaviour
• Twenty first century Australians, for example,
  are influenced by environmentalism
• This is evident from our laws, conferences,
  university courses, jobs available, green
  politics, government budgets, research into
  clean cars and so on

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18th century European ideas of Asia and the
Pacific

• Europeans cultural luggage was complex and
  varied. They were influenced by
• Ptolemy
• The Enlightenment
• Primitivism
• Progressivism
• Scientific Empiricism
• Evangelical Christianity

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Primitivism

• Owed a lot to Greek and Roman ideas
• Idealised the natural life
• Understood the luxuriant vegetation of the
  Pacific and Southeast Asia as like the garden of
  Eden

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Progressivism

• More materialistic, stressed the development of
  material wealth
• Evaluated other cultures in terms of their
  commercial and trading development

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Evangelical Christianity

• Assumed an obligation to spread the gospel by
  missionary activity

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Geographical Determinism

• A belief that climate had a direct affect on
  humans health and energy
• Assumed that whites were not well suited to
  laboring in the tropics

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Scientific Empiricism

• A belief that knowledge is built through
  exploration, direct experience, testing of
  assumptions
• Promotes attitudes of curiosity and interest in
  new places and people

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Lord Monboddos Chain of Being

• Monboddo believed that all life was arranged in a
  vast chain of life
• Divine beings were at one end of the chain,
  degraded beasts and brutes at the other end
• Great empires were up top
• Bands and clan societies he considered to be a
  lower form of existence

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The Noble Savage

• Primitivism idealised the native populations of
  the Pacific and New Holland
• Natives were seen as noble savages living
  innocent lives in paradise

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Cult of the Noble Savage Criticised

• Explorers found that primitivism had ignored
• Prostitution
• Infanticide
• Cannibalism
• Hierarchical structures

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Colonial Images of Progressivism

• Colonial painting and poetry expressed
  Progressivist views very clearly
• Settler achievements were contrasted with what
  was seen as a lack of achievement amongst
  Aborigines
• Settlers drew attention to the lack of a built
  landscape

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Summary

• I have described the intellectual background to
  Europeans sense of
• Racial superiority (Lord Monboddo)
• Technological superiority (Progressivism)
• Cultural/Spiritual superiority (Evangelical
  Christianity)

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Summary

• And Europeans intense fascination with Asian and
  Pacific social and cultural organisation
• This background has left Europeans with a tension
  between attitudes of disdain (superiority) and
  attitudes of fascination

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Contemporary Images and Perceptions of Asia and
the Pacific

• Do images in popular magazines contribute to
  ethnocentric, dismissive, patronising attitudes?

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Review of Objectives

• Take a moment to think .
• Can you now describe early contacts between
  Aborigines and Asian visitors?
• Can you now outline 18th century European
  perceptions of Asia Pacific landscapes and
  people?