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What me, worry?
John Mcreery (JLM@TWICS.COM)
Wed, 6 Sep 1995 07:40:00 +0900
Nick Corduan asks if "worry" isn't a subject worthy of anthropological discussion. Sounds good to me.
Then, however, he writes,
"For instance -- who worries less? The Native American who is fairly
certain, because of his or her ties to tradition, the past, nature, and the
spiritual cosmos, of his or her place in things; while the Western American
lives more for the moment (or perhaps for the short future, but almost never
for the past), engages in endless inquiries into existence, and feels more
spiritually and personally isolated from nature and humanity?"
Which
"Native American"
is this, pray tell?
My prototypical "Native American" is a plains Indian warrior who was part of
a culture revolutionized by the introduction of the horse, then had to spend
a large amount of time on things like physically challenging vision quests,
military operations against other "Native Americans"(and, later, the "White
Man"), and taking steps to score points in what seems to have been a highly
individualistic and competitive society. Then he gets the shit kicked out of
him by the Cavalry and winds up in a something very like a refugee camp.
Sure, he's supposed to be stoic, but.....
Now maybe is s/he were a Zuni? North America is all too evidently not my
field. Can anybody out there help with this?
That
"Native who feels no pain"
is, to the best of my knowledge, a fine old racist stereotype. I am ready to
stand corrected. :-)
John McCreery
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