Butterfly effect in thought

• You can see the hyper-priming, free-associative effect at play when Doyle adds that "cannabis induces a parataxiswherein sentences resonate together and summon coherence in the bardos between one statement and other, rather than through explicit semantics.”
  The Huffington Post: Jason Silva: On Creativity, Marijuana and "a Butterfly Effect in Thought"

PARATAXIS

1. The juxtaposition of clauses or phrases without the use of coordinating or subordinating conjunctions, as It was cold; the snows came.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In grammar, the ranging of propositions one after another without connectives, as the corresponding judgments present themselves to the mind without marking their dependence or relations on each other by way of consequence or the like. It is opposed to syntax and hypotaxis.

Wiktionary

1. n. Speech or writing in which clauses or phrases are placed together without being separated by conjunctions, for example "I came; I saw; I conquered".
2. n. The juxtaposition of two images or fragments, usually starkly dissimilar, without a clear connection
3. n. In Greek political system: coalition, "partisan camp"

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The mere ranging of propositions one after another, without indicating their connection or interdependence; -- opposed to syntax.

Etymologies

1. Greek, a placing side by side, from paratassein, to arrange side by side : para-,beside; see para-1 + tassein, tag-, to arrange.

Mestizaje and undecidability

ubiqutus concept that funciton politically (lo mestizo) la indecibilidad (la undecidability de un termino ver derrida)

how the context defines de term and that is why those terms have so much symbolic power in any direction,  they seem to be speaking to everybody they identify with them but comes down to some things different

works for very different political agendas

how the term is configured as a bodily level how to deal with how the mestizo is conneted to race and to gender and to class, looking trough the lens tof the body

and how the mestizo moves around look at gender in the mestizo that because in the making of the mestizo you have these other categories like afrocolombian spanish, criollos, indigena,  when we say race we are bundling a very specific category in that body allows me to go into the intricacies of it

Performative theories of identity

BRIONES, Claudia. Performative Theories of Identity and the Performativity of Theories. Tabula Rasa. [online]. Jan./June 2007, no.6 [cited 13 October 2010], p.55-83. 

Review Liberty and Equality in Caribbean Colombia

Liberty and Equality in Caribbean Colombia, 1770–1835. By aline helg.

Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. Illustrations. Maps. Figures.

Notes. Bibliography. Index. xiv, 363 pp. Cloth, $59.95. Paper $22.50.

It is an interesting paradox that although Colombia has the third largest population of

African origin in the Western Hemisphere (after Brazil and the United States), its leaders

have consistently portrayed their country as a mestizo nation. On the surface, their

historical dismissal of the black population can be explained by the fact that the majority

of Afro-Colombians are inhabitants of the Caribbean coast and the Pacifi c lowlands,

which are far away and isolated from the highland capital, and that despite the density of

their numbers, they have failed to develop a “collective black- or African-derived identity”

(p. 3). However, Aline Helg is not content with these simplistic rationalizations. In

an effort to uncover more plausible reasons for Colombia’s neglect of its Afro-Caribbean

population, she has written an encyclopedic history of the Caribbean region, which

traces its social, cultural, economic, and political development from the late Bourbon era

through the early national period.

In tackling this intriguing topic, Helg examined an impressive array of archival

documents and secondary sources located in Cartagena, Santa Marta, Bogotá, France,

Spain, Great Britain, and the United States. More specifi cally, she wanted to fi nd the

answers to three questions: First, why did the lower classes of color on the Caribbean

coast not collectively challenge the small white elite during the crucial period of national

formation? Second, why did race not become an organizational category in the region?

And third, why did the Caribbean coast integrate into Andean Colombia without asserting

its Afro-Caribbeanness? In answering these questions, Helg produces a cogently

argued monograph that throws light on a multitude of topics, including Bourbon policies,

frontiers, Indians, race relations, gender roles, the war of independence, and the

sociopolitical views of independence-era leaders such as Simón Bolívar and Francisco de

Paula Santander.

In her conclusion, Helg summarizes her analysis and returns to her initial questions.

She suggests that the Caribbean region’s postcolonial fragmentation and dependency on

Bogotá largely “resulted from people’s continuing identifi cation, throughout the war for

independence and after 1821, with individual cities, towns, and villages rather than with

their province, their region, or New Granada” (p. 238). By opting for legal racial inclusion

from the time of the fi rst independence, the new national leaders embraced a vision

of a racially mixed majority. The decision to grant legal equality and suffrage to all adult

men, regardless of race, helped to erase the “stain of slavery,” even though slavery was not

completely abolished until 1852. The acceptance of mulattoes and blacks into the Caribbean

militias also promoted “a fuzzy yet enduring racial hierarchy,” and the development

of popular support for the Liberal and Conservative Parties further integrated local and

regional Caribbean constituencies into the Colombian nation. As a result, nonwhites

posed no problems to the elite, as long as they did not challenge the socioracial hierarchy

and existing power relations. In the few instances when they did threaten white

supremacy, such as mulatto general José Padilla’s challenge to Bolívar in 1828, nonwhites

were quickly repressed or, as in the case of Padilla, executed. Finally, Helg argues that

“the most abiding reason why the Caribbean region avoided social confl ict and remained

within New Granada despite its racial distinctiveness was the continuing existence of

vast uncontrolled hinterlands and frontiers as well as an unguarded littoral offering viable

alternatives to rebellious and free-spirited individuals” (p. 262).

In one sense, Helg’s book is only the most recent contribution to the boom in

regional studies dealing with Colombia’s Caribbean, which began more than two

decades ago with Orlando Fals Borda’s four-volume Historia doble de la costa (Valencia

Editores, 1979–86). Her placement of her subject within a comparative perspective of

the Americas expands its relevance to researchers beyond those of us who concentrate

on Colombian history. Scholars interested in the interaction of elite and popular classes,

in mestizaje, in slave systems, in the role of women in the wars of independence, and

in frontier societies and Indian resistance will surely fi nd insights that will enhance

their understanding of these complex topics regardless of their country specialization

Critical Geographies of Latinamerica

For instance, there is increasing evidence suggesting that differences in racial relations within and between the social context of the researcher and a given Latin American country or locality, informs the research encounter in multiple and unpredictable ways. One consequence of differing racial histories and imaginaries is that white North American researchers find it difficult to see the ways in which racism operates in Latin America. According to Bonnett (2000, p. 51), the seemingly fluid systems of racialization in Latin American countries mask the ways in which “whiteness remains the most important element in the organization of racial identity” (see also Wade, 1997).

In part, their arguments rested on the grounds that indigenous peoples had the option of becoming ladinos (an identity category predicated upon being non-indigenous) by simply abandoning their native tongue and style of dress.^{, 9} And yet, ladino or mestizo [mixed-race] racial formations are premised upon and reproduce the superiority of whiteness as “key to, and symbol of, social and economic ascendancy” (Bonnett, 2000, p. 51; see also Bianchi et al., 1999). In a very different case, Warren (2000) argues that “white comfort” and white privilege in Brazil leads many white researchers to become invested in the belief that Brazil is a “racial democracy”. Consequently, the ways in which Brazil's racial democracy privileges whites in everyday life is obscured.

In part, their arguments rested on the grounds that indigenous peoples had the option of becoming ladinos (an identity category predicated upon being non-indigenous) by simply abandoning their native tongue and style of dress.^{, 9} And yet, ladino or mestizo [mixed-race] racial formations are premised upon and reproduce the superiority of whiteness as “key to, and symbol of, social and economic ascendancy” (Bonnett, 2000, p. 51; see also Bianchi et al., 1999). In a very different case, Warren (2000) argues that “white comfort” and white privilege in Brazil leads many white researchers to become invested in the belief that Brazil is a “racial democracy”. Consequently, the ways in which Brazil's racial democracy privileges whites in everyday life is obscured.

critical geographies of latinamerica

juanita sundbergq