Native Studies; Reaction 7
Indian Givers, Weatherford
It is safe to say that I knew none of the history described within this reading. How fascinating that so many of our modern medical advents have come from Natives and how hopelessly sad that the rain forests are bulldozed by an industry that will dry up while potential cures for maladies may be uprooted and made extinct as result.
I liked how the piece began, with the journey to Timbuktu, like something out of Heart of Darkness, a five day trip on the river, two days of desert travel through a trail that would be obscured if not for the mummified skins and bones of camels and donkeys. How fitting that Weatherford begin here before delving into the history of medicine where roles are reversed. Europeans are dying from conditions such as scurvy and are shown the cure from Natives. Cartier who's men were afflicted on this journey gums bleeding with erupting sores, emitting a vile stench showed his appreciation to the Donnaconna tribe chief by kidnapping him so that he might show them mountains of gold. Isn't this always how the story ends?
Mummified camel
reasoning for the term appear to me to be comprehensive and spot on. I think this social suffering is beginning to invade white, middle class decedents of European expansion or colonizers, and they don’t like it. Remarkable in the case of modern day suburbanites is the lack of shared material and social culture to begin with as they’ve hermetically packed themselves in a homogenous white, middle class enclave. The suburbanites are experiencing severe depression at astounding levels. Their culture is separation and they’re beginning to feel the squeeze of a lack of meaningful work.
This “healing” movement sounds like something society as a whole could benefit from. I think the Occupy movement provided a venue for this sort of gathering. Like the Anglicans strangling animism and Natives’ harmonious relationship with nature from their spiritual philosophy are neoliberal forces stomping out a counterculture movement from spreading values that run in contrast with their own. At least these forces are more rational than religion! I think in many ways, the Natives of North America are the canary in the coal mine, a harbinger of the dystopic future waiting to embrace all but the elite.
