Suchergebnisse

The first item on the agenda toward an understanding of Latin American (LA) culture is to question the usefulness of speaking of a single culture. On the contrary, we have a congeries of cultures in LA, interrelated in complex ways, but also genuine and distinct entities. Viewed in this light, it is still possible to speak of LA and the contributions to it by the Indian cultures. But the Indians are not to be judged by what they have contributed to some culture other than their own; they like all the others are justified by their existence. At the time Columbus came to America there was a tremendous difference among Indian groups. For all of the thousands of cultures discernible at the time of first contact, anthropol'ts are now satisfied to divide them into a half dozen large culture areas: The greater southwest, Mesoamerica, the people of the tropical forests and southern Andes, the circum-Caribbean and sub-Andean peoples, the central Andes, and the marginal peoples. These areas differed from each other not only in culture but also in density of pop. After 450 yrs the Indians are still with us. But they have fared quite differently in different areas of LA. In Indo-America (Andes, Mexico, Guatemala) the Indians remain surprisingly in the pre-Conquest pattern because they were so many and could be used more or less as they were. In Mestizo-America (Circum-Caribbean and tropical forest areas) the Indians have generally disappeared or been acculturated. They were village dwellers and had no place to run. They also did not have the mass of pop of the Indo-American areas. In Euro-America the Indian pop was sparse and tribal. Here the Indian remains in tribal groups in the hinterland. The only place, then, where the Indian has substantially disappeared is the Caribbean area, largely because they received the brunt of the first exploitation by Europeans. That the Indians will change their ways and become like us is doubted. There is a continuing process of Indians leaving their communities and becoming acculturated to the national culture. But modern medicine reduces the death rate, and it seems likely that Indian societies will grow faster than they lose adherents. To suppose that out of the present heterogeneity will come a single homogeneous LA culture is only possible if one assumes that the homogeneous European is dominant over the much more heterogeneous Indian. J. E. Hughes.

In that remarkable little book, so deftly argued and so elegantly phrased, which he wrote about anthropologists and coincidentally Peasant Society and Culture, Robert Redfield made more than one wise observation, but one was both a promise and a suggestion. Noting that peasant society in one sense consists of two connecting halves, he remarks that "we may be able to see a sort of link or hinge between the local life of a peasant community and the state or feudal system of which it is a part."The recognition and disclosure of connections in the extended relations of indigenous peoples — especially those who comprise major elements of modern states — is surely one way in which anthropologists, from the peculiar advantage of their ethnographic tradition, can contribute something of method and point of view to the study of large, compound societies and cultures.

Largely because of the physical nature of the country, New Guinea is one of the few countries where `primitive cultures' still exist. For the most part it is still terra incognita. Acculturation in Western New Guinea has been occurring under Dutch influence, while in the east, Anglo-Saxon & German influences have been operating. In the former, Westernization is taking place at an accelerating rate. This means that the future of the indigenous cultures is very limited. The task of Australia & the Netherlands in relation to New Guinea is expressed in the UN Charter: 'to ensure the pol'al, econ, soc,. & educ'al advancement of the peoples under their rule....' Though the controlling Western powers are obliged to have due respect for the cultures of the people concerned, they will often be compelled to interfere with the Papuan cultural pattern. Contact with the West has resulted in other types of consequences as venereal disease, Spanish influenza, the break-up of families, lower birth rates due to the contractual labor system, & general soc & cultural disorg. Christianization itself means the decline of Papuan cultures. The disappointments & frustrations encountered by Papuans trying to attain the ways of the Western world have resulted in the rise of `cargo cults' & Messianic movements. Much anthrop'al field work is already being done in New Guinea, but there are needs for increased budgets. Perhaps the best means for anthrop'ts to cooperate with gov'al admin'tors would be to establish both in Holland & Australia a sci'fic body to act as a liason between the administration's & the res institutions concerned. This would allow coordination of res efforts, budgetary allocations, & publication of findings. B. J. Keeley.