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2700:2022:13 [2022/05/22 21:17] – [Roots and branches] Ryan Schram (admin)2700:2022:13 [2022/05/23 17:50] (current) – [Universal humanity and the colonization of consciousness] Ryan Schram (admin)
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   * Life itself has no single, simple definition. The working assumption is that all living things are related through a single evolutionary origin.   * Life itself has no single, simple definition. The working assumption is that all living things are related through a single evolutionary origin.
-  * To identify something as a living thing is essentially to say that it has a common ancestry with other living things, and thus has something in common with them, even though we may not know precisely what “it” is. +    * To identify something as a living thing is essentially to say that it has a common ancestry with other living things, and thus has something in common with them, even though we may not know precisely what “it” is. 
-  * What if there was another origin of life on Earth, and a completely separate evolutionary tree branched out from that point. +  * What if there was another origin of life on Earth, and a completely separate evolutionary tree branched out from that point? 
-  * These living things would appear to be nonliving to us, because they don’t have any common ancestors with us.+    * These living things would appear to be nonliving to us, because they don’t have any common ancestors with us.
  
 Anthropology, the study of cultural diversity in humanity, is today asking the same thing. Anthropology, the study of cultural diversity in humanity, is today asking the same thing.
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 The concept of culture in anthropology originates in the development of a single, universal concept of human. The concept of culture in anthropology originates in the development of a single, universal concept of human.
  
-  * Bartolome de las Casas, a Spanish missionary in Mexico in the 17th century, argued against the colonial system of conquest, violent pacification, and slavery of indigenous societies of the New World.+  * Bartolome de las Casas, a Spanish missionary in Mexico in the 16th century, argued against the colonial system of conquest, violent pacification, and slavery of indigenous societies of the New World.
     * His argument for people’s natural sovereignty was based on the fact that indigenous people were human, and thus fundamentally the same as Europeans. They had the same intelligence and capacity for reason, and thus their social forms were fundamentally the same in spite of differences of appearance (Losada 1971, 285–86).     * His argument for people’s natural sovereignty was based on the fact that indigenous people were human, and thus fundamentally the same as Europeans. They had the same intelligence and capacity for reason, and thus their social forms were fundamentally the same in spite of differences of appearance (Losada 1971, 285–86).
     * The fundamental sameness of New World Indians and Europeans meant that Europeans should educate Indians to become literate so that they would convert to Christianity.     * The fundamental sameness of New World Indians and Europeans meant that Europeans should educate Indians to become literate so that they would convert to Christianity.
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   * Auhelawa people have always seen themselves as //tomowa//, a type of being that exists alongside other beings seen and unseen. Today //tomowa// is a narrower category because people limit its meaning to the same as the English word //human//.   * Auhelawa people have always seen themselves as //tomowa//, a type of being that exists alongside other beings seen and unseen. Today //tomowa// is a narrower category because people limit its meaning to the same as the English word //human//.
     * Being tomowa is defined in opposition to nature, rather than coexistence with many different beings.     * Being tomowa is defined in opposition to nature, rather than coexistence with many different beings.
-    * People take for granted that //papuwa// (Papuans) and //dimdim// (white people) are both //tomowa// because //papuwa// and //dimdim// are God’s children. By contrast, spirits and dwarfs are beliefs have about the world, not facts.+    * People take for granted that //papuwa// (Papuans) and //dimdim// (white people) are both //tomowa// because //papuwa// and //dimdim// are God’s children. By contrast, spirits and dwarfs are beliefs people have about the world, not facts.
  
 A universal humanity is a basis for human equality: All people are equal because they are fundamentally the same. A universal humanity is a basis for human equality: All people are equal because they are fundamentally the same.
  
-Yet this universalism also creates inequality of another kind: Alternative conceptions of oneself as a person don’t have the same credibility and authority as the dominant conception of the human subject as an individual.+Yet this universalism also creates inequality of another kind: Alternative conceptions of oneself as a person don’t have the same credibility and authority as the dominant conception of the human subject as an individual. As Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o says in a recent profile in //The Atlantic// (Gibson 2022):  
 + 
 +**“The problem with language is hierarchy,” Ngũgĩ said. “It must have come with the conception of the modern state: ‘One language, one language!’ But it is hierarchy. It’s the oppression of many languages in favor of the one. In order for one language to be, others must die. It’s so backward and unproductive.”** 
  
 Should anthropology instead be based on multiple humanities? Should anthropology instead be based on multiple humanities?
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 Historical anthropology is not interested in origins. It does assume the same kind of hierarchy of causes. Historical anthropology is not interested in origins. It does assume the same kind of hierarchy of causes.
  
-Humans as *homo faber* > Material struggles > Social hierarchies > Cultural ideas+Humans as *homo faber* \> Material struggles > Social hierarchies > Cultural ideas
  
 ===== Secret agents ===== ===== Secret agents =====
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   * Wearing sackcloth and ashes is either   * Wearing sackcloth and ashes is either
-    * an act of protest, or+    * an act of sorrow, or
     * an act of an insane person, that is, someone who cannot be responsible for action.     * an act of an insane person, that is, someone who cannot be responsible for action.
  
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 ———. 1986. //Essays on Individualism: Modern Ideology in Anthropological Perspective//. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ———. 1986. //Essays on Individualism: Modern Ideology in Anthropological Perspective//. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
 +
 +
 +Gibson, D. W. 2022. “Ngũgĩ in America.” //The Atlantic//, May 20, 2022. https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/05/ngugi-wa-thiongo-kenyan-writer-irvine/629923/.
  
  
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-Losada, Ángel. 1971. “The controversy between Sepúlveda and Las Casas in junta of Valladolid.” In //Bartolomé de las Casas in history: Toward an understanding of the man and his work//, edited by Juan Friede and Benjamin Keen, 279–307. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. http://archive.org/details/bartolomedelasca001566.+Losada, Ángel. 1971. “The controversy between Sepúlveda and Las Casas in the junta of Valladolid.” In //Bartolomé de las Casas in history: Toward an understanding of the man and his work//, edited by Juan Friede and Benjamin Keen, 279–307. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. http://archive.org/details/bartolomedelasca001566.
  
  
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-Sussman, Robert Wald. 2014. //The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea//. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674736160.+Sussman, Robert Wald. 2014. //The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea//. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674736160.
  
  
2700/2022/13.1653279446.txt.gz · Last modified: 2022/05/22 21:17 by Ryan Schram (admin)