>Sigh. What a spectacle, European women berating Indian men over
>Indian culture and our right to defend it.
Does this statement make any more sense than "What a spectacle, an Indian
women berating Western men over Western culture and our right to defend it"?
What you do raise here are two interesting questions. How possible is it for
any culture to understand another? Assuming that understanding is possible,
is it ever acceptable for one culture to make a value judgment about another?
The discussions on this list would be very different indeed if all parties
restricted themselves to statements of fact and refrained from any judgments
whatsoever.
>Is it possible for an Indian man to be correct and European women to
>be mistaken?
I'm not sure that this is your real question. The substance of your reply to
Barbara seems to suggest that it is simply unacceptable to you that a white
female or male would disagree with you. Rather than meet issues head on, you
sometimes seem to prefer to dismiss questions with a flick of your ethnic
wrist.
You have raised a very challenging concept that has been good for me to
consider - the question of Western cultural focus on the individual versus the
traditional native focus on group identity. Is there indeed some group native
consciousness that allows you to legitimately represent some sort of global
native sentiment (whether about abortion or anything else)? Assuming there is,
it still should not be surprising that others from the "individual" tradition
might still be skeptical. Barbara asks a serious question when she asks where
are the native women.
>In the face of numerical white superiority, attempting to shout us down,
>what chance do we stand, even within this forum, supposedly created to
>seriously consider our points of view?
No one is stopping your voice. But they may be having difficulty in under-
standing it. Rather than dismissing Barbara's question as more oppression,
wouldn't it be more productive to really respond to it. Tell us more about
this culture where men and women live in spiritual/philosophical harmony, and
why, in such a context, Barbara's question makes little sense.
>Or perhaps, the aim was really to give European intellectuals a forum
>to discuss their disposition of us without having to seriously question the
>assumed superiority of their own personal value systems?
Hopefully you are not equating "serious questioning" with having to agree with
you. I assume that questioning is the process by which ALL individuals and
cultures grow, and that it is sustained by respectful dialogue wherein one
tries to understand and respond to the issues and questions of the other. Is
this assumption "white" or is it shared by natives?
Bill Badgley
W_BADGLEY@UNHH.UNH.EDU