"Twilight for the Forest People"

Tue Jun 10 21:02:00 UTC 2008

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>
>>>  
>>> To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>>>  
>>> Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2008 7:53  AM
>>>  
>>> Subject: [ILAT] "Twilight for the Forest   People"
>>>  
>>> 
>>>  
>>>  
>>> 
>>> FYIŠ The article  frames a dilemma in terms of ³whether to  leave them
>>> [isolated peoples]  to their fate or to assimilate them into the  larger
>>> world before they  are extinguished.² 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.
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>> Š
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>> 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 planet¹s 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 government¹s  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.
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>> Š
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>> 
> 
> 

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