As I am wrapping up my Ayurveda research paper, I have had some time to reflect on a concept that was introduced to me in my gender and development class last semester in Kenya - colonization of the mind and how it relates to my experience with Ayurveda and my time abroad in general. While the concept is incredibly complex and difficult to articulate, this notion describes how our minds can be molded subconsciously to accept specific values and social norms. It traditionally focused on those who were members of societies that were colonized in the conventional sense of the word. In this sense, colonization of the mind was the emotional and cognitive acceptance of the colonizer as superior in every sense. In this way people accepted the values, lifestyle, and standard of living of the colonizer as the good life and invariably one’s own culture, lifestyle, social institutions, and philosophy of life was devalued. While initially enforced by the colonizer this devaluation was eventually accepted and internalized by the colonized as the ‘natural’ state of affairs. From there it becomes almost impossible to develop an individual identity, even after the process of formal decolonization. These new values and modes of living have become so engrained that people don’t even know they exist. In order to fully overthrow the oppressor the individual must question their entire identity, what they are and what they do.
Colonization of the mind exists, not in the same sense, but exists nonetheless among all members of any society. Though never colonized by some external force working to devalue our modes of existence, we must understand that our entire mode of being and existence has also shaped by factors external to ourselves, by the very nature of living and existing within the predefined fabric of society. In a sense we have all been colonized to believe our beliefs, value systems, customs, societal interactions, and most importantly modes of knowing and understanding are ‘natural’ or are merely a result of human biology. Instead, sociocultural human forces have been the shapers of our entire modes of thinking and understanding over time. Social construction and hegemonic discourses have shaped our way of knowing. This is such an implicit element of life it is almost impossible to recognize it on a surface level. However, when directly juxtaposed with other systems it can surface and even sometimes can become blatantly apparent.
The simplest example of a blatantly apparent difference in the modes of understanding is my experience in learning about Ayurveda, the ancient tradition of Indian medicine. Developed over 5,000 years ago this system of knowing is incredibly distinct from the ones we have grown up with. In reality many Ayurvedic concepts and many “Western” concepts overlap and describe the same phenomena but are rationalized and understood in vastly different ways. For example, Ayurveda believes the body is a microcosm of the universe made up entirely of the five elements: ether, air, water, fire, and earth. These elements combine to form the various elements of the human body and govern their interactions ( obviously its also a lot more complex than this). To an outsider looking in this may sound crazy. But is it? Isn’t it in reality just a different way of understanding and describing phenomena that exists in the natural world? At first when we learned about these concepts our class was quick to disregard them, to show they were wrong. Why? because they didn't fit within our preconceived notions of what makes up the body.
Western medicine has started testing age-old Ayurvedic techniques for any semblance of scientific validity and the results they are finding are incredible – in some ways Ayurveda may be much more advanced than “modern” medicine especially in their holistic notion of healthcare and some of the natural drugs that cure the same illnesses without the horrible side effects. Even more surprising, ancient Ayurveda texts described phenomena that are only “just being discovered” by quantum physicists.
We are so quick to brush off these different concepts as primitive or as "ancient medicine" but nothing beyond that. They are seen as so far outside the realm of the knowledge we "know" to be true we don’t even question our assumptions as to why we think our way of knowing and being is correct? Is there really a correct?
Being abroad I am lucky in that I am consistently thrown into situations where I have to ask myself these questions. I am glad to be challenging my assumptions, that is why I came abroad - to learn about new value systems and ways of life, to learn about other ways of being, to understand what makes up cultures, etc. While Ayurveda is an “easy” example, there are, as I mentioned previously, so many implicit differences that are not readily apparent even when directly juxtaposed. It is up to us to constantly be questioning our thoughts, beliefs, modes of knowing, and really everything we take for granted as "truth." We need to begin to deconstruct all of these elements to begin to truly decolonize our minds. By no means is this an easy task. Nor will it probably be completely possible. But even recognition of the existence of mental colonization is a step in the right direction, a way to understand the world in a fuller and more complex light, to understand the implicit differences in culture and what makes up societies, and to understand what makes us universally human and what is only a social construction.
Another interesting example can be found in language. Some languages have words for concepts that don't even exist in other languages, many of them describing emotions, feelings, actions, or the physical world. If there is no way to articulate these concepts our minds subconsciously become closed off to them, they escape our realm of knowledge. And through the simple mechanism of language our ways of knowing and being are shaped. We have no way of fathoming without deconstructing the inherent constructs and mechanisms of language, that so much more to the world exists beyond our vocabulary and mode of thinking.
In being abroad and putting myself in positions where I am constantly learning and experiencing new things, I am working to challenge or at least acknowledge as many of my assumptions as I can to break down some of the invisible barriers our minds have built up and to attempt to truly gain greater understanding of the world we live in.
Colonization of the mind exists, not in the same sense, but exists nonetheless among all members of any society. Though never colonized by some external force working to devalue our modes of existence, we must understand that our entire mode of being and existence has also shaped by factors external to ourselves, by the very nature of living and existing within the predefined fabric of society. In a sense we have all been colonized to believe our beliefs, value systems, customs, societal interactions, and most importantly modes of knowing and understanding are ‘natural’ or are merely a result of human biology. Instead, sociocultural human forces have been the shapers of our entire modes of thinking and understanding over time. Social construction and hegemonic discourses have shaped our way of knowing. This is such an implicit element of life it is almost impossible to recognize it on a surface level. However, when directly juxtaposed with other systems it can surface and even sometimes can become blatantly apparent.
The simplest example of a blatantly apparent difference in the modes of understanding is my experience in learning about Ayurveda, the ancient tradition of Indian medicine. Developed over 5,000 years ago this system of knowing is incredibly distinct from the ones we have grown up with. In reality many Ayurvedic concepts and many “Western” concepts overlap and describe the same phenomena but are rationalized and understood in vastly different ways. For example, Ayurveda believes the body is a microcosm of the universe made up entirely of the five elements: ether, air, water, fire, and earth. These elements combine to form the various elements of the human body and govern their interactions ( obviously its also a lot more complex than this). To an outsider looking in this may sound crazy. But is it? Isn’t it in reality just a different way of understanding and describing phenomena that exists in the natural world? At first when we learned about these concepts our class was quick to disregard them, to show they were wrong. Why? because they didn't fit within our preconceived notions of what makes up the body.
Western medicine has started testing age-old Ayurvedic techniques for any semblance of scientific validity and the results they are finding are incredible – in some ways Ayurveda may be much more advanced than “modern” medicine especially in their holistic notion of healthcare and some of the natural drugs that cure the same illnesses without the horrible side effects. Even more surprising, ancient Ayurveda texts described phenomena that are only “just being discovered” by quantum physicists.
We are so quick to brush off these different concepts as primitive or as "ancient medicine" but nothing beyond that. They are seen as so far outside the realm of the knowledge we "know" to be true we don’t even question our assumptions as to why we think our way of knowing and being is correct? Is there really a correct?
Being abroad I am lucky in that I am consistently thrown into situations where I have to ask myself these questions. I am glad to be challenging my assumptions, that is why I came abroad - to learn about new value systems and ways of life, to learn about other ways of being, to understand what makes up cultures, etc. While Ayurveda is an “easy” example, there are, as I mentioned previously, so many implicit differences that are not readily apparent even when directly juxtaposed. It is up to us to constantly be questioning our thoughts, beliefs, modes of knowing, and really everything we take for granted as "truth." We need to begin to deconstruct all of these elements to begin to truly decolonize our minds. By no means is this an easy task. Nor will it probably be completely possible. But even recognition of the existence of mental colonization is a step in the right direction, a way to understand the world in a fuller and more complex light, to understand the implicit differences in culture and what makes up societies, and to understand what makes us universally human and what is only a social construction.
Another interesting example can be found in language. Some languages have words for concepts that don't even exist in other languages, many of them describing emotions, feelings, actions, or the physical world. If there is no way to articulate these concepts our minds subconsciously become closed off to them, they escape our realm of knowledge. And through the simple mechanism of language our ways of knowing and being are shaped. We have no way of fathoming without deconstructing the inherent constructs and mechanisms of language, that so much more to the world exists beyond our vocabulary and mode of thinking.
In being abroad and putting myself in positions where I am constantly learning and experiencing new things, I am working to challenge or at least acknowledge as many of my assumptions as I can to break down some of the invisible barriers our minds have built up and to attempt to truly gain greater understanding of the world we live in.