anthropology with no apology

[Richard Smith]

Thanks Jan 
For your reply,sure you can use it
I have a few other stories I could share with you too.
One little uncomfortable event could always have been just an archaeologists
bad day.
But I have several others which really make me wonder sometimes.
A British-born archaeologist who freely ads to his own private collection
To us Wendat/Wyandots he gives the mystic answer- ³because the spirits give
pipes² to him.
And another where Park Rangers ask children to actually police their parents
for studying a pot sherd.

The analytical dominant language of English creates thought patterns that
are very different than our indigenous languages. ³TAKING² patterns
...Collecting and filing of data, charting and graphing even of spirituality
to seek to 
Comprehend (based on its own limited presumptions) and it seeks to unravel,
and 
control that which has always been utter mystery.
When a pot sherd is taken by an archaeologist it is a sacred
event...(because it is ³information²)
when an artist (even a native artist) picks one up,to feel the past ,its a
Federal violation of the Law.

But foreign thought processes alter whatever is touched or taken...without
possibly realizing it.
 Latin based language-thought-systems have created a yearning to define all
that exists.
It is a conquerors tongue...and still conquering, and will not stop its
quest.
Knowledge becomes supreme diety, (Gnosis) Information is salvation...

Fortunately,of course, it can also be used (as I¹m doing here ) to question
even itself.
And it can create technologies which are tools we can use.
But I¹m concerned about its own subtle prostlytizing effects
And its unspoken claim to total objectivity
And.... I¹ve noticed that converts seem to be increasing.

Richard Zane Smith



On 4/30/06 12:57 PM, "Jan Tucker" <jtucker at starband.net> wrote:

> Richard, thanks for your story, I'd like to share it with my applied
> anthropology class and race and ethnic relations class ....with your
> permission of course. More of your perspective needs to be heard and this
> story is a great way to share your perspective. I agree with you, and I can
> certainly talk to some of your points, however since this is a language and
> technology discussion group, I'm respectfully not going to. Let me however
> apologize for those who aren't willing to even have dialogue and share this
> quote by John Kenneth Galbraith Oct 15 1908-Apr 29th 2006. "The modern
> conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy;
> that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." and
> "People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than
> surrender any material part of their advantage."
>  
> Jan Tucker
>  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20060503/fdd28ce6/attachment.htm>