A century later, Ishi still has lessons to teach (fwd link)

[Dr. MJ Hardman]

I do agree, and in this case I would be one of the Œstudied¹.  Way back when
half a century ago in Bolivia I had students studying the paceños (Œwhite¹
folk with power), both Aymara and others to give the Aymara knowledge to
cope with such people.  It didn¹t get very far, but there was some good that
came from it.  I wish it could have been able to continue.  That is a little
different from what you are suggesting, but in the same line ‹ who studies
and who is studied.  MJ

On 9/13/11 8:49 PM, "Huang,Chun" <huangc20 at UFL.EDU> wrote:

> Thanks, Richard,
> 
> "I think its OUR time to study the studiers, do anthropology on the
> anthropologists, archaeology on the archaeologists
> linguistic studies on you "expert" linguists!   Might be a new field in and of
> itself --- especially within Native colleges!"
> 
> I agree, and I have been thinking about it. Especially now there are more and
> more of us so-called "heritage linguists" (indigenous people working with
> their own language/culture). We should do something...
> 
>  
> 
> Jimmy
> 
>  
> 
> Chun (Jimmy) Huang
> 
> Assistant Professor, Department of English and Applied Linguistics
> 
> De La Salle University - Manila
> 
> On Tue, 13 Sep 2011 08:36:41 -0500, Richard Zane Smith wrote:
>> 
>> It was reading the book Ishi in the 70's that sparked me and made me take
>> notice
>> of how anthropology,a brand new field, was studying people as rare specimens
>> in a dish.
>> The article is good, and it was good to hear aboriginal people respond.
>> I'm not sure I agree with one of the last comments quoted in the article:
>> One reason for the persistence of the ³last wild Indian² trope, Myers
>> speculated, is the comfort to be found in the belief that if ³the last one is
>> gone,² then ³we¹ve done our job.²
>> 
>> well...Though, this might have been the attitude of land grabbing U.S.
>> government, where any other "nation" is a threat,
>> Other forces were at work that are STILL having a detrimental effect on our
>> survival as indigenous cultures.
>> One was(and is) cultural ignorance from popular novel induced infatuation
>> with   "the last of....(fill in the blank")
>> feeding a kind of wistful sentimentalism that was being applied widespread
>> upon traditional cultures facing violent opposition
>> and even extinction. "aww...the poor little indians" .
>> Feeling pity is dangerous because it often supplants itself as a substitute
>> for real action.
>> "I feel sorry...therefore I'm not the oppressor , and because i feel
>> sorry...I've done what i can."
>> 
>> there are OTHER forces at work on the powerful down stream flow against ALL
>> of us working on cultural revitalization efforts.
>> I think its OUR time to study the studiers, do anthropology on the
>> anthropologists, archaeology on the archaeologists
>> linguistic studies on you "expert" linguists!   Might be a new field in and
>> of itself --- especially within Native colleges!
>> Sohahiyoh (Richard Zane Smith)
>> Wyandotte Oklahoma
>> On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 4:40 AM, Derksen Jacob <jieikobu at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> Thanks for sending that along. It was the 1978 tv movie, Ishi: Last of His
>>> Tribe, that acted as the spark that ignited my interest in endangered
>>> languages. Just last month I had occasion to be in San Francisco and
>>> happened to find a copy of Theodora Kroeber's book of the same name.
>>>   
>>>> > Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:37:46 -0500
>>>> > From: cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU
>>>> > Subject: [ILAT] A century later, Ishi still has lessons to teach (fwd
>>>> link)
>>>>  > To: ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
>>> 
>>>> > 
>>>> > A century later, Ishi still has lessons to teach
>>>> > 
>>>> > By Barry Bergman, NewsCenter | September 12, 2011
>>>>  > USA
>>>> > 
>>>> > BERKELEY - They came both to bury Ishi ‹ at least the outdated notion
>>>> > of Ishi prevalent in pop culture ‹ and to praise him. They came to
>>>> > learn from him, to remember him not as a research subject but as a
>>>>  > teacher, not as an artifact of a vanishing culture but as a survivor
>>>> > and, as Berkeley law professor Karen Biestman put it, ³a pioneer of
>>>> > indigenous intellectual property protection.²
>>>> > 
>>>> > 
>>>>  > Earl Neconie, right, gave the morning's traditional blessing (Peg
>>>> > Skorpinski photos)
>>>> > Joseph Myers, a School of Law graduate and lecturer in Native American
>>>> > studies here, put it more simply.
>>>>  > 
>>>> > ³I like the idea of celebrating Ishi,² Myers said. ³But let¹s
>>>> > celebrate him as a human being. ³
>>>> > 
>>>> > Access full article below:
>>>> > http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/09/12/century-of-ishi/
>> 

Dr. MJ Hardman
Professor of Linguistics and Anthropology
Department of Linguistics
University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
Doctora Honoris Causa UNMSM, Lima, Perú
website:  http://grove.ufl.edu/~hardman/ 

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