"In", "for", or "with"? (was Re: [ILAT] LSA 2006)

[Mia Kalish]

Hi, to Rudy . . . long time no hear. I was quoting you on Diné octagon vs.
triangle yesterday. 

 

Hi, Daniel. 

 

The Smiths: (there are two of them, you know :-) ). I have read Decolonizing
Methodologies . . . although several years ago. The overarching theme is
that Indigenous people have been abused muchly and long by people who come
in, take their knowledge (in biology, botany, and healing as well as
language), run off with it, publish or develop a lucrative drug, and never
return much or anything to the people who shared their knowledge with them. 

 

The underlying understanding, although I don’t recall that Smith spends too
much time on this, is that the Indigenous people are considered “less than”,
not quite human following the hierarchy of man that was socially devised by
Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton. Darwin did not devise “survival of the
fittest,” Spencer did. And it was Galton who mapped Darwin’s genetic
component to Spencer’s idea. Galton coined the term “eugenics,” and the very
first school of thought/discipline for which America became academically
famous was the School of Eugenics at Harvard, headed by Louis Agassiz, who
came to Harvard from Greece. Dalton envisioned “the development of a strong
`caste sense' among the naturally gifted members of each social class”
(members.iinet.net.au/~sejones/pe15socl.html). This idea is an extension and
“refinement,” if you can call it that, from Malthus (whom I haven’t read, as
opposed to these other people here).

 

Smith recommends some best practices for working with Indigenous People.
Here in America, there is a requirement in all NSF and NIH funded research
that if any profit is made as a result of the work, it has to be shared with
the community who participated in the development and exchange of knowledge.


 

Smith also says that the term “research” is anathema to Indigenous
communities, because of the abuses. This is really something to think about,
because people get all “oh I want to do research in your community,”
thinking about themselves and their projected efforts in the context of how
research is viewed (with awe and respect) in the academic community. And the
Indigenous People get all squinty-eyed and think, Oh you do, do you! 

 

So you should reacquire the book. I can recommend Amazon.com.uk. Check out
Devon Mihesuah, and Sandy Grande. I think both of these people, especially
Grande, are very far from you field, but definitely worth reading to see
what the abuses of Indigenous people in America have produced. The ruling
class tried to make Native People go away: “Kill the Indian to save the Man”
was a popular slogan in the 1800’s. Of course, the reason this movement
started was in opposition to a plan the U.S. Government had to annihilate
all the Indians, through disease, starvation, and plain, outright slaughter.
([Non-Indigenous] People like me who are Jewish, and people like me who are
Irish, we know a lot about this kind of technique.)

 

You could check out Colonizer’s View of the World, too. Forgot who wrote it.
If you’re interested, I can go check my copy. 

:-)

Mia

 

 

  _____  

From: Indigenous Languages and Technology [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]
On Behalf Of Cunliffe D J (Comp)
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 2:39 AM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] "In", "for", or "with"? (was Re: [ILAT] LSA 2006)

 

Hi all,

 

Arriving at this from a different (computing) perspective, ”buy-in”,
“ownership” (which I guess are “with”) and ultimately “empowerment” (which I
guess is “without” – without us!) are all important and highly topical
concepts and factors in successful systems. However it is not always clear
how you put these fine principles into practice.

 

I was wondering if anyone here has read “Decolonizing Methodologies:
Research and Indigenous Peoples” by Linda Tuhiwai Smith? I borrowed it very
briefly from another library and never really had time to read it properly.
It looked like there might be some useful ideas in it, though a lot of the
contextualising discussion went over my head somewhat :-)

 

I would be interesting in hearing other people’s opinions or any other
recommendations along similar lines.

 

Be seeing you.

 

Daniel.

 

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