The Clash of Culture in Silko’s Text Ceremony, Storyteller, and Garden in the Dunes”

Abstract

According to the British historian Perry Anderson, he says that the age we live into is the period we live to celebrate the cross over, the hybrid, and the pot-pourri. Many theorists of Hybridity have expressed themselves of double or mixed cultural identity. Homi Bhabha has describes himself as ‘a mongrel culturally, the absolute cultural hybrid.’ Edward Said refers himself as ‘out of place’ wherever he is located. The term hybrid, or hybridity, or hybridization, that so much marks the present day however, comes with a heavy prize of the loss of regional traditions and of local roots. It is present everywhere, especially when there is an encounter between cultures. “Examples of cultural Hybridity are to be found everywhere, not only all over the globe but in most domains of culture – syncretic religions, eclectic philosophies, mixed language and cuisines, and hybrid styles in architecture, literature or music” (Burke 13). This encounters between cultures lead to clash of cultures. 

The Native Americans, being the indigenous tribe of America, have to move in two different cultures everyday: one of the tribal heritage and the other of the mainstream American culture to which they are exposed as children in boarding schools, as soldiers in the U.S. army. So, it is obvious for the people of the Native Americans to be influenced by the mainstream American culture. But there are also people who stick to their old tradition for they believe in maintaining and preserving their culture. This chapter highlights on the issues of Clash of views between the assimilative and non assimilative Native Americans; and clash of religion and social beliefs between the Whites and the Native Americans.