Two other points. While the kind of reasoning that says "West thinks one way
[good/bad depending on preference]" and "The Rest think the other way [bad/
good depending on preference] is very appealing for those enamoured of one
side of this divide and alienated from the other. But it's booby-trapped,
and can turn on us and bite us if we're not careful. For example, the argu-
ment that "Natives" only have cyclical/circular time has not only been used
to make arguments about Native Spirituality, but also to show that Natives
lack logic -- or, as in the bad old 19th Century, "Savages can't think
straight." I don't think this is what anybody here wants to say, but it
can sometimes come out that way [note that this can also often be tied to
arguments suggesting one can be either sensible or spiritual, but not both --
something I would find hard to swallow either logically OR spiritually]. In
more recent times, I think it might be worthwhile pointing out that arguments
about Native Thought being cyclical or turning time still [off] has in fact
led to ideas about Native societies as static and "cold," incapable of
innovation or change, and possessing no sense of history. This latter
charge has led to serious trouble and misunderstanding when Native views
of history -- which are often very precisely linear in very important ways,
thank you very much -- get presented. [Makes it easy for others to dismiss
Native views of the past by locating them in myth or dreamtime.....
Anyway, I've gone on too long as it is, but I would also point out that there
are all kinds of choices for how to do linear or cyclical time, and the choices
are often between the kinds of things or precesses one wants to choose as a
point of reference. So linear time can be in terms of arbitrary dates (but
linked to solar cycles = years) or human generations, the advance of glaciers,
and lots of other stuff. And cycles can be in terms of seasons, in terms of
festivals (which may be linked to other things), tides, or boom & bust cycles
on Wall Street.
Well, as I said, this is already enough, and I find I'm doing something else
now so I'll sign off.
Dan Jorgensen