anthropology with no apology

[Jan Tucker]

Re: [ILAT] anthropology with no apologyRichard, Thank you for your insights
and perspective again,  I'd love to hear your other stories...

I have one from a recent conference that I attended regarding a reference to
ceremonial items as "trash". The conference was about Nature Culture and
Religion, put on by a new organization with that focus. I listened to a
speaker share a paper about the ecotourism of local a cenote by the
indigenous people of the area and then about their own use of sacred caves
for their spiritual ceremonies ( not used for ecotourism, private in other
words). During the talk the indigenous people were critiqued for not picking
up "trash" away from the trail to the cenote, but doing so along the
"tourist" or public trail to the location. Then there were pictures of
sacred offerings in plastic containers, and candles in caves which were then
referred to "ceremonial trash". Indigenous people were then said to be
damaging the ecology of their own sacred caves by leaving this "ceremonial
trash". It was very  unsettling and disturbing to hear "trash" and
"ceremonial" offerings together and worries me about setting some kind of
precedent for the taking of ceremonial locations to "preserve" them from
indigenous "ceremonial desecration" .  So what the archeologists have done
in your examples is now being continued with words and talks like this one
by those writing about ecological issues in indigenous environments and
under their control.

Jan
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Indigenous Languages and Technology
[mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU]On Behalf Of Richard Smith
  Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 12:54 PM
  To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
  Subject: Re: [ILAT] anthropology with no apology


  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- “because the spirits
give pipes” 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. “TAKING” 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 “information”)
  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 I’m doing here ) to
question even itself.
  And it can create technologies which are tools we can use.
  But I’m concerned about its own subtle prostlytizing effects
  And its unspoken claim to total objectivity
  And.... I’ve 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

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