"Twilight for the Forest People"

Wed Jun 11 18:34:19 UTC 2008

I'd love to see them all.

________________________________

From: Indigenous Languages and Technology
[mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] On Behalf Of Richard Smith
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:55 PM
To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: [ILAT] "Twilight for the Forest People"

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> <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"

				FYI... The  article  frames a dilemma in
terms of "whether to  leave them  [isolated peoples]  to their fate or
to assimilate them into the   larger world before they  are
extinguished." 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.

				...

				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
planet's 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  government's  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.

				...

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