### Tags --- ### Citation Liboiron, Max. 2021 *Pollution is Colonialism*. Durham and London: Duke University Press. --- ### Key ideas >[!Question] >**What is Pollution?** >"The English word *pollution* comes from the Latin *pollutionem*, meaning defilement or desecration. The earliest recorded uses in the mid-fourteenth century refer to the 'discharge of semen other than during sex'" #Liboiron/2021; 19. (Also see Online Etymology Dictionary) > >[!Quote] >"Pollution was (and still is)[referring to medieval sexual origins] about naming a deviation from the good and true path of things—good relations manifested in the material... the morality and ideaas of good and right paths for contaminants remain a key aspect of understanding pollution today." #Liboiron/2021; 19. Defining the original use of the term "pollution" and how it has evolved is important to demonstrate why the methodology I will use is important to understanding the impact the ancient coins have on perpetuating colonial ideologies. The complexity of pollution is a perfect metaphor for the complexity of studying ancient and medieval coins in a colonial state and how we must recognize these complexities in order to unsettle and disrupt traditional numismatic narratives. Language is a crucial component for disruption as "Byzantine" is used to label Roman coins and the label acts as a colonizer and colonized in the North American context. Pollution is not just a physical foreign material entering and establishing a presence in an ecosystem/environment in which it has no natural origins, but pollution also is a metaphysical concept where identities get polluted or erased (Byzantine = Roman = erasure of local identities). Pollution also assumes movement—a transfer of materials and ideas, most of which can not be reversed but needs to be negotiated to reduce the harm it inflicts while preventing further harm. As noted in the quote above, there are moral overtones embedded in the term. Thus, ethical questions must be addressed when discussing pollutants, i.e. Why do we still use "Byzantine" to label particular coins? Even the term pollution is colonial, as its meaning (I am assuming and I need to explore and confirm this) would have no equivalent for indigenous peoples. --- ### Related Links [[Byzantine Affect]] [[10.20220802 Byzantine Identity]] [[Byzantine Studies]]