Oriental(ized) Portuguese-Anglophone litteratura, culture, and colonial stereotypes (original) (raw)

The root of stereotypes is prejudice, and the root of prejudice, according to Gordon Allport (1954), is the need felt by one human group to define itself against another or others. During the period of European imperialism, colonial rule was upheld and underpinned by prejudice, which in turned was justified by theological and, in the course of time, pseudo-scientific theory. African slavery in the New World was justified by the notion that the forced migration of slaves brought them into Christendom, and therefore freed their souls to enjoy the afterlife, while later, their continued enslavement and/or abandonment at the bottom of the social pyramid could be explained by their inherent backwardness, now bolstered by Social-Darwinist theories. At the same time, all manner of specific stereotypes emerged to allow the dominant group to assuage its conscience by 're-fencing' its