[HPforGrownups] Wizards and empire

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 50795

Ebony:

>If the wizarding world did not mirror the Muggle one in any way...
>...then why are Dean Thomas and Angelina Johnson named thusly?
>
>If, indeed, as you state the wizarding population of sub-Saharan
>Africa had been left intact in this particular magical world, I doubt
>*very seriously* that those two characters would have names like
>those.  Sure, explain it away all you wish, but the reason why so
>many of the African-descended have European first, last, and middle
>names is because of the legacy of slavery.

True. My understanding of how this came about is because not only are wizard
children born to wizard parents, but also to muggle parents (I think I read
a little while ago on this list that Rowling has mentioned a figure of 25%
muggle born wizards, though I didn't catch whether that's with one or two
muggle parents).

So although it's unlikely that any wizards were enslaved as adults, the
first generation of children born in the new country would have contributed
25% of the wizard children born there. There would have been a steady
process of acculturation (I'm probably not the right person to do the maths
but it would be affected by such factors as longer wizard lifestyles) until
the wizard population almost exactly matched the muggle population (I
suspect for example that the proportion of Carib and Arawak wizards in the
20th century Caribbean is nil, and that the wizard population is mostly
black).

Interesting to speculate what would have happened to those first generation
wizards when their powers emerged.

What I would see happening is that the wizard:muggle ratio becomes
temporarily richer or poorer in a country that has been subject to mass
emigration/immigration but then gradully coming back into balance through
acculturation.

>common with me, and I am willing to wager that Dean and Angelina do
>as well.  Now, I do understand that there are quite a number of
>African immigrants who live in Britain.  However, their names are
>somewhat different from those of West Indian heritage... who *were*
>descended from slaves.

The same process may have happened during the period of West Indian
immigration to the UK - as it was largely voluntarily, a number of Caribbean
wizards may well have come along out of interest. But even if they hadn't,
the acculturation rule would have meant that there would have been a steady
proportion of black wizard children born in the UK of Caribbean muggle
parents.

>I also think it's significant that the other nonwhite characters that
>we see being educated at Hogwarts represent nations that England
>either conquered completely (Ireland, India, etc.) or had some sort
>of favored nation status with (China--although Hong Kong was under
>British control for a long time, yet? Don't know the history
>completely there.) If there was no empire in the history of JKR's
>wizarding world, then why are they being educated in Britain?

Probably the same factors apply. Ireland, I'm not sure about, and Rowling
has been very careful "not to go there". The Quidditch teams come from all
Ireland, as well as Wales, Scotland, England, and Cornwall - I _suspect_
that there is one government covering the "British Isles" rather than
several covering the various nationalities - if Scotland is independent, for
example, then why doesn't England have its own school of wizardry?

Possibly we can surmise that there _is_ some sort of empire involved here.
The cultural and linguistic differences between English/Welsh/Irish etc are
not allowed to appear and perhaps (and I'm way off into outer space
theoretically here) there are "hidden" lines of national tension between the
nations of the British Isles.

>Because Hogwarts is the best school in the world?  If so, then *why*
>is Hogwarts the best, and not another place where magic likely has
>been practiced far longer (China, Egypt, etc.) than in either Britain
>or Europe?

My own theory is that these countries do indeed have their own schools, of
no less status and prestige. There's no suggestion in the books that the
students with non-European names have the kind of cultural or linguistic
differences that might apply if they were actual "overseas students" -
there's not even any trace of an accent in the way they speak.

>I do not think that the wizarding world is utopian as far as racial
>and religious differences are concerned.  Rather, I think they're
>different... and although I concede that magical national boundaries
>are often not contiguous with Muggle ones, I really think you're
>oversimplifying the rest of the wizarding world.

Well, all of this is surmise, of course... The only canon we have about the
ability of wizards to escape persecution is the reference to their not
having been bothered during the Burning Times.

>And judging from what we know about Voldemort (and the mentions of
>Grindelwald), I would say that indeed the wizarding world knows about
>conquest and empire.  Perhaps not in terms of the racialized or
>religious Other... but magic has its Othered groups as well.

We know most about Voldemort - Grindelwald (and also Edric) are really just
names - we know or suspect that they were rebels of some sort but so far we
only have hints about what they were about.

Muggles are certainly "othered", possibly squibs also. When it is discovered
that Filch is a squib, it's a subject of humour rather than sympathy.

But perhaps one difference is that wizards are aware that they are not the
only sapient species on this planet - there appears to be coexistence with
goblins (but I'm sure we have more to learn about them) but hostility to
giants (likewise).

Cheers

Ffred

O Benryn wleth hyd Luch Reon
Cymru yn unfryd gerhyd Wrion
Gwret dy Cymry yghymeiri