on translation

[Richard Smith]

Wayne,
yeah, its important not to demonize...that's not our way.
But If anyone wants to see a clash of world view paradigms
these missionary journals written present good examples!
see: 
http://www.archive.org/stream/indianmissionary00elli/indianmissionary00elli_
djvu.txt

MISSIONARY REMINISCENCES, PRINCIPALLY OF THE WYANDOT NATION.
IN WHICH IS EXHIBITED THE EFFICACY OF THE GOSPEL
IN ELEVATING IGNORANT AND SAVAGE MEN.
BY THE REV. CHARLES ELLIOTT,
SOME-TIME MISSIONARY AMONG THE WYANDOTS.

and:
http://www.archive.org/details/historyofwyandot00finl
Finley, James Bradley, 1781-1856.
 Wyandot Indians; Methodist Episcopal church - Missions.

One thing that the missionaries did help our people with is fighting
alcoholism and
whiskey traders .Our people had no long history with it and so didn't
understand it. 
People were actually creating whiskey dances and ceremonies...One might even
say that 
a strange religion was beginning to form about the time missionaries came to
town.
Now we know the Bible has a ancient record of dealing with alcohol abuse
since the story of Noah!
So the missionaries got busy! condemning it and pointing out its danger to
all.

They also built schools ­Wyandot kids were being educated for the first time
and missionaries
could, dispel ridiculous heathen myths and teach the "universal world view"
Genesis Creation 
of an Adam shaped of mud and an Eve made of bone pulled from his rib cage,
and the talking snake...how could we forget the talking snake?

There is a light and shadow side to everything - in a Wyandot way of seeing.
It comes from our OWN creation story of the twins brothers.
good that came from Boy of Fire was unfortunately reduced in intensity by
the other.
bad that came from Boy of Flint was fortunately reduced in intensity by his
brother. 
Nothing is all dark,and nothing is all light.

in the early 1800's,the "heathen" group once held council with the Christian
Wyandots
The heathen group asked ,
Where in your white mans Bible does it say Indians must not paint their
faces?
The missionary responded...
"those laws were actually given to dark people ,not whites!"
The assumption by James Finley was that Indians were the lost tribes of
Israel,
and lost all knowledge of Jewish law as they traveled to this continent .

Richard Zane Smith
Wyandotte, Okl.




On 9/29/08 12:34 PM, "Wayne Leman" <wleman1949 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:

> Fortunately, even though many missionaries might think otherwise, the Bible
> is not a Western book (it's distinctly non-Western, for the most part,
> including in its literary forms, styles of conversation and rhetoric, etc.).
> And it's got a lot in it that address ills of Western societies if people
> would take its teachings seriously.
> 
> The problem is not with the Bible, per se, but all the cultural baggage that
> many missionaries add on to it. It's a good book to translate. There are a
> number of good books to translate.
> 
> Wayne Leman 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ilat/attachments/20080929/e6d911bc/attachment.htm>