Webster’s model does not focus on Romanization as simply acculturation and Roman “takeover” of the cultures of the the surrounding colonies and peoples which it conquered as that of Haverfield, instead she focuses on Romanization as a creolization of the surrounding cultures which were added into the empire over time. This creolization process, she claims, usually takes place between asymmetric power structures (powerful Rome versus smaller clans brought in over time), and is the resulting blend of various traits from both the cultures. Thus, creolization is a process of resistant adaptation with what emerges being not a single, normative culture but a blended mix of multiple cultures. She uses the term creolization, as it was a linguistic term used in the Americas and Caribbean to describe the mixing of blending of languages and cultures, and ancient Romanization, she believes, happened in much the same way.
This series, published in partnership with the Caribbean Philosophical Association, revisits canonical theorists in the humanities and social sciences through the lens of creolization. It offers fresh readings of familiar figures and presents the case for the study of formerly excluded ones. Creolization means that the intellectual resources are mixed and explored at methodological levels. Each volume locates and transforms our understanding of an individual thinker in a way that will have a profound impact on a range of disciplines.
I found the article extremely interesting. I was very confused in the beginning, when she uses the term creolization; also the length of the article was daunting. Luckily, the abstract set the article up well. I agree with a lot of things she had to say, I don’t think we can always use the term Romanization to describe the “Roman takeover”. Not all aspects of a society is lost when another powerful civilization takes over. The Etruscans themselves kept many of their cultural rituals and beliefs once the Romans had power. In most cases, the Romans hardly interfered. In most cases “Romanization” was a process that took place over a long period of time. In conclusion, the article was long and very different from what we have read, but no less interesting! I kind of agree with her.