Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id HAA21843 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 2 May 2002 07:02:21 +0100 X-Originating-IP: [67.248.5.181] From: "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Saving the ethnosphere Date: Wed, 01 May 2002 22:56:32 -0700 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <LAW2-F58FHAOz3WeLcK00008e0e@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 02 May 2002 05:56:32.0898 (UTC) FILETIME=[1C896E20:01C1F19E] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>From: William Benzon <bbenzon@mindspring.com>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
>Subject: Re: Saving the ethnosphere
>Date: Wed, 01 May 2002 12:40:13 -0400
>
>on 5/1/02 5:03 AM, Trupeljak Ozren at ozren_trupeljak@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>
>[snip]
>
> >>
> >
> > Exactly. They are Americans now, instead of being a Chickasaws. A
> > complete culture has been lost, and replaced with another. If this was
> > the only case in the U.S., no big problem. But this happened to a few
> > hundred other Native cultures in U.S., and from a certain point of view
> > it is actually quite terrible.
> >
>
>
>Yes. Now, the ugliest part of the story of the destruction of American
>Indian societies is well in the past. It happened, there's nothing we can
>do about it. And I'm certainly not interested in rehashing those events.
>
>But, the article that started this conversation is about what is happening
>now to hundreds or thousands of societies and cultures. And some
>significant number of those cases -- I really don't know how many --
>involve
>coercion (economic, political) and violence. What I find disturbing about
>this conversation is people's willingness to think of this as an impersonal
>and natural process that has little impact on people's lives.
>
>
>--
>
>William L. Benzon, Ph. D.
>708 Jersey Avenue, Apt. 2A
>Jersey City, NJ 07302
>201 217-1010
>
>
In my opinion, it IS a natural process -- the very one that produced the
English language and drove Anglo-Saxon and other languages out of Britain.
And it does affect the lives of large numbers of people. People fight and
die to pereserve their culture and often lose. It's been going on as long
has there have been people. The reason we use the Roman alphabet and
Russians use the Greek alphabet was this very process. It's the essence of
cultural evolution and a valuable clue to how it works.
Grant
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