COLONIAL WORLDS: MATERIAL AND IMMATERIAL CULTURE IN THE PRODUCTION OF IDENTITIES
This symposium proposes to reflect on the role of artistic and cultural practices—carried out between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries—in the construction, negotiation and contestation of collective and individual identities across different geographic contexts. Starting from a broad conception of art and of material and immaterial culture—including pictorial, sculptural, architectural, textile, sonic or literary manifestations—the aim is to explore how these expressions actively participated in shaping categories of belonging, difference and alterity.
The proposal begins by considering that these forms of creation do not constitute mere reflections of pre-existing social realities, but rather spaces of mediation in which hierarchies, identities and forms of knowledge are produced, reproduced and questioned. In this sense, we are interested in analyzing the tensions running through artistic practices in relation to processes of racialization, ethnicization and social differentiation, as well as the ways in which various actors appropriated, resignified or contested such categories through specific cultural repertoires.
We invite examination of both the macro-historical dynamics linked to colonial expansion, the transatlantic circulation of people, objects and images, and the formation of systems for their classification, as well as situated experiences and particular trajectories that reveal the complexity of these processes at a micro-historical scale. We especially encourage the presentation of papers exploring the relationship between material culture, corporeality and identities, including studies on clothing, adornments, everyday objects, repertoires associated with Afro-descendant and indigenous cultures, and other forms of cultural production frequently marginalized by traditional artistic narratives.
Of particular interest is the critical review of already-studied sources and materials, proposing new questions that allow established readings to be challenged and renewed perspectives to be opened on familiar media. Within this framework, images, objects and cultural practices can be approached as spaces of conflict, negotiation and the production of meanings, capable of revealing disputes surrounding the definition of social identities and differences.
While the colonial period constitutes one of the privileged axes of reflection, the symposium also seeks to inquire into the contemporary projections, persistences and resignifications of these issues. Contributions examining the links between colonial history and current debates on racism, representation, memory and identity will be accepted, as well as work establishing dialogues between different regions. In particular, a comparative and connected perspective is promoted, contributing to interweaving experiences of Hispanic America with other spaces in America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Atlantic world.
Attending to material and immaterial culture allows us to recognize the importance of art and aesthetics as active agents in the construction of identities, hierarchies and collective memories. From this perspective, colonial worlds constitute a privileged space for analyzing how objects, images, practices and forms of knowledge participated in the production of meanings that continue to challenge present-day debates.
