American Imperialism

The travel book from 1900, “Our Islands and Their People,” is a telling example of the spirit of American imperialism and the notions of constructed superiority. This chapter of the travel book is titled, “Wild Races of the Philippine Islands,” which already sets up a foundation of controversial linguistics. The power of this travel book is the shaping of American citizen’s perceptions of the Philippines and the people who live there, and its strategy is controversial language and word choice, as well as controlling images. By calling the people of the Philippines ‘wild’ in its title, it has already othered the many different cultures and races within the Philippines, constructing them as foreign and uncivilized bodies. It lays a foundation

They want to stay far enough away because the animal is perceived as a threat, but get close enough to poke it, to get a reaction out of it. However, instead of getting this first hand observation of the foreign entity, they are fed this information in the form of a travel book; one which claims authority over the information and an inherent validity to its findings. By analyzing this controversial text within a framework of linguistics, masculinity, and power, we can see that the United States controlled and altered public perception and knowledge of foreign identities in order to construct an inherent sense of

Throughout this chapter of the book there are many different descriptions of the different tribes of the Philippines, and their images are controlled and shaped entirely by the people who write this book. Modern day use of video allows a spectator to feel as if they are present in a foreign place and they can make their own assumptions and conclusions about topics they don’t know about. The Philippines were not given this chance because of available technologies; instead their lives and cultures are entirely up for interpretation by Americans in these travel books, the first widespread knowledge of the cultures and the people there. Throughout the chapter the language involves many words of a negative connotation: “Wild… strange… primitive… frightful… foreign.” (Olivares) These words instill fear and exoticism into the public perception of the Filipino people. Beyond that, the descriptions of the people and the culture reinforce these notions of a barbarous, uncivilized people. In their description of the people in the Negritos tribe, the people are described as something more akin to a primate than a human being. It states that, “Their hair is curly and matted like Astrakhan fur, their foreheads are low and protruding, lips thick, noses broad and flat, features generally forbidding.” (Olivares) With these