Most of the NON-INDIAN community says, yeah, look at all these wonderful things
that European contact has given you.... The Natives reply, yep, we can't thank
you enough for smallpox, syphilus, gonnorhea, polio, etc... we did just fine
until you guys came along and mucked everything up by sending those fiends
from Spain to commit mass murder upon us.
Well, I still haven't seen ANYONE say, hey, Europe was way ahead of us in
technology (but obviously not happier for this experience); but why does
the post-contact European community say, "you could never have done it without
us"..... Its like the Eastern anthros who insisted that the technology they
found with the mound builders in the east COULDN'T possibly have eminated
from Natives of the area .... it must have been done by Incas or Aztecs off
on a field trip! Oy Vay, such chutzpah! PBS finally did a documentary on
the mound builders, and the PROOF that they were indigenous to that area; not
from outer space or Central America. With the technology of the ORIGINAL
Native Americans, and the Aztecs, and the Incas, there is no reason to believe
that we couldn't have progressed just as far as we have with "european
technology" .... the hard part is in determining "progress" .... The ability
to travel into outer space and polute it also, isn't necessarily progress!!
lyn
[ I recently received a catalogue of videotapes available for purchase that
included a tape of the program I think Lyn is referring to. I'll post a
list of the boxed set of PBS documentaries, entitled "The American Indian
Collection," along with prices and ordering information, in a followup
posting. --Gary ]