This year, the Idle No More movement called for Earth Day rallies to focus attention on the links between Indigenous issues and the environmental movement
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something about this piece really sits wrongly with me -- something about the rooted/rootless : indigenous/whitness analogy, maybe. movement is a fundamental, universal condition of modernity. but i'm not sure.
i hope some smarter people read this, though, because i'd like to hear how it strikes others.
It paints permanent settlement as the most human state, completely erasing traditionally nomadic peoples from the discussion and ignoring the entirety of human history and evolution.
i guess i am hesitant to interrogate the piece from that perspective. i'm a white person and i don't feel comfortable making statements that have the effect of arguing that the worldview expressed by the native peoples within is incorrect
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I think nomadic people are rooted, just in a large area. They know the plants and animals and seasonal changes of the landscape and are moving in response to all that. Their culture has stories and songs about all those things...and they have everything invested in their environment for that reason. So I think they fit what he's saying about indigenous people.
This. I agree with this. Nomadic peoples often had a territory; moving from one encampment to another, following the herds or the seasons.
Coincidentally, I agree with this piece. Just in my own generation, I've watched my family scatter to the four winds, leaving pretty much me, my partner and my kids to be the totality of our family unit. I've watched my baby boomer parents and uncle grab and run, pretty much turning our family assets -- the ones my grandparents meticulously built from the Great Depression, the ones meant to be built upon for multiple generations -- into their own personal entitlements. If there's anything left by the end to carry on, I'll be shocked.
Me, I'm doing everything I can to rebuild a whole base. And that's just for my family. Now, think of this in the terms of broader culture, and it's downright scary where we're going.
I had a great-uncle who spent a lifetime collecting things, and was very careful in what he collected. When he died -- and my great-aunt six weeks later, which we were sadly expecting -- their sons liquidated everything their father had collected, as a quick fix to their own financial woes.
They're on my special list. The one that's titled "If I'm On One Side Of The Street With a Glass Of Water, And You're On The Other Side On Fire, I'm Going To Drink My Water And Watch Your Ass Fry." That list.
I can name a grand total of possibly seven pieces of furniture in my parents' house that have historical significance in my mother's family. My father's family pitches everything, the only reason Dad got his own father's tools is because my aunt didn't want her son getting them. And Dad's already told me that when he dies, he's giving them away to one of his hangers-on.
LOL! My Dad is on my list. I happen to love your list.
It's wrenching, isn't it? It's hard for me to explain to people just how lonely that is; to have roots, and then people who are selfish and short sighted cut them away.
We just never had anything to do with them. Maternal Grandmother left the marriage when she was eight months pregnant, because Maternal Grandfather wouldn't find a job. He was a bricklayer, in post-WWII America. But he'd been in the war and surprise, surprise! Didn't just magically "get over it" when the cease-fire was announced. Brilliant example of undiagnosed, untreated PTSD, utterly overlooked. "He just didn't want to try." From what little my mother does know about her father? His family blames Grandma. *Eyeroll*
I don't know what happened to Paternal Grandfather's family, other than his father died in the flu epidemic after WWI, when Grandpa was 13. Those sides of my family were just never talked about. Took me until high school to find out that a classmate's grandfather was Paternal Grandfather's half-brother.
No, I agree. My biggest problem with the article is that it ignores the possibility that people could be evolving a greater view of their 'home territory' as being 'the whole planet', which is not bad at all. (That, ind it seems to ignore the many Native tribes that routinely conquered and erased smaller tribes as they expanded.)
The article seems to be looking for a simple answer. "Society is going to hell. It must be all this moving around!" A lack of cultural homogeneity on a small scale is a consequence of the recent ease of communication and travel. A sense of place as part of society hasn't faded; the world just got a lot smaller.
I want to like the article, but the representation of the ..permanence...of culture is bothering me a bit. Cultures change, even when culturally individuals seem to rely on or have confidence in an unchanging future, things change --sometimes because of outer influences, sometimes well there isn't a pinpoint-able reason
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thank you for adding your perspective; it confirms some of the things i was thinking, and enriches them.
i'm coming at this from an academic perspective, which is always rough because i don't want to seem callous, but i do think that there's something to the idea that what we call "tradition" is an invention based on our current needs. like, saying that something "has always been done" is a way to give authority to a set of practices, but if you look to the historical record, that might not be the case. (the scottish kilt, the french baguette, etc.)
I do think there's some truth in that, and I think for some people it can be a way to distinguish themselves. Like, at Indian events I often feel that I don't fit in and often emphasize traditional, regional uniqueness; and usually there are other reasons that I don't fit in.
Thanks for sharing your reaction. The article talks about indigenous/rooted/colonized people and white/moving/settlers but where are immigrants from everywhere else in the world who now live North America. If they have a culture (language, songs, stories) but no land to tie to it, what then?
The author would likely say that they too need to settle down because we need everyone to regain a sense of place but it stood out, I think, as a missing piece of the article.
i hope some smarter people read this, though, because i'd like to hear how it strikes others.
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Coincidentally, I agree with this piece. Just in my own generation, I've watched my family scatter to the four winds, leaving pretty much me, my partner and my kids to be the totality of our family unit. I've watched my baby boomer parents and uncle grab and run, pretty much turning our family assets -- the ones my grandparents meticulously built from the Great Depression, the ones meant to be built upon for multiple generations -- into their own personal entitlements. If there's anything left by the end to carry on, I'll be shocked.
Me, I'm doing everything I can to rebuild a whole base. And that's just for my family. Now, think of this in the terms of broader culture, and it's downright scary where we're going.
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They're on my special list. The one that's titled "If I'm On One Side Of The Street With a Glass Of Water, And You're On The Other Side On Fire, I'm Going To Drink My Water And Watch Your Ass Fry." That list.
I can name a grand total of possibly seven pieces of furniture in my parents' house that have historical significance in my mother's family. My father's family pitches everything, the only reason Dad got his own father's tools is because my aunt didn't want her son getting them. And Dad's already told me that when he dies, he's giving them away to one of his hangers-on.
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It's wrenching, isn't it? It's hard for me to explain to people just how lonely that is; to have roots, and then people who are selfish and short sighted cut them away.
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Anyone related to Paternal Grandfather.
Anyone related to Maternal Grandfather.
Two entire encyclopedias of my family history, that are lost in a black hole.
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I don't know what happened to Paternal Grandfather's family, other than his father died in the flu epidemic after WWI, when Grandpa was 13. Those sides of my family were just never talked about. Took me until high school to find out that a classmate's grandfather was Paternal Grandfather's half-brother.
Reply
The article seems to be looking for a simple answer. "Society is going to hell. It must be all this moving around!" A lack of cultural homogeneity on a small scale is a consequence of the recent ease of communication and travel. A sense of place as part of society hasn't faded; the world just got a lot smaller.
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i'm coming at this from an academic perspective, which is always rough because i don't want to seem callous, but i do think that there's something to the idea that what we call "tradition" is an invention based on our current needs. like, saying that something "has always been done" is a way to give authority to a set of practices, but if you look to the historical record, that might not be the case. (the scottish kilt, the french baguette, etc.)
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The author would likely say that they too need to settle down because we need everyone to regain a sense of place but it stood out, I think, as a missing piece of the article.
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