Mary Louise Pratt’s Arts of a Contact Zone

In Mary Louise Pratt’s Arts of a Contact Zone she discusses the mixing of cultures in regions where two diverse peoples must live together. A contact zone is defined as “the space in which transculturation takes place – where two different cultures meet and inform each other, often in highly asymmetrical ways.”  A person living in a "contact zone" is surrounded by two different cultures, hears two different languages, and in each, the people groups must work to preserve themselves. Usually in such zones one culture is dominant and one inferior, therefore one naturally has power over the other. The controlling people command the power to dictate what truly defines the overall culture. Pratt also considers the error of supposing that people in a community all share the same language, purposes and beliefs. These are the factors that are dictated by the superior culture. In truth they are only "marginalized" and people who live without their individuality being known by the whole. Pratt argues that an understanding of the contact zones applied to what we believe is community is what is needed.

I agree with Pratt in most of what she states in Arts of a Contact Zone. I believe she has a valid point when saying often cultures collide in a certain area and must struggle to maintain their individuality. Also, I would agree that one particular culture, in the end, does show superiority in comparison to the other. This concept reminded me of the early American Colonist’s and Indians. Both were separate cultures living in one area, however the Colonist’s proved to be superior, driving out the Indians and dictating what American culture will be defined as, with language, religion, purposes, and such.