We explain what hegemony is, its meaning in Colombian history, culture and international politics. Furthermore, the hegemonic body.
What is hegemony?
The hegemony It is a relationship of dominance or supremacy that an entity exercises over its peers. Thus, a nation, an economic group or a political entity can dictate to others the path to follow and the way to act, think or behave. It is a word widely used in the field of politics, sociology and cultural criticism.
Hegemonic or domination relationships are unequal, vertical links, in which power or authority is exercised over others. Those who occupy this central and hierarchical place are known as hegemon, a term from the military jargon of Ancient Greece, which designated the person who guides the army. In turn, it comes from the Greek verb hegemonytranslatable as “drive”, “guide” or “command”.
However, the use of this term in matters of international politics does not necessarily refer to military power, but also to economic and cultural dominance, that is, to the different ways in which one nation can prevail over another and influence in a clear and decisive way. in its destination, with the intention of expanding and sustaining said international domain.
hegemonic relations benefit the hegemon, since they subject local autonomy and decision-making to its interests and convenience.
See also: World power
world hegemony
World hegemony would logically be the relationship of primacy and majority dominance over the nations of the entire world that is, the supremacy that a nation can no longer exercise over its neighboring countries or its strategic partners, but over almost the entire globe.
This is a situation of international power only achieved, throughout history, by six nations that have been able to guide or govern the world system of international relations: the Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, France, Portugal and the United States. Joined.
During each of the stages of hegemony of these nations, Their respective cultures have been valued immensely throughout the world their economies have been internationally influential and their diplomacy and/or military power have imposed their will by hook or by crook.
Cultural hegemony
Another very common use of the word “hegemony” is the one that has to do with cultural hegemony, a concept proposed by the Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937).
It can be understood how the dominance exercised over the functioning of society by a dominant social class (Gramsci spoke of “bourgeois cultural hegemony”), through a set of social norms and cultural practices intended for the proletariat to renounce its identity and its group culture.
According to Gramsci, this type of hegemony gives the ruling class cultural control of society, that is, of the way it thinks and the values it professes. This control It is not explicit, but subtle, a form of manipulation which affects what we usually call “common sense.”
Thus, the ruling class would guarantee its control over the means and instruments of production, since its ideological enemy would be distracted or convinced that both belong to the same side.
Conservative hegemony
In Colombian history, a conservative hegemony is known as 44-year period in which the Conservative Party continuously controlled the Colombian State. It began in 1886, with the rise to the presidency of José María Campo Serrano (1832-1915), on behalf of the political movement called Regeneration; and culminated in 1930 with the defeat of the conservatives against the liberal Enrique Olaya Herrera (1880-1937).
This period of conservative domination was a consequence of the defeat of the liberals in the so-called War of a Thousand Days (1899-1902), in which both sides fought to the death for political control of the nation.
It was characterized by the fierce repression of workers' movements as is the case of the Banana Massacre of 1928, when the army was ordered to shoot at the workers of the United Fruit Company, when the latter were protesting for better pay and better health working conditions.
hegemonic body
We speak of “hegemonic body” to refer to the medical, aesthetic and cultural idea of body and corporality that is imposed from the most traditional sectors of culture, and that It is imposed on the masses as a “good”, “acceptable” or “desirable” body model through various everyday cultural practices, such as advertising, the media, etc.
This concept, closely related to that of cultural hegemony, is typical of contemporary post-Marxist theories (late 20th century and early 21st century) that, hand in hand with feminism and other forms of social activism, attempt to break with the canonical molds. established beauty salons.
Bodies that do not meet these standards are usually rejected marginalized and not taken into account. For example, it is very difficult for obese people to get clothes in their size, since fashion is designed for people of conventional sizes.
Continue with: Interculturality
References
- “Hegemony” on Wikipedia.
- “Cultural hegemony” on Wikipedia.
- “Hegemony” in the Language Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.
- “What is hegemony? Gramsci in 3 minutes” in La trivial.
- “Hegemony (political science)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.
