Loss of the Mashco Piro one of the last Stone Age Tribes

by designs 66 Replies latest social current

  • dgp
    dgp

    This reminds me of a TV show featuring the late Jacques Cousteau. He regretted the fact that some of the natives of the Aleutian Islands were no longer using canoes, but boats with outboard engines. He said that part of that culture died, because people no longer knew how to build canoes and use them. Agreed. The one question that I asked myself at the time, and one that Cousteau never asked, was what the Aleutians thought about replacing canoes with boats. They obviously felt fishing was a lot easier.

    Mexican author Rosario Castellanos wrote a book called "Balún Canán", which means "Nine Stars" in one of the indigenous languages. In that book, her Indian characters fight for their right to learn Spanish. The masters used to forbid them to speak "Castille" because that way the Indians had to remain ignorant, and therefore would never be able to overcome their exploitation. These people fought for their right to speak Spanish. Were they wrong?

    Some people here have said that original cultures fight to stay alive. I would qualify that. It is people who fight to stay alive and be their own selves. If they should want to abandon some customs, why should anyone tell them otherwise?

    English is a foreign language to me. I'm the result of many mixtures, and, therefore, am not a member of any "original" people. My culture is Spanish. No one in the Spanish world can claim to be anything but mixed blood. Should I not have learned English, which has made me someone else? English has put me in touch with ideas and people that are certainly not those of my own culture. I feel I have learned a lot; I feel I have been empowered and, to an extent, liberated. Is that wrong? Why would anyone want something different for the Mashco Piro? While no one should tell them how they should live, and no one should claim ownership over their own land, I have a problem with keeping them isolated and "pure" against their will.

  • lisaBObeesa
    lisaBObeesa

    The one question that I asked myself at the time, and one that Cousteau never asked, was what the Aleutians thought about replacing canoes with boats.

    Well you would have to ask them to see how they felt about losing their hand-made canoes and their ability to make them.

    They obviously felt fishing was a lot easier.

    Did they? Or did they no longer know any other way? One would have to ask them.

    Mexican author Rosario Castellanos wrote a book called "Balún Canán", which means "Nine Stars" in one of the indigenous languages. In that book, her Indian characters fight for their right to learn Spanish. The masters used to forbid them to speak "Castille" because that way the Indians had to remain ignorant, and therefore would never be able to overcome their exploitation.

    Just because the indigenous peoples wanted stop being exploited by the Spanish who were crushing them doesn't mean they wanted to assimilate into the Spanish culture and lose their own culture, it means they wanted to survive once the Spanish culture had already taken them over. The Spanish were their "masters" so I guess these indiginous people were turned into slaves by the Spanish. They had no choice but to adapt...or remain slaves.

    Should I not have learned English, which has made me someone else?

    Clearly you have not lost your culture by learning English.

    Also it was your choice to learn English. You were not forced to learn English in order to escape slavery. Your culture values learning certain other languages and cultures, so you are just following your own cultural norms.

  • Band on the Run
    Band on the Run

    She would expect revision of her work. Indeed, many grad students seemed to be re-evaluating some of her ideas. It was a hoot having her for a prof. Anthropology was so male dominated. Everyone knew her work, though. I expect she was very good at marketing her work. She was a presence. It is notable that the same conversation that occurred in my class is still ongoing: whether societies should have interference; where to draw lines. Whenever I read anything interesting in anthropology the same issues are being discussed. Cable TV had some shows showing field work among primitive tribes. The life seems so harsh and mostly drudge work. I am only looking through it from a Westernized perspective.

    I wanted to be a cultural anthropologist so much but I like my creature comforts.

  • shamus100
    shamus100

    Just so you all know: There are still head-hunters in the amazon jungle. It is a wildly remote place and is beautiful beyond description, not in mountainous scenery but in willife, flora and fauna. I've done a lot of interesting things in my lifetime but the amazon jungle was by far the coolest thing I have ever experienced, hands down. I still get puzzled looks when I tell people that...

    There are many tribes that are uncontacted, and should remain that way. People that try to mess with these tribes don't usually fare too well - they tend to kill outsiders that come near them.

    Travelling in the remoter regions of the amazon is incredibly dangerous to this day because of these tribes.

    If you ever have the chance to go, please do so and don't go on some awful cruise. Hire a local guide and go deep in the jungle as far as you can go. You will never forget it.

  • shamus100
    shamus100

    There are similar relics of lost societies in SE Asia, by the way.

    That is where I am heading to in the spring - to visit some of these tribes. Northern Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and hopefully Myannmar.

  • Broken Promises
    Broken Promises

    but the amazon jungle was by far the coolest thing I have ever experienced, hands down. I still get puzzled looks when I tell people that...

    I don't understand the puzzled looks. You'd get a jealous look from me, cos doing something like that would be so cool!!! I hope to visit South and Central America one day...

  • shamus100
    shamus100

    I hope you do too. You would be crazy, CRAZY not to visit the andes and the amazon. For the people that can't take the hardships of visiting these places, please don't go and leave it for us. :)

    Frankly, I am frigging DYING to go to Myannmar and check out the himilayas but sadly there is more fighting in the region and travel may not happen this year. :( Those poor people need help so badly.

  • Berengaria
    Berengaria
    It is ethoncentric and incorrect to think that our own culture is better than another culture. Western culture just is one of the many thousands of human cultures in the world today.
    The fact is, NO ONE wants to have their culture destroyed and replaced by an invading culture.

  • moshe
    moshe

    Does anyone remember the adventure show on TV in the 50's, where adventurers showed movies of their trips into the wilderness, like Borneo?- landing a plane on a mountaintop and meeting natives who have never had contact with the outside world? I was a young boy and it made a big impression on me. I think it was a live TV show and no copies exist of that program- of which the name has eluded my 60 year old geezer brain.

  • designs
    designs

    moshe- Was it Wild Kingdom, sponsored by Mutual of Omaha, host Merlin Perkins.

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit