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What is "primitive"? Is it subjective? Is it colonialism? Often a technology that works & fits a social or economic need is branded by outside cultures as primitive, backward, archaic, etc. If it has suited a need for 1000s of years, why change? Is there a cost-ratio benefit...1/
to adapting to a new foreign technology? Does purchasing a new plow, for instance, make sense it it cost 3 years to pay for it. How much labor does it save? What drawbacks? Ask our indigenous peoples the drawbacks of wagons & plows they were given or bought. 2/
Holmes (1932 Vol. 8) showed a 1900 photo of Cuban farmers with a board plow with tree pole pulled by 2 oxen. Not the yoke board is tied behind the horns. /3
Almost identical plows at Cochiti Pueblo were called primitive by visiting New Yorker Carl Eickemeyer & wife (1895:99): Wagons, plows, firearms, etc. often were freely given to natives by the government/traders, but when they broke down, who would fix them? 4/
Debo documents some of the problems, as the Creek people were given these items by the government to make a new start, but promised blacksmiths for 5 years + training a tribal member, more often than not, never came to pass. In some cases it was graft by the Indian Agents or 5/
local military leaders, either for profit or for suppression. A colonialism trick, get a people to agree to move by promising them help & tools, then once they're relocated, renege on the deal. This happened to most tribes in one way or another. 6/
Some tribes did try to bypass ineffectual complaints with local agents/military & petitioned Washington directly. Sometimes this led to a renegotiating of a treaty, many times with less than agreeable results. Often the direct result of not getting the promised government help 7/
was showcased as reason to not give them further assistance. If I remember correctly, one agent/commander noted that they had given the Creek plows & cattle, but the cattle were slaughtered for food. Yes, because they were moved in the winter & the promised seeds to plant 8/
either never arrived or were too few to help. They had to eat the cattle to survive in an unfamiliar land. Again, colonial suppression at work. I think some Creek leader once said along the line of "If the government had honored their promises, we would be a great nation today".9
Primitive.
"In a land of plenty, we have nothing" is another statement.
Primitive is a subjective term that has been used to diminish peoples worldwide. They don't have what we have, thus they are primitive. Doesn't matter if they need it, in only matters that they lack it. /10
"In a land of plenty, we have nothing" is another statement.
Primitive is a subjective term that has been used to diminish peoples worldwide. They don't have what we have, thus they are primitive. Doesn't matter if they need it, in only matters that they lack it. /10
Self-justification to intrude...to take over...to conquer...to make irrelevant. The colonial mindset. It still occurs today. 11/
Sorry. It's one of those afternoons. Reflections. We can do better.
Sorry. It's one of those afternoons. Reflections. We can do better.
