(no subject)
Am annoyed at the spectacular level of hippy-dippiness in my California Indians class, despite having entered into said class expecting some hippy-dippiness. Just not quite so much of it. It is an anthropology class, and a lot of my classmates claimed to be anthro majors. I wonder if they understand that anthropologists are scientists, and as such, are expected to maintain a little objectivity about their subjects?
I'd like to take some of these jokers outside and shake the shit out of them. Particularly the young lady in back who more or less said that our way of life sucks and is wrong (and that we're all bad people for participating in it) because it's "not sustainable" and that we ought to go back to being like the Indians, because their lifestyle was totally sustainable and in harmony with nature. I am mildly tempted to order the shirt from T-shirt Hell depicting an Indian with the words, "Native Americans: Should Have Fought Harder, You Pussies." and wear it to class.
In reviewing a video we watched after the hippy-dippy discussion was over (half an hour wasted on a goddamn TANGENT - it wasn't even part of current class material or anything), I suggested the video was okay, except it uniformly portrayed CA Indians as passive victims of white people. This, I wrote, was probably true enough as a generalization, but it would have been nice to see someone mention that there were probably Indians who both resisted and assimilated into the European settlements. It's my first attempt to crack the heavy veneer of "Noble Savage" that these people have. I don't think it'll do any good.
Taking the Jeopardy Online Test tonight at 2000.
I'd like to take some of these jokers outside and shake the shit out of them. Particularly the young lady in back who more or less said that our way of life sucks and is wrong (and that we're all bad people for participating in it) because it's "not sustainable" and that we ought to go back to being like the Indians, because their lifestyle was totally sustainable and in harmony with nature. I am mildly tempted to order the shirt from T-shirt Hell depicting an Indian with the words, "Native Americans: Should Have Fought Harder, You Pussies." and wear it to class.
In reviewing a video we watched after the hippy-dippy discussion was over (half an hour wasted on a goddamn TANGENT - it wasn't even part of current class material or anything), I suggested the video was okay, except it uniformly portrayed CA Indians as passive victims of white people. This, I wrote, was probably true enough as a generalization, but it would have been nice to see someone mention that there were probably Indians who both resisted and assimilated into the European settlements. It's my first attempt to crack the heavy veneer of "Noble Savage" that these people have. I don't think it'll do any good.
Taking the Jeopardy Online Test tonight at 2000.