This essay explores both the positive and the negative attitudes of the colonizing Society and the indigenous people towards the issues of race, their personal values and the role that Ms. Carr plays in challenging the colonizing Society as people who have wrong perceptions of the indigenous people. The essay first explores the positive
Santos explains that the environmental issues “date back to the nineteenth century, when trappers, fishermen, and naturalists campaigned against the unrestrained exploitation of American’s pristine environmentals,” (Santos, 1999). Can we really give a date that this became a problem? All we know is that it has been an issue for many years. Most Americans do not realize that pollutants can harm our senses like sight, smell, and even taste. It can also cause health hazards.
America’s History is Wrong The author of the book introduction titled Indian/White Relations: A View from the Other Side of the “Frontier,” Alfonso Ortiz, makes the reader scrutinize and think about how historians have recorded and retold America’s early history. The history familiar to most Americans is biased because it is in accordance with white settlers’ viewpoint only. The Native Americans viewed the white settlement differently than we recorded. The Americas were no “frontier” for exploration. The land was the home of the natives; it was explored and well known.
What is ethnocentrism? It’s a way of looking at other cultures as if it is less than your own culture, For example when Columba’s came to discover the America’s he ran into the American Indians treating them as if they were second to them because the culture was different. They tried to change the Indians and indoctrinate them into their ways of living rather than the ways the Indians were used to of course that backfired causing a lot of unnecessary death. A. In what ways can ethnocentrism be detrimental to a society?
In 1607 British first landed on Jamestown, modern day Virginia. They had hoped to receive a good treatment and acceptance from the natives however they faced the disease and starvation in the colony which made it difficult for the colonists to settle. It was trade with Indians, good leadership and Indians teaching how to grow crops enabled the colonist to subsist. A very profitable trade was developed between the Indians and British. Later the indians suspected the colonists wanted to rule them and control the colony.
This essay will be discussing the way I felt Native Americans were being portrayed in the works of Ben Franklin and John Smith. As well as if the authors were treating them in a favorable or negative light. During the times of early exploration Europeans known as white settlers came to the new world and met the Native Americans for the first time. At first, some of the settlers not knowing what kind of people they were took them as dumb and primitive and not looking favorably on them. When the Indians entered the white people’s towns, they found it to be disrespectful.
“Savages”: An Unmerited Misnomer During the colonist era, Indians were prejudiced, treated unjustly and discriminated. They were called savages because their customs differed from those of the Europeans, when at times they proved to be exactly the opposite. Indians were patient, understanding, and very civil, sometimes showing more courtesy than the Europeans themselves. However, because their culture and beliefs diverged from European customs, Indians were labeled as a lesser race and treated unfairly. In his essay, “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America”, Benjamin Franklin defends the idea of Indian civility in a very persuasive manner with the use of several rhetorical strategies.
Social problems like these are treated in such a way that they leave viewers with the impression that they are caused by something innate within Aboriginal people, rather than by colonial impositions. These ideas are always presented as "common sense", and fail to address social or historical contexts, encouraging the wider community to adopt a shallow and bigoted view of Indigenous issues. This ideology of Indigenous Australians being a savage, much like a wild animal, leads some white settlers into the belief that they could be treated as such. In a letter to the editor in The Australian, Wednesday 20 June 1827, the author notes "It is said that the natives have become so very troublesome, that many persons have resolved to poison them", the comment’s tone suggests the white settlers likened them to pests. Furthermore, the linking of Aboriginals to animals is evident as the writer warns against the government “humanising and conciliating the savage tribes” as it would have dire consequences for the white
Prejudice; Is It Something We Should Still Be Tolerating? Although there are many different types of people in our world today, not everyone is or will be accepted or tolerated; there are still those people who are judged either because of how they look, act or are the subject of unsubstantiated beliefs and rumors that are circulated and perpetuated by people who are uninformed, or afraid of what they perceive as a threat cause someone is different. While we know that prejudice exists, all too often it goes on around us, we may even turn a blind eye, not wanting to get involved, or worst, have that negative attention aimed at us or a loved one. We may have even added to a situation unknowingly by our attitudes and behaviors towards a group or individual that isn’t part of a social group based on a bias belief of the group we ourselves may be a part of. So how can we avoid this behavior if and when we recognize it as such?
Despite the differences in our individual environmental ethic we can all easily understand that when it comes down to it we deeply rely on the world around us. Yet we have still chosen to disregard concepts concerning the longevity of humanity. Overpopulation, exploitation of the third world, consumerism, unregulated growth, stewardship, language and education reform are all part of the social and environmental commentary our authors provide us with. Georg E. Tinker a Native American theologian uses his unique perspective to inquire about religions effects on our environment in “An American Indian Theological Response to Eco-Justice”. Similarly Cathryn Bailey comments on western societies view of animal ethics as a looking glass into societies views of life other than that of humans.