June 1999
The Landed and the Native
Why Have the Twain Ne'er Met?
by Tamarack Song
On every continent, in nearly every corner, the resident Natives have met with a spectrum of fates in the face of their contact with oncoming peoples of a more (usually self-proclaimed) civilized nature. These fates have ranged from religious proselytizing to the proverbial worse than death. What are the dichotomies that would cause such abrasiveness, and why do they exist?
Before we begin that exploration let me specify that we will not be covering the excesses and atrocities that have arisen from the dichotomies, as I believe they are now being given better exposure than ever. And I trust that most of us already have a shared consciousness concerning them. Our purpose here is more an increased understanding of the underlying causes of the excesses.
In achieving that, we will have to dichotomize to some degree ourselves. Just as distinguishing red from blue would aid a discussion on the color of flowers, making distinctions between indigenous and colonial peoples will aid this discussion. I’ll be using the term "Native" in reference to indigenous peoples and "Civilized" in reference to landed agriculturists. Delineations between the two, in value and lifeway, are arbitrary and generalized, thus they may or may not fit some specific situations.
I began my personal exploration of Native lifeway because of dissatisfaction with my birth culture and an innate draw to things wild. As a child I had trouble motivating and fitting into the given school-sports menu, so I spent my free time in the fields and fencerows doing "Indian" things. After college I shifted into high gear; from isolated Greek islands and Tierra del Fuego to Australia and remote reservations on this continent, I sought out traditional people who could teach me their ways. I took courses in anthropology and Native skills and assembled a personal reference library.
Yet, in spite of my dedication, in spite of the great opportunities for learning, I could not grasp the values and concepts underlying Native lifeway. Frequently confused and frustrated, I gradually came to realize that I just did not have a basis for comparing my lifeway with others. My cultural and academic training prepared me to compare similar entities — you know, apples and apples — but I wasn’t finding that.
For example, our cultural mythology holds that it is great to be skilled at this, expert at that, but Natives are not specialization oriented. They function in a broader lifeway context, which requires a range of integrated skills — what we might term generalist or jack of all trades. Further, because of the role of technology in our culture, we place a high value on technological achievement; whereas Native cultures, not being materially oriented, tend to have more qualitatively-based values.
It was as if I had set out to do a comparative study of the mobility of various species and had decided to focus on feet. You can imagine how confused I might get when I couldn’t locate feet under a fish or snake, yet observed that they got around quite well anyway.
I took my dilemma to the gurus in the fields of anthropology and archaeology and got nothing but intellectual constructs. They fit well with my rational-superior headset, but they did not rest well with my soul. I concluded that nothing short of a spiritual awakening would give me the breakthrough I needed.
Born of frustration, it came; summed in one word: humility. Accepting that I was a fool, that all life was just as intelligent, valued, and sacred as mine, opened my doors of perception. I could now view Native people for whom they were rather than as they compared to me.
Shortly thereafter I met a Native American elder who described Native lifeway in two words — "sharing" and "kindness." Thanks to my new awareness, I could look into the folds and reflections of those words and gain an inside view of that lifeway.
The same day, another elder was speaking of the concerns she had for her grandchildren being exposed to the dominant culture. In elaborating on her fears, she gave me a succinct definition of civilization — individualism, (the accumulation of) possessions, and commercialism.
This dichotomy of values leaves little wonder as to why Civilized peoples’ first reactions to Native peoples often were — and sometimes yet are — revulsion and sub-human classification. The Civilized see them as crazy savages, fighting against all odds in a war they cannot win. The most spiritual often appear to be the most warlike. The colonizers cannot grasp that the Natives are defending what they see as their clear right to follow Spirit. They are fighting for the very life and health of their Mother Earth. They see it as better to die in Her defense than for them, and their generations to follow, to live a life of subjugation and encagement. Such a life would mean being forced not only to witness, but also take an active part in, the slow poisoning and dismemberment of their sacred Mother-Source. In the end they know they’ll find pride in losing, while the conquerors will find shame in winning.
| Civilization and the Native Way: A Raw Comparison | |
| Civilized | Native |
| Change the world to suit yourself | Adapt yourself to the world as it is |
| Dwell in the errors of the past and hope for the future | Bask in the fullness of the moment |
| Draw things toward yourself | Become of everything about you |
| Talk a lot | Listen and learn |
| Admire others for what they are | Admire others for who they are |
| Grovel and beg as you pray | Sing prayers of praise, thanksgiving, and wonderment |
| Meet death from your bed | Greet the New Cycle upright, if possible |
Civilized people are still conquering Native people, though with the complexity of the contemporary world political-economic structure, perhaps not as conspicuously as in the past. With the consumption of every fast-food burger goes a chunk of South American Rainforest the size of a garage (the Rainforest is one of the last holdouts of Native people). The purchase of every Japanese product pushes the Ainu — the indigenous (and Caucasian) Native Japanese people — closer to the sea on the last, northernmost island they yet inhabit.
The Civilized are prone to defining their morality narrowly, which helps justify their ways. For instance, the American colonists found it hard to reconcile the fact that the Hopi, whom they viewed as a peaceful, agricultural and very spiritual people, commonly had extramarital relations; while the Apache, whom they regarded as heartless plunderers, were morally conservative and quite strict concerning mated fidelity. Even something as seemingly innocuous as dance was intolerable to them; they could not accept it as something more than just social entertainment. (Native peoples, for whom dance is a central spiritual, psychological, and cultural expression, were equally astonished to learn that Civilized dance was just social.)
Work, as a concept, is known only to Civilized people. It was born of the necessity to support the individualism and the material opulence intrinsic to their lifeway. Where Natives avoid unnecessary duplication by sharing tools and other resources, Civilized people strive to individually possess whatever they use. They lead a catch-22 existence — they buy houses and cars so they can get jobs, then they have to keep their jobs so they can support their houses and cars. Their houses bulge with specialized rooms that are little used, while the lodges of Natives are small and open, designed for multiple usage of space.
Civilization is based on human-made things that keep breaking down; the Native way is based on natural things which keep growing, renewing. Civilized people become enslaved to their possessions, ever working to maintain them, while Native people are as free and unencumbered as the natural things that provide their needs.
The material comparisons go on, but this will suffice to illustrate that Civilized people are working largely for things they don’t use. They are committed to payments, taxes, insurance, maintenance, utility bills and so on, no matter if or how much their material goods are used.
Their "labor saving" devices actually save them little; the time saved is consumed by working elsewhere to pay for the tool, its fuel, maintenance, and the costs of storage. Some appliances, such as the washing machine, are not time-savers for an additional reason — their advent enabled more consumption. Now people have more clothes, and change and wash them more often, spending just as much time on laundry as they did before they had this machine.
Seven Habits of Highly Indigenous People (Well, maybe a few more than that...)
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Native people require an average of only two hours a day to provide their needs and desires, no matter whether the environment is lush tropic or sparse desert or tundra. Their rich cultures, strong families, and lavish handiworks attest to their bountiful spare time. Their labor applies directly to their needs, as opposed to the more abstract Civilized concept of "going to work" to provide needs indirectly. Thus Natives transfer energy efficiently by direct involvement in what they need, whereas Civilized people, through a complex and non-personally involved process, expend much more time and energy to meet the same need. For instance, when Native people desire fruit, they go and pick it, whereas Civilized people will buy land and go through the process of raising the fruit before picking it or "go to work" to pay someone else to raise, package, store, and transport it for them.
Those who have lived both ways talk of the Native way being richer and more fulfilling, even considering everyday affairs. I first felt this difference when I was invited to share a meal with a Native family. The food had a life and a spirit that was given to it by their hands as they hunted, gardened, foraged, stored, prepared, and served it. This was reflected in the Blessing of the food; the way it was presented, eaten, and enjoyed; and in the way it was valued and respected, without a bite being wasted. What a blessed experience when compared to my store-bought meals!
Little seems sacred in Civilized societies. Systems-oriented, the Civilized look to structure for answers. The once-sacred becomes lowered to the Civilized society’s secular norm. Drugs, alcohol, and sex become objects of pleasure, rather than parts of sacred rituals.
Civilized people are ego-sensitive; recounting their adventures and successes often comes across as self-aggrandizing and ego-threatening to their peers. But in cultures where the warrior and the healer and the seeker still exist, stories of their journeys and triumphs are regularly told and eagerly awaited. Beyond entertainment, these recountings serve as teacherings and examples to inspire and emulate. Perhaps because Native people have more opportunity for self-fulfillment than their Civilized counterparts, they are less threatened and more inspired by the successes of others.
My impression is that the unspoken Civilized objective is to fashion an Earth (and beyond?) that is under total human control. What Native people see as their natural realm, Civilized people see as uncontrolled, wild. Their neighbors are no longer the animal and plant people, but other humans, and their isolation from it isolates them from both its care and from its wisdom. An example: With many animals, staring into another’s eyes is a sign of dominance or aggression. Eye contact is also a giveaway to a stalked animal, and it puts the stalker out of contact with whatever else might be going on. For these reasons Natives consider it foolish and disrespectful to stare into the eyes of another (particularly an elder). No longer knowing the animals from which to gather these lessons, Civilized people suffer interactions plagued with the friction of their eyes and the imbalance of their perception.
Civilized peoples’ care for the Mother-Source of their goods is not sensitive to Her needs because they do not know Her needs. For example, when logging for their lumber and paper, they don’t know to let some of the big, hollow trees stand; as a result, one-quarter of our bird kin (and many other animals) are left homeless.
One reason for the "success" of the Civilized way is its willingness to adopt the ways of other cultures. This approach has created functional cultures but without the ancestral roots and spiritual bases of the cultures from which they borrow. For example, yoga and Transcendental Meditation are fragments of a Hindu life approach, though they reflect of Hindu lifeways only dimly. So far, however, this flexibility has not resulted in increased cultural breadth as much as exploitation: the claim that this or that native practice, taken completely out of context, can "reduce stress, increase productivity, lose weight, be a better [your goal here]."
Where We Diverged
In general, a Civilized person directs and controls the seed, that it bear fruit in agriculture and even in commerce. The values that led to agriculture lead also to permanent settlements and the concept of land ownership. As the earth became "property," it was despiritualized, and a despirited land allowed for exploitation, including the concentration of wealth and power, predatory trade and warfare, and the enslavement of humans, animals, plants, water, and minerals.
On the other hand, a Native person allows the seed its natural life and merely comes by to gather a portion of the fruit. This foraging economy, which is dependent upon a respectful relationship with Earth, can give no root or nourishment to the above-mentioned Civilized traits. Nor can it support extreme cultural, economic, and political stratification. Instead, its small interactive groups, which share in spirit, strife and pleasure, encourage a more personally involved, less bounded lifeway.
Native village soil-tillers became the transitional step between the Native way and Civilization. It is here that we first see powerful leaders, class systems, and wealthy individuals among Native populations. It is also here where interest, rent, currency, and animal and human sacrifice make their entrance into indigenous cultures.
In our healing of self and Earth we might be wise to look back—and adopt some of the beauties and wisdoms of Native foraging cultures. Having lived in honor and balance for countless generations, they may hold the key to real wealth, and perhaps to survival itself.
Tamarack Song is a Native-approach counselor, wilderness skills teacher and rites of passage guide. He can be reached at 715-546-2944 or tdrums2@newnorth.net. Or visit his web page.
Resources
Morris Berman, Coming to Our Senses: The Reenchantment of the World
Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree
Robin Clarke and Geoffrey Hindley, The Challenge of the Primitives
Frederick Gearing, The Face of the Fox
Robert Holdstock, The Emerald Forest (also available as a video movie)
Theodora Kroeber, Ishi in Two Worlds
Ursula K. LeGuin, The Word for the World is Forest (also available on voice cassette)
Jerry Mander, In the Absence of the Sacred
James Vance Marshall, Walkabout (also available as a video movie)
Tamarack Song, Journey to the Ancestral Self (also available on voice cassette)
Jack Weatherford, Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World
The Gods Must Be Crazy (video)
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