Fieldwork today or cultural theft ? (part 5)

[Neil Alasdair McEwan]

On Fri, 7 Feb 1997, Diego Quesada wrote:

>
>
> On Fri, 7 Feb 1997, Michael Everson wrote:
>
> > >It has nothing to do with skin-color, rather, it is birthright.
> >
> > Birthright. "A right of possession or privilege on has from birth, esp. as
> > the eldest son." (Concise Oxford Dictionary)
>   There you go! Eurocentricity at its best. Why don't you ask Peter
> what their definition of birthright is? It may not be on paper in a Maori
> Concise Dictionary but sure it's somewhere in their historic memory.


So it's OK to be ethnocentric if you're not European, but if you
*are* European it's bigoted and immoral?  This sounds like a mere childish
inversion of an old double-standard, and not a "progressive" view at all.


> > Birthright. Birthright? Rights because of where and what and to whom you
> > were born? Rights denied others because of where and what and to whom they
> > were born? "Speaking for Maori" is not the same thing as "speaking about
> > Maori", I suppose.
>   What's wrong with that? Didn't George Bush outrage Panama because
> apparently a US person was "harassed" there?


     Yes, and you and most of the people on this list condemned it.  So
     again: if you are drawing parallels between your views and those of
     George
     Bush, doesn't that reflect badly on your views?


     > > But I don't know if such rights are inherent. I think your statement
         is not
	 > > quite in synch with, at least, the freedoms specified in the
         United
	 > > Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948
	 >   Neither is the practice of certain leaders of the so-called
	 > democracies, to impose their views on others: blockade on Cuba
         (sin: a
	 > wish for sovereingty), coup in Chile (sin: a democratically elected
	 > president), invasion of Panama (sin: make sure that the Canal
         Agreement is
	 > respected), the list is endless.


	      How was apartheid-era South Africa's "wish for sovereignty" and
	      freedom from outside interference any different from that of
	      present-day
	      Cuba's?  More importantly, is any of this relevant to the
	      subject of
	      endangered languages?


	      le durachdan,

	      Neil A. McEwan
	      --

	      > Diego
	      >
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