tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post6100442041528055805..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: What Are We Attempting To Prove?Assistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-72089280550725674642012-06-25T01:45:39.444-04:002012-06-25T01:45:39.444-04:00My sister tells me that some remote ancestor of ou...My sister tells me that some remote ancestor of ours married Pocahontas.<br /><br />I go all 'big whoop' on that. I'd rather have pirates, horse thieves, and other interesting characters. I always wanted to be an axe murderer when I grew up, but I fell in with good companions...Sam L.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-52851127224840132452012-06-24T23:23:37.671-04:002012-06-24T23:23:37.671-04:00What *DO* you back down from well?
Just wonderin&...What *DO* you back down from well?<br /><br />Just wonderin'?Dubbahdeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00075702513873912334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-56679050581264478132012-06-22T23:21:48.950-04:002012-06-22T23:21:48.950-04:00I think the general question of why a particular p...I think the general question of why a particular part of the story is mentioned (smallpox, maize, and squash, but not syphilis, horses, tobacco, chocolate, or potatoes) is that a narrative has already been decided.<br /><br />The facts that fit the narrative are then brought forth. (Hence the mention of disease-ridden blankets, despite the anachronistic placement.)<br /><br />There's also the question of location. Many contacts between Europeans and natives occurred in both North and South America. Not all of the give-and-take happened in places now contained in the borders of the United States. <br /><br />If the person seems bent on anger towards the U.S., are they equally angry towards other European-derived nations on the two continents? Is there any attempt to allocate blame between the Spaniards, Portuguese, French, and Dutch, and English? (The English-speakers were the last colonial power to take land in the New World. Odd, most people don't think of things that way. And New Amsterdam was renamed early in its history, so it's easy to forget.)karrdehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00205160745963596856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-32681342013632675422012-06-22T17:30:04.975-04:002012-06-22T17:30:04.975-04:00So... went to Amazon to read reviews of 1493. I th...So... went to Amazon to read reviews of 1493. I think I would enjoy the parts on China and India, but it sounds the like the rest of it was covered much more succinctly in The Columbian Exchange. <br /><br />The Columbian Exchange is a book that I need to replace in my library. I immediately regretted it when I sold it on ebay years ago. <br /><br />While the potato gets lots of press, it's arguable that beans were just as important in improving worldwide nutrition. I have to wonder if they aren't as "popular" because bean whisky or bean wine were never invented (Are they even possible or just too gross to imagine? Or do they exist and I don't know about it?)Donna B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16771075314473811594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-44177076820044461992012-06-21T17:16:05.330-04:002012-06-21T17:16:05.330-04:00The new book 1493 describes how foods moved to and...The new book 1493 describes how foods moved to and from the New World upon its discovery and how quickly and widely they spread. Those changes were amazing.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-88865024025764356952012-06-21T15:46:45.714-04:002012-06-21T15:46:45.714-04:00karrde - chocolate.
Imagine lunch with only food...karrde - chocolate. <br /><br />Imagine lunch with only food native to... the British Isles, for example. No wonder they finally decided to leave and conquer other lands. <br /><br />The had alcohol, but were in dire need of spices and stimulants.Donna B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16771075314473811594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-33727458125981656632012-06-21T11:13:06.978-04:002012-06-21T11:13:06.978-04:00I always heard it that the Natives got horses and ...I always heard it that the Natives got horses and smallpox, and the Spanish got syphilis and tobacco.<br /><br />Who got the worse of it? <br /><br />Don't know...though many more natives died of smallpox than Europeans died from syphilis.karrdehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00205160745963596856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-13566374205473682822012-06-21T10:28:00.001-04:002012-06-21T10:28:00.001-04:00I wish I could believe that the North American con...I wish I could believe that the North American continent was populated by saints before we got here, but my guess is that they did about as much exploiting of land and other people as they had the power to do, which was not much. In other words, they were much like other people, with some different strengths and weaknesses stemming from their culture and their circumstances. A couple of hundred years ago, the dominant narrative was that strong cultures win out over barbarians, and that's a good thing. Now the dominant narrative is that it's pretty sad when materially weak cultures get stomped by strong, ruthless ones. Both points of view have their plusses, but neither is perfect and both are very susceptible to being romanticized in very silly ways.<br /><br />Re whether Christianity is favored in our culture: the way I see it is that a vague kind of Deism is favored, which looks to atheists like Christianity and to devout Christians like something functionally close to atheism. But the dominant culture is something much closer to Christianity than it is to, say, Buddhism.Texan99https://www.blogger.com/profile/10479561573903660086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-76557800080667866882012-06-21T00:45:45.591-04:002012-06-21T00:45:45.591-04:00When my huge extended family gets together, it'...When my huge extended family gets together, it's a multicultural event and, thus, all the more fun. <br /><br />Granted, we're lopsided toward Scots-Irish, but Cherokee, Choctaw, Dutch, English, Filipino, French, Greek, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish elements are not ignored.<br /><br />Those are just the documented lines. <br /><br />There are all sorts of minor disagreements, petty differences, and all the other stuff that happens when relatively* large groups get together. <br /><br />But we all agree that the food is awesome and the babies are beautiful. <br /><br />We are Americans.**<br /><br />*pun intended<br /><br />**unlike some genealogists, several in my family were concerned that records were overlooked and searched specifically for evidence that there were slave owners among our predecessors. We found them in the 1600s and early 1700s in VA and SC. It seems that our ancestors were not able to hold onto such assets as plantations and slaves. Religious beliefs were a factor. I suspect contrariness and laziness were also.Donna B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16771075314473811594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-36424024087815935472012-06-20T22:07:43.334-04:002012-06-20T22:07:43.334-04:00Actually, "Indian giver" is one where I ...Actually, "Indian giver" is one where I give them credit. Their custom was to exchange gifts as a sign of friendship. They gave a gift. If you wanted to be friends you gave one back. If you didn't, they didn't and expected the gift to be returned. If you didn't, it was an insult so they came and took it back, pissed.<br /><br />That, we could have adjusted to intelligently.<br /><br />I also am tired of the "harmony with nature" thing. They exploited their environment to survive, just as any intelligent humans would. Sometimes they screwed that up (See girdling maple trees for syrup, for example). But there was no hippie all-life-is-sacred nonsense about it.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-62403095624829283972012-06-20T20:58:02.259-04:002012-06-20T20:58:02.259-04:00I'm sure you were more diplomatic than I would...I'm sure you were more diplomatic than I would have been. I would probably have responded to him something along these lines (and royally pissed him off): Oh come off it! We Red Indians were no saints... I am a direct descendant of Pocahantas, and a whole slew of other Red Indian ancestors,(about 1/64? of my ancestry?) all women who had the good sense to marry Englishmen who treated them better than those chauvinist Indian braves....I never call them Native Americans, because that immediately makes me think of some oily operator in a ponytail who is hoping to either open a casino or make a living by making white people feel guilty listening to tales of white oppression. <br /><br />I admire many things about my Indian ancestors--their handsome appearance, their ability to function despite the vicious New England woodland stinging bugs, their hardiness, their hunting skills, their tracking abilities, but I cherish no illusions about them. They were dirty, ignorant, treated women appallingly, tortured their enemies even worse than medieval Europeans did. They despoiled the environment (their corn fields exhausted the soil and that is why they had to put the fish heads in with the seed), In some places, they so over hunted the game that they wiped some species out. There are more deer now in parts of New England than when the Indians were there.<br /><br />And I am SICK of whinging about <br />"we were tricked into giving land to the English/Dutch/name your oppressor" When I was a kid, the worst taunt you could throw at someone was "Indian giver", and we knew what it meant. You can't give someone something then later regret it and say "I changed my mind..." <br /><br />Okay, I had a bad day, and am crankier than usual. SO I am trashing that side of the family.Retrieverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09036341287285545932noreply@blogger.com