Arts of Contact Zone

In Arts of the Contact Zone, Mary Louise Pratt discusses a conflict, which she has labeled the "contact zone". Pratt defines the contact zone loosely as the social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other. In 1613 Guama Poma, a native Andean of Incan descent, wrote a twelve-hundred page letter addressed to King Philip III of Spain. Although the letter never reached its destination, we are now recognizing it as a contact zone …

…in the Ph.D. reading list. Why then was Poma's letter so poorly received? Interpretation. The purpose of language is to be able to express our feelings and thoughts with the most accuracy with someone else. The goals, then, being to have the other person interpret your language in the way you intend them to. Poma was not so lucky to have his letter interpreted as he has wished when it finally reached its destination.