"Twilight for the Forest People"

[Richard Smith]

sure Carol,
that would be great!
I enjoy making social commentary pieces ...once in a while.
art has a language of its own
and a little humor helps makes "the medicine go down"
you might be also interested in seeing my tel-evangelist pieces...heee heee
or one I once did on the genetic engineering of sister corn?

-Richard Zane Smith



On 6/10/08 12:22 PM, "McMillan, Carol" <CMcMillan at WVC.EDU> wrote:

> 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>
>>>>  
>>>> 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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