Blessed Unrest: Indigne
Written by Paul Hawken
"Indigenous people do want the conveniences of modern life - electricity, antibiotics, the Internet - and while speaking other languages provides that access, they do not wish it at the expense of losing their birthright." pg. 96
The reading from Blessed Unrest this week was very influential for me. It reminded me about the society I live in, versus the many other societies around the world. This chapter talked about how language is a huge part of a culture, and every culture HAS a language. Paul Hawken brings the point that many people today view minimal cultures such as the Fuegian tribes (Selk'nam, Ona, Haush, Alculufs, and Yamana) as inferior, and being lowly.
Even the great Darwin himself (sarcasm) described these tribes as "I could not believe how wide was the difference between a savage and civilized man: it is greater than between a domesticated and wild animal, inasmuch as in man there is a greater power of improvement." Darwin had observed the tribes as came to the conclusion that they were "full of savagery" and their language seemed to be "sounds & a few gutturals mingled with them". If only Darwin had taken a closer approach to these people. I think that if he had examined these people not based their looks, or how the acted, he would've realized that they are the same type of human race. There is nothing separating Darwin to a tribal person.
This brings me to my next point. To prove that these people weren't "savages", Thomas Bridges had studied the Fuegian language, and with his studies, he helped to "reveal the true complexity" of that language. Through Bridge's twenty-one years of studying, he compiled a dictionary that contained 32,430 words and inflections from the Fuegian language. How does this compare? Paul Hawken gave the comparison that a well-educated American may have only a vocabulary of 20,00 words. How does that compare to the Fuegian language?
The Fuegian language is so complex because it has so many different descriptive words. It is said that the word for kin (one's family & relations) has sixty-one different words to describe it. Sixty-one different meanings for kin. To me, Darwin certainly was wrong about these people. These people are surely not savages in no kind. They are remarkable, and very intelligent.
But why is it that they still live in the environment, and situation they did hundreds of years ago? This is where the quote I picked comes into play. These people know of all the technological advances, but to use and adapt to these advancements, these people would have to learn a new language. They would have to learn a new language to understand the meaning and use, and how to use these advancements.
We all know the famous Spider Man quote right?; "With great power comes great responsibility". Well, these people understand that concept. They know that if they start to adapt and change to the conveniences of modern life, they would gradually begin to forget their cultures and languages.
This could be compared to learning a new language. Let's say that I learned German in high school for three years. After high school, I was never given the chance to build up my German, and use it at all. And with that, my ability to acknowledge anything I had learn in German became a waste, and was forgotten. This is the same with the tribes today that became extinct. These living tribes gave up their culture and language just to be able to have the conveniences we Americans have in life today. They traded their blood (not literally) for the modern life of antibiotics, and reassurance of a better life.
I think that tribes that refuse to change to the modern life today is such a great example. They are working to hold onto their culture. The culture that has been in their people since forever. As this blog ends, I would like to end with a quote from Blessed Unrest.
"As we drift toward a blandly amorphous, generic world, as cultures disappear and life becomes more uniform, we as a people and a species, and Earth itself, will deeply impoverished." pg. 96
-Tai
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I thought that your discussion about human culture was great. I agree with you about how people should hold on to their culture, and language. This gives us an understanding that diversity is what shapes our world today.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog, Tai. You brought up some really great points. It really struck me, the thought of how much these people would have to give up in order to enjoy the same advantages that we do. They would have to give up their culture, everything they know and appreciate in their current way of life. They would, in effect, become completely different people. One of the things that makes the human race so special, so utterly fascinating, is our diversity, our uniqueness. I really enjoyed reading the section in this chapter on language, because it really does play such a huge part in who we are, what we do. Let us hope that we can salvage what is left of the languages and cultures of this world, lest we become, as your last quote says, "a blandly amorphous, generic world..."
ReplyDeleteTai! First of all nice job on your blog! I really like it! Second of all I really like how you explained what we learned about last week in class. Languages and culture are very important, far more important than new technology. The Spiderman quote really is the tip of the iceberg. It ties everything together in a more modern point. I like how Gloria said in her comment "One of the things that makes the human race so special, so utterly fascinating, is our diversity, our uniqueness." This is so true. If we were all the same we wouldn't want to visit other places. We wouldn't have anything to learn. We would also loose so many frameworks and different outlooks on life.
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