I was there when the white tourists first began to come, and we danced, and sang in our native language. I was there when this propaganda campaign came in. Our very soul redirected for their purposes. It was the final rape and distortion of Native American history. This idea of a pacific culture in harmony with nature was an invention of 1960s advertising when our government began the campaign to respect the environment. Our agriculture was slash, burn, and move agriculture. It is true that there was a wide diversity of culture, but there is not one single documentation case of a pacific Native American culture on this continent. I was raised on the reservation, went to collage at an institution on the reservation, and I am of Comanche descent. Other world-views can be and often are valid, and worthy of respect, even when they're not compatible with our own, but there needs to be room for us to reject the validity of those that are dangerous and destructive. My real problem, however, is with the moral relativity you end your post with: when I'm teaching history, I want to be able to tell my students that ideologies/world-views which dehumanize 'the other' and therefore make slavery, subjugation and genocide possible are a) actual but invalid world-views and b) evil. This is why much of the most interesting scholarship of the '90s and 00's was done by contextual scholars who identified their subjectivity and gave their readers the contexts to make their own evaluations of the interpretations being presented. Attempts to find an 'objective' position for analyzing history, philosophy, theology and ethics are usually recognized after the fact to have been undermined by the baggage the scholar has brought with them, whether cultural or personal. But it was impossible: ultimately it's simply an attempt to bury, not eliminate your own subjective context. The search for objectivity was the 20th century historian's passion, the attempt to find an absolute truth. What you're describing isn't objectivity, it's contextualization. Instructions and advice on how to best do an AMA. ![]() Want to do an AMA or know someone who does? Message the mods! Comments should be on-topic and contribute.ĭiscussions are limited to events over 20 years ago.If a post breaks one of our rules or guidelines you will be informed about it. So it is perfectly normally for your post to not show up in the new listing. Feel free to submit interesting articles, tell us about this cool book you just read, or start a discussion about who everyone's favorite figure of minor French nobility is!Īll posts will be reviewed by a human moderator first before they become visible to all subscribers on the subreddit. r/History is a place for discussions about history. Join the r/history Discord server to chat with other history enthusiast!
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