[Aztlan] geronimo/kennewick/peru

[Marcelo Donadello]

Españoles, ingleses y franceses adoptaron distintas actitudes en sus viajes de conquista por el mundo. 
   
  Los españoles hicieron la guerra desde un punto de vista religioso. (Tiene que ver con esto que la principal religion de Europa en esos tiempos los favorecia ?) Con una muy reciente experiencia de mestizaje con "moros" y "judios",  por demas de fructifera, con resultados como la actitud de los conquistadores españoles fue un poco mas abierta que la de sus "socios". La prioridad fue imponer la obediencia al Rey español (flamenco a veces, etc, pero al cabo rey de España) y al Dios que lo sostenia. Las sociedades resultantes de la "colonizacion" mestizas en un monton de aspectos, con atributos propios en cada lugar. La invasion española utilizo la gente, los recursos naturales, etc, pero tambien los recursos politicos y economicos locales. Incorporo elementos culturales en mayor medida que los britanicos y franceses. Un ejemplo: el uso del Nahuatl en Mexico y del Quechua en el area de Peru se EXPANDIO tras la conquista española (!); durante unos cien años la corona favorecio
 el reemplazo de las lenguas locales por las dos lenguas principales, para simplificar la evangelizacion, es decir la absorcion de los americanos por el sistema europeo. (Luego la politica cambio, y se las prohibio y persiguio para reemplazarlas por el español. Esta es la causa de que se hable hoy quichua en regiones de Argentina que nunca estuvieron bajo control Inca ni hablaron esa lengua antes de la conquista europea, como Santiago del Estero) 
   
  Las ex colonias francesas han "sufrido" el universalismo humanista de la filosofia francesa. El esfuerzo de la colonizacion en ellas tendio mas a la absorcion de los aborigenes en una cultura cosmopolita, que por supuesto era basicamente francesa. Desconozco si esto se produjo desde el principio de la expansion francesa, o es un efecto posterior ("democratico"). La tendencia a absorber las comunidades locales fue altamente destructiva para las culturas nativas. 
   
  El colonizador ingles fue mas reacio a integrarse con los locales, y por tanto mas lento en mezclarse. Un colono ingles era un ingles americano, es decir un hombre americano. (Un "americano", sin temor a confundirse con un indio o un mestizo, ya que estos pertenecian a otra categoria de entidad) 
  En ciertos casos este "apartheid" favorecio la supervivencia de la cultura aborigen. Obviamente, siempre y cuando sobrevivieran aborigenes. 
   
  Marcelo Donadello
  
"the West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do." 
  
Samuel P. Huntington   
   
  huehueteot at aol.com escribió:
  Ed:

I don't see how you took disparagement out of what I said. I am in 
personal awe of peoples like the Lakota, the Cheyenne (with whom I have 
some personal experience) the Hopi and the Navajo. Other groups in the 
places where they were relegated by the "progressive" culture of the 
Western conquerors have somehow managed to hide the "elders" and their 
successors from the purveyors of Western Cultural Supremacy. Now with 
the return of Cultural Items that have been desperately needed to 
continue cultural growth and continuation of the institutions that make 
up the core of Native societies some of these institutions are allowed 
to continue their growth and evolution.

NAGPRA is in part an attempt on a governmental level to rectify 
problems created by un just and down right illegal theft of property 
and human remains of ancestors of current Native American Tribes. The 
problems arise when Native American perception differs from accepted 
scientific opinion about the cultural history of North America. 
Kenniwick is perhaps the most poignant example of this conflict. I am 
not denying that Western culture tried its best to destroy Native 
American culture and society. All I am saying is that somehow some 
Native American groups have managed to keep much (not all notice) of 
their cultures intact by hiding certain key peoples from contact with 
the outside world or by minimizing that contact so that they could 
maintain their institutions. The Cheyenne are a prime example. The Dog 
Soldier Society hadn't been able to initiate new members until sometime 
in the 1980's when the Smithsonian "graciously" consented to letting 
the Dog Soldiers use a pipe in their collections in an initiation 
ceremony. The first such ceremony in some 75 to 80 years. The pipe was 
carried to the event by a curator who sat through the ceremony to maker 
sure that the pipe wasn't missapropiated. The irony of that is so large 
as to almost defy description. Not to mention that since the curator 
was there for the whole ceremony he is now and forever a Dog Soldiger. 
There was considerable unhappiness with his lack of understanding and 
willingness to live up to the duties and responsibilities of such a 
situation. The pipe has since been repatriated to the Cheyenne (I 
believe) under the Smithsonian's separate law and process.

Countless examples of this sort of thing pepper the record. The US is 
guilty of attempted major ethnic cleansing and genocide. Many many 
cultural objects or objects of cultural Patrimony were stolen from 
native peoples over the last three centuries forcing them either to 
recreate ceremonies or ceremonial items as best as they could or to 
abandon the institutions that these items belonged to. Sometimes there 
was no perceived way to rectify the problem created by a particular 
incident. Some Tribes have had to just abandon ancestors to the Museum 
because they cannot figure out how to counter the spiritual 
consequences of reckless acts of another culture.

Central and South America are different. I cannot exactly describe 
what the differences are as I don't have the experience of enough of 
these countries to be able to quantify. But, for the countries that I 
have visited I can say that there are places where things have survived 
to a greater degree than most understand. Yet, some things changed 
irrevocable over the last five centuries. One of those things seems to 
be the attitude of the ordinary person to death and dead bodies or 
human remains. What the differences are I cannot do anymore that 
highlight but they do exist.

Cheers,

Hugh G. "Sam" Ball

And remember:

"This too Shall Pass!

-----Original Message-----
From: Edward B. Hanna 
To: huehueteot at aol.com; AZTLAN List 
Sent: Sat, 20 May 2006 23:15:35 -0400
Subject: Re: [Aztlan] geronimo/kennewick/peru




On 5/20/06 8:54 PM EST (UTC-5 hrs), "huehueteot at aol.com"
wrote:

> U.S. Native American Religions were also driven under ground, but
> somehow it was left more intact with less influence from the 
conquering
> culture in most cases.

I can't agree. There was a period when very great efforts were made, 
with
the approval and even active participation of the U.S. government, to 
stamp
out every vestige of "indianness," to the extent that children were 
taken
from their parents and installed in special boarding schools, many run 
by
Christian missionaries, where they were bleached of their religion and
cultural heritage and were punished if they tried to even speak in 
their
native tongues.

And I'm not talking about the eighteen hundreds.. This was taking place
well into the 1950s and 60s.

Life today on most reservations is rife with unemployment, alcoholism,
illness and hopelessness, the legacy of many years of not just neglect 
but a
blatant, concerted effort to force their assimilation into "American"
society.

That these same peoples today are once again beginning to take pride in
their heritage, are attempting to relearn their old ways, are showing 
an
active interest in their ancestors, their history and rituals, is to be
encouraged, not deplored, and certainly not to be disparaged by, of all
people, students of one of the ancient civilizations that preceded 
them.

--

/Ed

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
Edward B. Hanna
edwbhanna at comcast.net
­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­






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