Assignment 8

Assignment 8

Part 1
Civilizations vary drastically when we examine the fundamental differences between tribes and states. John Bodley’s book Victim’s of Progress introduces a new look at tribal cultures and how they are affected by outside change. Tribes in general are small sef-sustainable groups that use the local ecosystems for their long term survival. In contrast, industrial states are consumption based economies that must be ever expanded with centralized systems that extract resources for the short-term profit of special interest groups. Since the industrial revolution, rapid change has caused the disappearance of many self-reliant tribal communities as well as led to resource shortages and environmental disasters.
Anthropologists’ studies show that tribal communities grow slowly and use their natural resources conservatively and their economies are geared towards satisfaction of basic subsidence needs. With resource consumptions low, these cultures tend to be highly stable and can function and support themselves off their own environments. Conversely, industrial societies tend to use more than their fair share of energy consisting of food, fuel, and other natural resources. It is no surprise with this rate of consumption that tribal peoples are often encroached upon by outside sources to be up heaved in order to promote progress and appropriate use of their land and their abundant untouched resources.
Along with resource appropriation, acculturation takes place for these tribal peoples. It is often an ethnocentric view from the outside industrial society that forces change on the native tribes. Ethnocentrism is the belief in the superiority in one’s own culture. This belief is a common misconception of many anthropologists and industrial nations that suggest the superior industrial culture will cause the tribal people to voluntarily reject their own culture and beliefs in order to obtain a better life. Many times this idea of superiority heightened the demolition of tribal cultures because they were thought to be culturally or racially inferior. Accordingly, most tribal units have been considered primitive, backward, or heathen and in many circumstances have been thought of as sick, abnormal, or mentally retarded. Thus the industrial societies have used ethnocentrism against the tribal peoples as a legal reform to give the “advanced nation” responsibility for “peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under strenuous conditions of the modern world.” (Bodley, 15) Contradictorily, tribal systems have managed to survive half a million years supplying ample energy flow, having reliable food sources, and more ecologically sustainable environments. However, with their welfare thrust in the hands of outside interests, acculturation happens quicker and more effectively.
Many times this ethnocentric view of superiority allows people to assume those in other cultures realize their own inferiority and will make them eager to drop their culture and progress toward a better standard of living. On the other hand, there is the debate of free and informed choice. Bodley suggests that even if the tribes were given the freedom to make the choice to avoid acculturation, there would be no clear picture of the outcome or consequences of their choice. Instead, Bodley advises that tribal peoples should be left alone. Evidence implies that when civilizations encroach on tribes, they tend to ignore it, avoid it, or respond with defiant arrogance. This tendency to ignore/ avoid is part of their own ethnocentric attitude towards their own culture indicating they think it to be superior to the outside. Another tendency of tribal people is to run away from intruding civilizations. Obviously these people do not wish to be bothered and simply don’t want to reject their own cultural integrity and autonomy.

Part 2
In 1845 there were fewer than 20,000 white Americans living beyond the Mississippi River and the western third of the North American continent was wilderness. Although there were few whites, there were hundreds of thousands of Native Americans living in the Great Plains. By 1840 all of the eastern tribes had been wiped out by disease, warfare, or removal to the west. These Native Americans were promised a permanent Indian territory in the Great Desert where no whites were allowed. However, that changed in 1848 when the war ended between Mexico and the U.S. The territories between Texas and California were declared for the United States and in January of 1848, James Marshall discovered gold in the San Francisco area.
With the discovery of gold came an excitement for the white Americans. There was opportunity out west for fortune seekers. This meant more Americans were heading west and moving through Indian Territory. Before the discovery of gold, only trappers and traders ever ventured through Indian frontier. Manifest destiny became the common ethnocentric idea and Americans believed it was their duty to spread and populate the rest of the continent. Excitement and fantasies of fortune fueled the western movement for gold. By 1850 the whites moving west had created a crisis for Native Americans in the Great Plains. They brought diseases, scared the buffalo, and used up valuable resources. As tensions rose, attacks became more frequent. The Native Americans were being forced from their lands in order to provide trails for immigrants making their way west.
In 1851 the United States government called the tribes to a fort along the Oregon Trail for a treaty. The treaty would give the Indians $50,000 and guns for staying away from immigrant trails. For these Native Americans to give up their land meant they would have to break the balance between themselves and the Great Spirit. Native American culture was purely overlooked in order to satisfy the needs of the white Americans. No Indian chief could speak for all of his people and enforce all of the treaty’s laws, and therefore they knew it would be near impossible to uphold it. By the late 1850s Native Americans across the west could see the great change coming upon them and soon the whites would not just be passing through, but would be coming to settle their lands. As attacks grew, the whites were willing to use whatever means necessary to eradicate the Indians. Native Americans were being forced from their lands and onto reservations and many more were killed because of various disputes.
The ethnocentric attitudes of the white Americans had clearly reached a climax around this time. Thousands were bullied from their land and forced onto reservations. In theory, reservations were supposed to keep Indians and whites safe by keeping them in a controlled environment. Instead, the Native Americans’ freedom was taken from them, their culture, and they lived in inhumane conditions and were brought rotten food. In August of 1862, the 12,000 Indians crowded onto the Santi Sioux reservation had had enough. They were starving because of a devastated corn crop and had asked for food allotments and were denied. Despite warnings from their leader Little Crow, the whites paid no attention. In 1862 four Santi men went on a rampage killing several white men and women. Six weeks later the U.S. army arrived and another six weeks passed until the remaining tribe had been eradicated or surrendered. Ethnocide had been decided as the only alternative for the white Americans. In the same year as the uprising, the Santi Indians were herded to a different reservation and in the first winter four hundred people died of hunger and disease. Many other massacres followed with more violence and upheaval until 90% of the Native American population was wiped out by disease, famine, and warfare. Of the remaining 10%, they remained on reservations and/or assimilated into the mainstream culture.