Re: Amerindian navigators and Eurocentrism in scholarship

[yuku@globalserve.net (Yuri Kuchinsky 17784)]

Bill Perez (p_covalent@xnet.com) wrote:
: Yuri Kuchinsky 17784 wrote:

	...

: > I mean exactly what I say.

: That it is "Eurocentric" to believe that only Polynesians travelled long
: distances in the Pacific prior to the sixteenth century?

Yes, in so far as Amerindians are not given the recognition for doing the
same. 

	...

: And why would dyed-in-the-wool "Eurocentrists" be so ready to dispense
: "credit" to Polynesians,

Because no bigot however misguided can deny the reality that the
Polynesians were there for ages.

: while withholding it from South Americans?

Because bigots and/or ignoramuses in some very high places can and still
do pretend that this didn't happen. But it did happen. 

	...

: At any rate, you did not question. You emphatically asserted:
: "Eurocentrism has certainly played a role in this area."

Can you deny this? 

Actually the out and out _racism_ of the Spanish colonialists played even
a bigger role in this area. It was the Spanish who destroyed this proud
chapter of Native history, i.e. the extensive coastal trading networks. 

I'm not interested at all in trying to establishing who was more/less
advanced than someone else. Please don't misinterpret what I said. All I'm
trying to do is to point out that these great achievements of the
Amerindians are being ignored. Politics definitely is a factor here. 

Regards,

Yuri.

Yuri Kuchinsky in Toronto -=O=- http://www.io.org/~yuku

You never need think you can turn over any old falsehoods without a
terrible squirming of the horrid little population that dwells under 
it -=O=- Oliver Wendell Holmes