"Twilight for the Forest People"

Tue Jun 10 19:22:44 UTC 2008

Wow!  Wonderful!  What a great piece!  Do you mind if I forward the
photo to some of my anthropology-type friends?   Actually, I'd love to
print it for my office and share it with anthropology students.  It
makes a great point.
Carol

________________________________

From: Indigenous Languages and Technology
[mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Richard Smith
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 2:02 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] "Twilight for the Forest People"

Hi Carol,
hmmm...let's try again here...
i wonder if anyone else had a problem opening it

thanks for letting me know
rzs

On 6/10/08 11:15 AM, "McMillan, Carol" <CMcMillan at WVC.EDU> wrote:

	I couldn't open your attachment on my computer.  I'd very much
like to.  Can you save it in any other format?

	Thanks,
	Carol

________________________________

	From: Indigenous Languages and Technology
[mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Richard Smith
	Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 5:42 PM
	To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
	Subject: Re: [ILAT] "Twilight for the Forest People"

	Earl,
	Very well said.
	i thought it might be an appropriate time to share my 
	"Missionary vs. Anthropologist" vessel here - as an attachment.
	I made it to look like a Peruvian stirrup vessel.
	the missionary is of course fighting with his Bible (believed to
be the word of God)
	the anthropologist is fighting with his measuring stick(seen in
many photos of artifacts)

	By the way, social anthropologists can feel just as indignant as
evangelistic missionaries 
	when we question their motives...I suppose each feels they are
being judged unfairly
	and yet often each wants to beat the other to the "pie"      

	Richard Zane Smith
	Wyandotte, Oklahoma

	On 6/8/08 10:43 AM, "Earl Otchingwanigan" <wiigwaas at MSN.COM>
wrote:

		Greetings Don Osborn et al: The dilemma is not whether
to leave the isolated peoples to their fate or not, the dilemma is the
seemingly inherent nature of humankind's inability to not interfere with
anything that exists in a natural condition.  This peculiarity is easily
noted; tell someone to not touch something, the moment your back is
turned,  they will touch it.  As a native person however, there exists a
mentality within certain cultures and groups that has continually
perplexed  me.  To cite as to what I have speaks of here, in "my" area
of the Great  Lakes, when the first Europeans arrived, they saw the wolf
as part of a grand  primeval scheme to prevent the advancement in
bettering their idea of what  life should be.  By 1940, the wolf was
nearly extinct along with the  wanton clear cutting of the virgin
timber.  The Lake States actually had  "licensed" hunters to eradicate
the wolf thereby making "life safe" and to  improve the deer herd for
the benefit of the annual deer hunt and hunters so  that they can
"reconnect" with their "roots".  Recently, the wolf  population has made
a comeback, but of course it now poses a perceived  "threat" and
therefore needs regulation so everyone will feel safe on their  ATVs and
snowmobiles whilst in the "wilds", not to mention, a few farmers
complaining that the wolf might just kill a calf.  Referencing Don
Osborn's "pardon for the dumb question", rather let us refer to it as a
thought incomplete.  It would seem to me, no peoples ever existed
without  contact with others, certainly, indigenous people continually
interact with  each other.  No one is isolated.  As to the second part
of the  question, if that area of the rainforest is presently
"untouched" and these  natives dwelling there have successfully retained
their lifestyle, then  currently in this condition how can it "still
[be] an area dominated by people  from [the] dominant cultures" save for
Brazil or Peru's claim to a  "non-discovery", ah but then the chainsaw,
yes!  Regardless of the  quaintness of John Noble Wilford's article in
the NY Times, especially written  from perhaps a high-rise, on the
plight of these people, it all comes back to  the original theory of
don't touch it.  You can now be assured  with all the publicity that
these "poor natives" will now need to be rescued  and saved, most of
all, their souls, and brought forth to share in the fruits  of what all
modern life has to offer, please!  This occurred with  my people, and
man, well.....no need to go there, now is there?  After  all, I can
speak only for myself. Cheers, Earl  Otchingwanigan

			----- Original Message -----  

			From: Don Osborn <mailto:dzo at BISHARAT.NET>
<mailto:dzo at BISHARAT.NET>    

			To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU  

			Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 7:53  AM

			Subject: [ILAT] "Twilight for the Forest
People"

			FYI... The article  frames a dilemma in terms of
"whether to  leave them [isolated peoples]  to their fate or to
assimilate them into the  larger world before they  are extinguished." I
assume the range of options is  not quite that  simple. Pardon the dumb
question, but are indigenous groups of  any  sort involved in initial
contacts, or is this still an area dominated by   people from the
dominant  cultures?

			Twilight for  the Forest People

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/weekinreview/08wilford.html

			By  JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

			Published: June 8,  2008

			The world is closing in on the few  remaining
people who  live in such remote isolation as to seem not of  this
world.

			...

			A  reminder of their situation came recently
with the  publication of  aerial photographs of the encampment of a
tribe in the upper  reaches  of the Amazon River in Brazil, near the
border with Peru. The pictures   showed a line of neat huts and people
looking up at the small  airplane. Two  men, their faces and bodies
painted red, raised bows and  arrows as a pointed  warning to the
intruder.

			As survivors whose continued  survival is very
much in  doubt, these last primitive tribes hidden  away in the planet's
most remote  reaches pose a dilemma for their  would-be protectors:
whether to leave them to  their fate or to  assimilate them into the
larger world before they are   extinguished.

			Neither course promises  a happy ending.

			If they remain isolated,  these populations may
cling to  their way of life a little longer. Some  have moved deeper
into the rainforest,  away from encroaching loggers  and oil
prospectors. But the bulldozers and saws  seem destined to end  their
solitude.

			If they are removed and  survive the exposure to
diseases  they have never encountered, it is  likely that the unique
knowledge and  beliefs that define them, the  spirit of their life, will
probably slip   away.

			The Brazilian government's  National Indian
Foundation,  Funai, came upon the encampment as it was  making one of
its regular patrols of  the scattered settlements of  tribes in the
State of Acre who are thought to  have had little direct  contact with
the outside world. The picture-taking  plane had no  intention of
landing: it was only checking the location and  apparent  well-being of
the people.

			Survival  International, a London-based
organization  supporting the cause of  struggling indigenous people,
estimates that at least  100 similarly  isolated tribes remain in the
world, about half of them in  Brazil and  Peru.

			...

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