Fieldwork today or cultural theft ? (part 4)

[Neil Alasdair McEwan]

On Fri, 7 Feb 1997, Diego Quesada wrote:

>
> Sorry; I disagree with that egocentric point of view. If it's a law, rule,
> or whatever you want to call it of the Maori that they and only they have
> that right, I guess we have to respect that and not impose our standards
> on them. Cultural respect begins by acknowledging each culture's beliefs.
>
> How many people, the so-called "Auslaender" in Germany especially, feel it
> a bit chauvinistic -to say the least- that "Deutschtum" is a right aquired
> by blood: a German couple migrates to Mars, have a child in Jupiter, who
> grows up in Saturn and then moves to Venus, where s/he stays forever; his
> grandchildren then move to Uranus and their children decide one day to
> come to live on earth. You bet! Those are Germans right away, I guess
> they'd call them "Raumsiedler", but speak no German, don't eat sausages
> and don't drink beer. But the Germany-born son of an immigrant Turkish
> family, speaks better (and many times only) German, has lived there all
> his life but will NEVER be one. Are we going to tell the Germans that they
> should do as in the U.S. or Canada? If not, why tell the Maoris to stop
> that view on the right to deal with their culture?
>
> J. Diego Quesada
> U of Toronto


     Again, since you obviously don't agree with the German immigration
     and naturalization laws, how can you use them to support your position on
     the Maori language?  Or is it another double-standard -- non-Europeans
     have the right to immigrate to a country in Europe, speak the language,
     absorb the culture etc., but for a European to live among non-European
     people and speak *their* language is mere colonialist arrogance?  For my
     own part I don't really see the difference between a white New Zealander
     speaking Maori, on the one hand, and a Chinese resident of the Isle of
     Lewis speaking Scots Gaelic, on the other -- if one is acceptable, so is
     the other.


     le meas,

     Neil A. McEwan
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