To make a quake of victory
to make a cluster of liberated world
to make a song in flood
It is the earth
It is the earth
that triumphs.
Para hacer un temblar de victories
para hacer un racimo de mundo libre
para hacer una canción inunda
Es la tierra
Es la tierra
La que triunfa
~ Juan Felipe Herrera
Akrilica
Mural section by Diego Rivera
Reflecting on Dangerous Memories
The title of this book is Dangerous Memories. What are some of the memories included in the book thus far that you consider being dangerous?
Reflecting on Culture: A Preliminary Discussion
Culture provides a background to the world in which we live. This chapter of Dangerous Memories presents the evidence, the story of the manipulation and annihilation of that background for millions of people in this hemisphere in the five hundred years since Columbus. The cultural context of some people’s lives have been painted over, and integrated with or subsumed by the more dominant culture. The cultural backgrounds of some people’s lives are visible now only to them.
This chapter looks at the impact of this sometimes subtle and sometimes blatant war against culture. To prepare for reading, reflect on the meaning of the following terms: culture, dominant culture, “minority” culture, subculture, popular culture, and multicultural. These words may often be heard, but seldom do we consider the extent to which our lives are framed by the substance of those words.
Use the following quotes to discuss what culture is (beyond the dress, the food, the customs, and the traditions) and the way that culture deeply affects all of us. Begin to consider the issue of imposition of culture and the whole question of the ethics of a “dominant” culture in a hemisphere such as this one.
As you read this chapter, begin to analyze the way in which people’s cultures and lives can be radically different and whether they can ultimately integrate without doing injustice to some.
If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place. (Margaret Mead)
Until he [sic] has become fully human, until he learns to conduct himself as a member of the earth, he will continue to create gods who will destroy him. (Henry Miller)
North American civilization is one of the ugliest to have emerged in human history, and it has engulfed the world. Asphalt and exhaust fumes clog the villages….This great, though disastrous, culture can only change as we begin to stand off and see…the inveterate materialism which has become the model for cultures around the globe. (Arthur Charles Erickson)
Worldview: What is It? What is my Worldview?
Most people recognize different cultural practices, habits, customs, languages, art forms, food preparations, celebrations, dress styles, and physical appearance. What is more difficult to observe is cultural worldview which contains cultural values, the deeper expressions of culture. Worldview cannot be seen because it is held in mind and heart. Worldview is a framework through which we see the world and the perspective with which we interpret the world.
Our own cultural worldview is often partially hidden from our conscious awareness because our world perspective appears to us as “natural,” as a universal point of view. Thus different worldviews are seen as wrong, aberrant, exotic, cute, unscientific or the like. To be challenged by another worldview requires an ability to see our own worldview and to recognize different cultural perspectives. The key to examining cultural perspectives is history.
As an exercise before you read this chapter, consider your own beliefs and viewpoints regarding some of the concepts listed on the following page. To do this think about how you would define each area and how something you do is connected to that definition. For example, I might think of time as linear and an evidence of that is the calendars, date and appointment books that I keep as well as expressions I use (e.g., “That event is on down the line,” i.e., “in the future). I might also think of process and progress as moving forward in one direction and from one point in time. I might also think that we go forward in time progress is inevitable and that we are more advanced now than we were fifty, five hundred, or five thousand years ago.
After you consider your own beliefs and frameworks and begin to read the chapter, be alter to the voices, stories, poetry of the indigenous and African Americans. Fill in the chart here.
|
Concept |
Beliefs/ Frameworks |
Evidence/Behaviors that Indicate this Belief |
Implications/Extensions |
|
Time |
Linear and lateral |
Time logs/calendar |
Notions of progress and process |
|
Space |
|
|
|
|
Human nature |
|
|
|
|
Animals & Nature |
|
|
|
|
Dreams |
|
|
|
|
Land & the Earth |
|
|
|
|
Identity as Individual vs. Community |
|
|
|
|
Community Family/Clan |
|
|
|
|
Property/ Ownership |
|
|
|
|
Body/Spirit Duality vs. Wholeness |
|
|
|
|
Power—what constitutes power? |
Historical Research
Ghost Dance
Research a historical event, movement, or law that is of interest to you. Events that are referred to and/or highlighted in this chapter of the book include the following:
|
American Indian Movement |
Palmares |
|
Bureau of Indian Affairs |
Quilombos |
|
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico |
The Requerimiento |
|
Encomienda System |
Reform Law (Le Code Noir) |
|
Ghost Dances |
Sioux Nation |
|
Iroquois League |
Wounded Knee |
Consult at least two different sources. Once you have some the historical record, write the event as though you were writing fiction. Use present tense and describe the scene as though you and the reader are there. While sticking to the facts, be creative and imaginative. You can include dialogue, description of the scene, etc. Part of your research should include the dress, architecture, mannerisms of the period to give your story an authentic appeal.
How Could It Have Been Different: A Simulation Scene
Divide into two groups. Group one should be made up of seventy-five percent of the participants. This group represents white Europeans. The other twenty-five percent are indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere.
The year is 1650.
Each group should think about their goals and aspirations and values. The following is a list to consider:
|
White European Values and Goals |
Indigenous Values and Goals |
|
Survival |
Survival |
|
Gaining more land for agriculture |
Keeping lands for hunting |
|
Christianizing the Natives |
Accepting all religions |
|
Freedom to exercise religion |
Living in harmony with nature |
|
Gaining wealth and prosperity |
Sharing with community |
|
Trading with natives for furs and goods |
Trading with whites for cloth, guns and other machine-made items |
|
Making room for the Europeans still coming |
Sharing with others the goods of the land |
Both groups are deeply religious. The indigenous believe in the Great Spirit who has given them this land. They do not believe it can sold. The settlers are Puritans who believe that they were sent here by God to Christianize the heathen. They believe that they are to found a “city on a hill” that will be a “beacon to the world.” If they fail in this mission God will eternally punish them.
A disagreement between the two groups has arisen. The indigenous people are complaining that the Europeans are settling on their land. Those settlements are destroying and scaring away the wildlife that they indigenous depend on for their food. The whites, on the other hand, say they have to find new land in order to feed the extra people who have been coming, fleeing the persecution in Europe and looking for a new way of life.
A negotiation session has been arranged. Each group must decide what they want from the negotiations, who will represent them and how the session will be organized.
The leader can interject new developments as the negotiations continue such as:
After the role play, debrief both groups:
Advance Comments on Dangerous Memories How History is told I as important as whose history gets told. The authors of this volume have done us all an immense service by retelling the story of five hundred years of the evisceration of Caribbean and other people of color. And they have done so in a way that makes a people’s history come alive in its terrifying anguish, pain and brutality. The authors tell us that it’s a dangerous thing to remember. Because to remember the commonality of suffering is to become empowered. To remember the strange mixture of God, religion, and mass murder in the “discovery” of the “new world” is indeed a dangerous thing. For African Americans to remember that they share a common heritage of struggle – against the same enemy – with their Caribbean and Latin American brothers and sisters Is a dangerous thing. Dangerous to remember that at the same time that Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey were leading slave revolts in the U.S. South, Juan Santos Atahualpa was getting even with Spanish invaders in the South American Andes and the maroons of Jamaica and Brazil were resisting violence and death from the safe house communities they had built in the countryside. This book is not only a timely recall of facts largely left unsaid, it is an embrace if the righteousness of struggle, a celebration of a people’s will to resist. Bernard D. Headley, chair, Criminal Justice Department, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago This is a dangerous book: it imperils long-accepted fictions and half-truths about the “discovery” of the “new world.” It digs deep into our common past, Europeans and colored peoples,’ haves’ and have-nots,’ during the past five past centuries. It is bottom-up history challenging the trickle-down versions we have so long been spoon-fed. The work of Eduardo Galeano comes to mind; Dangerous Memories has the same revelatory excitement. A healthful antidote to the pabulum, we’re about to be fed during the Columbus Quincentennial – it is thrilling history. Studs Terkel, author, social commentator, political activist, radio interviewer … a brave piece of work which presents events with honesty, from the perspective of the ones who were invaded and slandered and repressed for centuries. I think that it is very important that names like Macaela Bastidas, the Queen Anacaona, and Lautaro should be taught as heroic resisters and not mentioned as mythological characters’ food for cartoons, or distorted in insignificant bites in text books. Our history, the history of the Native American continent, is a history of constant struggle, dignity, and love for life. It is time for us to stand up and denounce the lies about us and take in our hands the writing and telling of our own and real history. Carmen Aguilar, storyteller and teacher, Academy for Performing Arts, Chicago Dangerous Memories is at once a painful and inspiring social collage. Unlike the wooden, no-anger-here of so many textbooks, this book sings and cries with humanity. Its breadth of understanding and empathy is startling. Here is fine addition to the new literature of this quincentenary period – and an extraordinary resource for educators. Bill Bigelow, co-editor, Rethinking Columbus and teacher, Jefferson High School, Portland, Oregon I think this is the best resource guide that has become available for how to teach the quincentennial, for parents and teachers and other people of conscience. It is only by learning our true histories that we will be able to situate ourselves in the world today, and only when we have learned where we have been as a people that we can begin moving forward in less destructive ways. Jan Elliot, director, Committee for American Indian History and editor, Indigenous Thought A fascinating book: I really enjoyed reading it. It pulls together a history we don’t know. As we begin taking a look at event in history, we recognition of the part of the people in the formation of this society is usually absent. Dangerous Memories provides some ways to look at the people on whose backs this country was formed. The exercises are helpful because they translate into controlling our own behavior. Faith Smith, member of the Ojibway/ Chippewa Nation, president, Native American Educational Service
Works Cited in Chapter Three
Allen, Paula Gunn, The Sacred Hoop. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986.
___. Ed. Spider Woman’s Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989.
Anglesey, Zoe, ed. Ixok Amargo. Penobscott, Maine: Granite Press, 1987.
Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderland/ La Frontera. San Francisco: Spinsters/ Aunt Lute, 1987.
Barreiro, Jose. “A Note on Tainos: Whither Progress? View from the Shore: American Indian Perspectives on the Quincentenary. Northeast Indian Quarterly. 7:3 (Fall 1990) 66-77.
Bennett, Leone, Jr. Before the Mayflower. New York: Penguin Books, 1982.
Black, Irwin and Henry Rosen. The Conquest. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1961.
Campos, Pedro Albizu. Claridad. San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sept. 12, 1991.
Carew, Jan. Fulcrums of Change. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 1988.
Casaldaliga, Pedro. In Pursuit of the Kingdom. New York: Orbis Books, 1990.
Césaire, Aimé. Aimé Césaire. Collected Poetry. Berkeley: University of California, 1983.
Chu, Daniel and Bill Shaw, “About Faces,” People Magazine. July 22, 1991.
Collins, Sheila. “Are the Multiculturalists Politically Correct?” Paper delivered at Walden University, July 10, 1991.
The Council on Interracial Books for Children. Stereotypes, Distortions and Omissions. New York, 1977.
Crow Dog, Mary and Richard Erdoes. Lakota Woman. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991.
Delk, Yvonee V. “A Moment of Turning,” Sojourners, October 1991, 20.
Drake, Samuel. Biography and History of the Indian of North America. Boston, 1851.
Esquivel, Julia. You Can’t Drown the Fire. Edited by Alicia Partnoy. Pittsburg: Cleis Press, 1988.
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 1963.
Galeano, Eduardo. Memory of Fire. Vol 1, Genesis. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985.
Genovese, Eugene. From Rebellion to Revolution. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.
Gonzales, Rodolfo. I Am Joaquin. New York: Bantam Pathfinder, 1972.
Green, Rayna, ed. That’s What She Said: Contemporary Poetry and Fiction by Native American Women. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1984.
“Have You Seen ‘La Nueva Mujer Revolucionaria Puertorriqueña?” Que Ondee Sola. Northeastern University student newspaper. March 1981.
Hogan, Linda, ed. Seeing Through the Sun, Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1985.
Jojola, Ted. “American Indian Stereotypes,” View from the Shore: American Indian Perspectives on the Quincentenary. Northeast Indian Quarterly 7:3 (Fall 1990) 26-28
LaDuke, Winona. “We Are All Still Here,” Sojourners, October 1991, 14.
Lame Deer, John and Richard Erdoes. “Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions,” American Indian Literature: An Anthropology. Edited by Alan R. Velie. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988.
Matthiessen, Peter. In The Spirit of Crazy Horse. New York: Viking, 193.
McLuhan, T.C., comp. Touch the Earth. New York: Touchstone Books, 1971.
Memmi, Albert. The Colonizer and the Colonized. Boston: Beacon Press, 1965.
Mohawk, John. “Discovering Columbus: The Way Here,” View from the Shore: American Indian Perspectives on the Quincentenary. Northeast Indian Quarterly 7:3 (Fall 1990): 37-46
__. “Toward a Reverence for Nature.” Unpublished paper, 1991.
Murguia, Alejandro and Barbara Paschke. Volcán. San Francisco: City Lights, 1983.
Prucha, Francis Paul, ed. Documents of United States Indian Policy. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.
Shange, Ntozake. A Daughter’s Geography. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983.
Simonson, Rick and Scott Walker, eds. Multicultural Literacy. St. Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 1988.
Three Rivers, Amoja. “Cultural Etiquette: A Guide,” Ms., October 1991, 42.
Vanderwerth, W.C., ed. Indian Oratory. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.
Venables, Robert W. “Commentary: The Cost of Columbus,” View from the Shore: American Indian Perspectives on the Quincentenary. Northeast Indian Quarterly 7:3 (Fall 190) 26-36
Wallis, Jim. “Rediscovering America,” Sojourners, October 1991, 5.
Weatherford, Jack. Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World. New York: Fawcett
Works Cited in Chapter Two
Aptheker, Herbert, ed. Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States. Vol. 1. New York: Citadel Press, 1951.
Armstrong, Robert and Janet Shenk. El Salvador: The Face of Revolution. Boston: South End Press, 1982.
Bennett, Lerone, Jr. Before the Mayflower. New York: Penguin Books, 1984.
Black, George. Triumph of the People. London: Zed Books, 1981.
Brenner, Anita and George Leighton. The Wind that Swept Mexico. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971.
Brockman, James R. Romero: A Life. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1989
Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. London: Picador, Pan Books, 1970
Cabezas, Omar. Fire from the Mountains. New York: New American Library, 1985.
Campbell, Mavis C. The Maroons of Jamaica 1655-1796. Trenton, N.J.: African World Press, Inc., 1990
Carson, Clayborne. In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981
Cheek, William F. Black Resistance before the Civil War. Beverly Hills, Cal.: Glencoe Press, 1970.
Cherokee Heritage. Compiled by Duane H. King. Cherokee, N.C.: Cherokee Communications, 1988.
Cherokee Legends and the Trail of Tears. Adapted by Thomas Bryan Underwood, courtesy of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. Cherokee Publications, 1989.
Clarke, John Henrik. Malcolm X: The Man and His Times. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, Inc.,1990.
The Council on Interracial Books for Children. Chronicles of American Indian Protest. New York, 1979.
___. Stereotypes, Distortions and Omissions. New York, 1977.
de Ulloa, Don Jorge Juan and Don Antonio de Ulloa. Kingdoms of Peru. Edited with an introduction by John J. TePaske. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978.
Fouchard, Jean. The Haitian Maroons: Liberty or Death. New York: Edward W. Blyden Press, 1981.
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Galeano, Eduardo. Memory of Fire: Genesis, Faces and Masks. New York: Pantheon Books, 1985.
Genovese, Eugene. From Rebellion to Revolution. New York: Vintage Books, 1981.
Glick, Brian. War at Home: Covert Action Against U.S. Activists and What We Do About It. Boston: South End Press, 1985.
Godoy, Scarlett O’Phelan. Rebellious and Revolts in Eighteenth Century Peru and Upper Peru. Koln, Germany: Bohlau Verlag, 1985.
Gomez, Ermilio Abreu. Canek. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.
Goodpasture, H. Mckennie. The Cross and the Sword. Maryknoll, New York. Orbis Books, 1989.
Grupo de Investigaciones Agrarias. Historia del Movimiento Campesino. Chile: Academia de Humanismoristiano, 1983.
Hahner, June E., ed. Women in Latin American History. Los Angeles: University of California, 1980.
Handy, Jim. Gift of the Devil. Boston: South End Press, 1984.
Harding, Vincent. The Other Amercan Revolution. Los Angeles: Center for Afro-American Studies and Institute of the Black World, 1980.
___. There Is a River. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1981.
Hecht, Susanna and Alexander Cockburn. The Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers and Defenders of the Amazon. New York: Harper & Row, 1990.
Hollyday, Joyce, ed. Crucible of Hope. Washington, D.C.: Sojourners, 1984.
Jacobs, Paul and Saul Landau. To Serve the Devil. Vol. 1. New York: Vintage Books, 1971.
James, C.L.R The Black Jacobins. New York: Vintage Books, 1989.
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Kleinbaum, Abby Wettan. The Ward Against the Amazons. New York: New Press, McGraw-Hill, 1983.
Lerner, Gerda. Black Women in White America: A Documentary History. New York: Vintage Books, 1972.
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__. SNCC: The New Abolitionists. Boston: Beacon Press, 1965.
The First Crusade, 1096-1099
Post-reading Strategies
Write a portrait of Columbus from your study of history, from pictures and movies you have seen. Describe him and his compatriots as you recall them. Write what you think were his intentions in sailing west from Europe.
After doing either or both of the above tasks, identify and discuss the source of your memories and viewpoints. Where did you get these ideas? How accurate do you think your images are?
The End of the World: Questions for Discussion
Getting Inside the Minds of the Colonizers: Cartooning
Draw a cartoon which presents in “imagination bubbles” the mindsets of the merchant and ruling classes of Europe which prepared them for a “conquest” over the people they were about to encounter across the Atlantic. Draw a contrasting cartoon which sho9ws the mind-sets of other groups of people who also sailed the Atlantic and Pacific, landed on the coasts of the Americas, and did not proceed to conquer its inhabitants.
The First to Land or the First to Conquer?: A Role-Play
(Refer to the requerimento information in the chapter and the section on European views of the natural world.)
Divide into three groups. The first group represents a part of the world with the following characteristics:
The second group represents another part of the world, which has:
The third group represents the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean.
The first two groups take turns “landing” in the Americas, pretending to be sailors from the vessels which have sailed long distances and are now meeting natives for the first time.
Charting Key Connections
Several “isms” are mentioned in this chapter as influential ideas and movements at the time of Columbus. On a large piece of paper write these terms, spacing them all over the page. In a discussion group draw lines which connect terms and discuss any connections you can make between those “isms.” Write notes on each “connecting” line which summarize your thoughts on how these terms are connected.
|
Inquisition |
Nationalism |
Rationalism |
Catholicism |
Humanism |
|
Capitalism |
Feudalism |
Materialism |
Judaism |
Islam |
|
Militarism |
Impact of the “isms”
Sketch a map of Europe and one of the Western Hemisphere. Fill in the “isms’ listed above on the European map and draw lines to the Western Hemisphere showing transference of these notions beginning with the arrival of Columbus and the subsequent Spanish conquest. Again write notes on each “connecting” line which summarize your thoughts on how these ideas were key factors in the conquest of the indigenous people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Expansionism and Militarism
Study the maps below and discuss the questions presented here:
Explain why Portugal’s position was better suited for Atlantic conquest and why Columbus’s journey would be perceived by the world as one of conquest and colonization rather than exploration.
Iberian Peninsula, 10th century
Iberian Peninsula at the time of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
The Western Hemisphere Before the Conquest
Civilizations for Centuries
Draw up a timeline from your memory which indicates how far back indigenous people lived on the continent now known as America. Show as much as you can remember of the different civilizations which existed throughout the centuries before Columbus. As you read the chapter, correct any misconceptions you may have had and add any new information you gain to your timeline.
The Power of the Word
The terms (below) have all been used in reference to the people who were on this continent when Columbus arrived and the space they inhibited. Discuss in writing or in a group what you know about the meaning of these terms, how they originated, and what they conveyed about the people who used them. Discuss in a group how such language was (and is) used to oppress people.
Terms:
Native Americans, First Americans, indigenous, Indians, primitive, civilized, uncivilized, savage, wilderness, the "wild"
Myriads of People
Brainstorm a list of as many groups of Native American peoples (nations) that you can. Don't consult any books to do this. Rely on your memory. Compare your list with a comprehensive list in an encyclopedia. Discuss how well you did and how limited our knowledge is of the people who inhabited this continent first. Why do we not know more about the people who lived here in the millions when Columbus landed?
Geographic Regions and Peoples
On a blank of American, label the regions identified in this section of Dangerous Memories and show what groups resided where at about the time Columbus arrived. You will need to obtain a list of names of the hundreds of groups and nations that existed and develop a wall-sized map in order to make the names readable. This is the best done as a group task. If you do this an individual, it would be best to choose one region to research and map only the groups in that regions (e.g., Meso-America or your own region of the United States).
Languages and Cultures’ That Far Outdistance the Conquerors
Linguists and anthropologists have shown that more than three thousand languages were once spoken in the Americas and about two thousand were in existence at the time the Europeans invaded the continent. On the map shown on the following page, Native American languages of North and Central America have been divided into families. Locate the “family” of languages which once was spoken in the area of the United States where you live. Research in an encyclopedia what specific languages belong to this family. Chart these languages on the language map shown here or a map shown here of a map of your own region.
Indigenous Identity and the Land
Read the following thoughts of the indigenous people about their relationship to the land. As you read
Paula Gunn Allen
A fundamental value that shapes Western European emphasis on the right to accumulate, and to ownership of property and people, is the right of the individual. Western law, for example, legalizes the individual rights of property owners. The U.S. Constitution gave states the power to determine who was allowed to vote. The states in turn enfranchised property owners and denied the vote to the nonpropertied, nonwhite, and nonmale -- Indians, blacks, women, and propertyless indentured servants. "The Supreme Court of the United States to this day says that the U.S. government is free to take away Indian land, to confiscate it, to extinguish aboriginal Indian title without due process of law, without any compensation and without any regard whatever for the Fifth Amendment" (Coulter, 62). Communal, not individual rights, formed the moral and public codes and laws which governed tribal life in the Americas and Africa. It is one's obligation to community, not oneself, which is binding. Indians, blacks, and Latinos discover their identity in and through community.
The hero of Western literature, on the other hand, discovers himself by separating from others, striking out for independence, and becoming his own man. In Western culture, independence, and thus maturity, is achieved in separation. Native writer Paula Gunn Allen says Native American literature focuses on themes of modern enslavement and colonization to reveal these ruptures of communal identity and meaning. "A theme that shows up frequently in Native writers' stories [is] about jail, boarding school, war and abduction. In all these stories the underlying theme is about forced separation, signifying the loss of self and the loss of personal meaning" (Gunn Allen, 8)
Slaves and maroons of the Caribbean and Latin and North America preserved the African tradition of mati, which emphasizes a ritual of kinship that implies a friendship based on deep bonds of solidarity. This practice, referring to the experience of having shared passage on the same slave ship, extended the sense of community care and responsibility for the people that slave culture embraced. As in Indians' culture, black identity is discovered through solidarity with one's people, not through Western hero's quest.
For Caribbean writer Jan Carew, identity was achieved by recovering his memories in Guyana village life which culturally location his connection to generations of ancestors.
Leaving Agricola, I soon began to realize that my village in the sun was an important spectrum through which, for the rest of my life, I would view the world. The more widely I travelled, the more forcibly it struck me that Agricola with all its mysteries – its deceptive façade of poverty, squalor, and apparent hopelessness – was, in fact a microcosm of the Third World. Growing up there, I made the acquaintance of secret sorrows and beheld the vision of hidden, stubborn hopes from my soul landscapes within. I needed to have true images of myself and a sense of identity clearer than the one I carried in my mind’s eye and ear. All the scattered pieces of my life in Agricola and the complex configuration of my ancestral links had to be shaped into a whole if I was going to live with myself… it is slowly dawned on me that I was the product of a bewildering array of races, colors, creeds, and cultures; that I carried in me the blood of masters and slaves, bondsmen and overseers, renegade’s castaways, and convicts.
~ Jan Carew, Fulcrums of Change, 119
Reclaiming culture requires recovery of the people’s lost voice and history. To remember is to discover the culture of ancestors and in the process discover oneself. Jamaican writer Michelle Cliff describes the process.
Jamaica is a place halfway between Africa and England, to put it simply, although one culture (guess which one) has been esteemed and the other denigrated… as a writer, as a human being, I have had to accept that reality and deal with its effect on me, as well as finding what has been lost to me from the darker side, and what may be hidden, to be dredged from memory and dream. And it is there to be dredged.
To write as a complete Caribbean woman, or man for that matter, demands of us a retracing of the African part of ourselves, reclaiming as our own, and as our subject, a history sunk under the sea, or scattered as potash in the canfields, or gone to bush, or trapped in a class system notable for its rigidity and absolute dependence on color stratification. On a past bleached from our minds. It means finding the art forms of these of our ancestors and speaking in the patois forbidden us.
~ Michelle Cliff, “A Journal into Speech”
Mayan tongue piercing
Incan, Mayan, and North American medicine healers have saved the world from major illnesses, too. At the time of the conquest, European medicine was more a practice of witchcraft than science. Native healers discovered the cure for malaria, amoebic dysentery, scurvy, and lockjaw. The Incans used a bark called quinaquina to cure malaria, a disease introduced by Europeans to the “new world.” The word “quinine” is derived from the Quechua word quinaquina.
The new medicine made extensive European settlement of America possible. For example, the 167 records of Governor Berkeley of Virginia show that before the introduction of quinine into Virginia one colonist of every five died within the first year from malaria. “After the incorporation of quinine no one died….But until the research of [Sir Ronald Ross], no one knew that the mosquito transmitted it into the human bloodstream. This discovery led to the Nobel Prize in medicine for Ross in 1902, three hundred years after the unknown Quechua Indians had given the cure for the disease to the world, a gift for which they received no recognition” (Weatherfod, 178).
The Huron Indians of North America were able to cure French sailors who were dying of scurvy. French Commander Jacques Cartier wrote in his log that the annedda bark administered by Indians accomplished in one week what “no amount of drugs from Africa or Europe could have done” (Weatherford, 183). A variety of North American tribes contributed witch hazel, wintergreen, blue cohosh, petroleum jelly, and numerous herbs to the stack of medicinal aids used by the early colonists. Aztec surgeons using obsidian scalpels performed brain surgery almost five hundred years ago.
What the Indian healers received for their healing gifts was an influx of European diseases so virulent that the Indians who lacked immunities for killer diseases such as smallpox, bubonic plague, tuberculosis, yellow fever, influenza, and malaria perished by the millions. Their helpless doctors, who’d been used to the practice of preventive medicine with an essentially healthy population, had to watch their people die off.
Aztec Surgeons
Indian surgeons sewed facial lacerations by using bone needles threaded with human hair. They set bones in plasters made of down feathers, gum, resin, and rubber. They gave enemas with rubber hoses, and they invented the bulbed syringe for use in a variety of medical treatments…European doctors quickly adopted both the rubber hose and syringe and continue to use them today.
Indian healers lanced boils and removed tumors by surgery. Surgeons amputated limbs, prescribed artificial legs, removed teeth and castrated men and animals...they mastered the application and use of tourniquets and cauterization.
Jack Weatherford, Indian Givers, 188
http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/index.php?one=azt&two=hea
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