TY - JOUR TT - A Postcolonial Reading on Eurocentrism, Otherization and Orientalist Discourse in Sociological Thought and its Criticism AU - Kaya, İrfan PY - 2017 DA - December DO - 10.18505/cuid.346780 JF - Cumhuriyet İlahiyat Dergisi JO - CUID PB - Sivas Cumhuriyet University WT - DergiPark SN - 2528-9861 SP - 1973 EP - 2008 VL - 21 IS - 3 KW - Oryantalizm KW - Avrupa-merkezcilik KW - Ötekileştirme KW - Kültürelcilik KW - Post-kolonyalizm KW - Din Sosyolojisi KW - Post-kolonyalizm N2 - Abstract:Modernity has long been a dominant paradigm in producing knowledge andin determining theoretical framework of disciplines although it is in connivance with aEurocentric ideology and conflict of paradoxes inherent to itself. The other participant of thecrime, committed with Eurocentric ideology, is sociology as a method of observationthat modernity uses to observe itself and that developed with it. They alsodisplay a tautologicalview with each other. Disharmony of paradoxes inherent in modernity makes such otheringnotions as rejection and negation inevitable. Otherization in sociologicalliterature has been a reference point inhistoriography that is developed with the claim that historicalprocess experienced throughout Europe is the only straight and universal onewith an essentialist perspective, in the Orientalist discourse that isestablished in parallelism with colonial activities and generating ideal tips.This article aims to criticise the framework and the narrative in modernity andsociology as they contain Eurocentric discourse according to post-colonial theory.While chasing a non-othering paradigm, inquiring troubles and dilemmas thatpost-colonial theory faced will also be the another of this study. This paperaims to be authentic by determining the problems of post-colonial theory thatcriticises the dominant paradigm through orientalist discourse yet falls intoclutches of self-orientalism.Summary:The past and the present have been separated due tomodern history writing. Linear history writing that transforms the past into adead object that can be represented has been established on difference. Thecontributions of anthropology which is the science of primitive societiescannot be denied in “cleaning” the past and separating it from the present andin establishing it as an object of knowledge. It is clear that anthropology isfunctional in teaching Oriental societies that they have remained in the pastand that they do not have a place in our day by way of results put forth byanthropology in its tense relationship with the past –protecting and destroyingat the same time. Similarly, in sociological thought this modern concept ofhistory attributing a direction and integrity to history has been seminal. Dualcategorizations that the sociological canon consults in depicting thehistorical development process of societies have been arranged in accordancewith the linear history writing. The hierarchical order established between dualconcepts has been established at the same time according to the modern which isalso a concept of time. The beginning has been determined according to the endin the Eurocentrism history writing that has been formed as though trying toprove that the problem of history is not the past but the present. Such historywriting that moves from the primitive to the modern, from the simple to thecomplex has been drawn out according to the final state of the writer of linearhistory. The West has fortified its hegemony on the subordinate masses that ithas suppressed as those “without history”, those “who wish to enter intohistory”, those “who are late to history.” In this paper, its own development hasbeen depicted through the primitiveness of the other that it has otherized.Therefore, the Other has been taken into consideration as the place ofreflections or denial within the context of the formation of Western identityin sociological thought. The Other that is inherent to the process of establishmentfor the Western mind and knowledge preserves its qualification as aprerequisite for sociology that acts in a coordinated manner with modernity.Whereas the notion of Othering puts forth the East as not only passive and irrationalbut also closed to change, it emphasises the difference with regard to theuniqueness of the West. Therefore, sociological thought has established itscontact with the “discovery team of colonization” in the words of Cemil Meriç byway of the othering notion of modernity with which it acts in a coordinatedmanner. Whereas social change in sociological thought is formulated as from thetraditional to the modern, the difference has been suppressed as “tradition,”thus preserving the homologizing perspective of modernity that disregards differences.In addition, presenting the private experience of Europe as universal is anindication of the organic bond between Euro-centralist discourse and socialscience with its one-directional, linear and essentialist form. Indeed, thestatement, “Thecountrythatis moredevelopedindustriallyonly shows, to theless developed,the image of its own future,” by Marx has been used in sociological literatureas a fundamental assumption during the construction of a modernization project.Thus, a Euro-centralist social sciences understanding with claims ofuniversality has been developed that positions itself in the center and that others those not belonging to itself.Even though the effects and dimensions of Euro-centralist practices arepresented differently by the researchers in the field, we are of the opinionthat Arif Dirlik has put forth the most comprehensive judgment by stating that“Eurocentrism is the product of an unusual desire and effort put forth fororganizing knowledge about the world in a systematic whole. Other societiesthat strive in vain to catch the West by imitating it in its Eurocentrism,linear and one-way “advancement” adventure have all been placed at certainspots behind the West. In this regard, sociology can be considered as aknowledge system that has not only been fitted to Western history but also establishedby that history. And of course, factors such as colonization and slave tradehave always been ignored in “history.”The approach of the West that places itself in thecenter has resulted in reactions from the “periphery.” In this regard, culturaldiversity was tried to be emphasized through the idea of multiple modernities; however,evaluation of the generated alternative modernities in comparison with Westernmodernity has strengthened the current understanding. A similar danger ispresent in the practices of culturality that is another alternative. Theculturalist paradigm that considers the universality claim of theWestern-centered mental structure as unnecessary generates new others by meansof the belief in the superiority of its own culture. It tries to object to the Eurocentrismwith a reductionist, reactionary and hegemonic structure by loading all areasof social experience to culture. However, it is exactly due to thesecharacteristics that it turns into an approach that serves the existence of thecurrent structure due to these characteristics. Eurocentrism and othering are the two main approachesthat result in orientalism. These three concepts enlarge their scopes thusstrengthening its hegemony. The West has started off from the East to defineitself after which it has defined the East based upon itself. This definitionresults in pushing it to an “order” in the upcoming stages. One of theformative question of sociological thought, the reason for the initialemergence of industrial capitalism in the West points to another dimension ofthe discussions based on East/West comparisons. Indeed, the claims in Islamicsocieties regarding the lack of an autonomous bourgeoisie class, independentcities, autonomous law, rational law, private property and civil society havebeen put forth as an answer to this question. The claim that there is no civilsociety has especially been used in the analysis of Muslim societies. Whereasaccording to Bryan Turner, “the orientalist discourse on the lack of a civilsociety in Islam was a reflection of the basic political anxieties regardingpolitical freedom in the West. In this regard, the problem of orientalism wasnot the Orient but the Occident. Later, these problems and anxieties weretransferred to the Orient. Thus, Orient became a caricature of the West and nota representative of the East.” The orientalist discourse imposed its uniquenessonce again by putting forth its “difference.” As an answer to the question ofwhy capitalism emerged not anywhere else but Europe, Weber put forward the opinionthat the aforementioned factors, “are prevented by the patrimonial nature ofIslamic political institutions.” We are of the opinion that the problem isequivalent to accepting the whole world excluding the West as “abnormal”regardless of the reply given. However, responses to this and other similarquestions/criticisms may lead to other problems. For instance, Sabri Ülgener, arepresentative of the Weber sociology in our country, seems as if he hasaccepted that capitalism is a precondition for advancement by stating thatIslam has been an urban religion since its foundation. This attitude should bethe product of a self-orientalist perception. 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