• Chunk@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Some indigenous cultures never invented writing and are hunter gathers. They don’t have time to engage in any sort of philosophy. There’s no basis for them to even describe these ideas.

    It’s not better. It’s not different. It’s underdeveloped.

    • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I think it’s weird how we use terms like indigenous culture. Western culture is indigenous to the west.

      It’s weird how the whole noble savage myth just keeps on trucking

      • bitsplease@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Frankly if argue that grouping all the different varied cultures under the simple term “western culture” is equally reductive and unproductive. There is no single “Western Culture” just as there’s no single “indigenous culture”

        • schmorp@slrpnk.net
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          1 year ago

          So I guess the white savior can stop saving, the noble savage can stop being noble and we can all chill, just like the meme suggests.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        1 year ago

        “Western culture” isn’t even universal in Europe. Sami and several peoples around Russia are quite distinct from anything rooted in the Roman empire. Many of them don’t subscribe to any of the Abrahamic faiths, while others only converted to Christianity in the last few hundred years.

        • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          That’s a group I don’t know much about. I only heard about them more recently.

      • KISSmyOS@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Western culture is indigenous to the west.

        Europe’s culture has developed from Christian Roman culture after the Roman Empire conquered most of the continent. The indiginous cultures and religions of mainland Europe were destroyed by the Romans and the Roman-influenced kingdoms springing up after Romes demise.
        The culture resulting from that was exported to Britain with the Norman conquest, and that new British culture was exported to the US and other “Western” nations through colonialism.

        The indiginous “western” culture doesn’t exist anymore.

        • blindbunny@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Huh guess my culture doesn’t exist I’ll be sure to tell everyone on the reservation.

        • jimbo@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The indiginous cultures and religions of mainland Europe were destroyed by the Romans and the Roman-influenced kingdoms springing up after Romes demise.

          Okay, by that reasoning then the indigenous cultures of Australia, the Americas, the Caribbean, Pacific islands, etc were destroyed by European empires/colonization and thus also don’t exist anymore.

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          You give the Romans way too much credit. They didn’t even manage to export their style of music and had their tradition supplanted by the rest of Europe: Previously they were part of the Mediterranean tradition (which nowadays people recognise as oriental, definitely a misnomer), have a listen. Nowadays they have just as much as an allergy to flourishes as much of the rest of the continent (modulo Greece but also Spain, also at least parts of the Balkan)

          …and this is just to serve as an example.

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Is it underdeveloped though? They’re certainly not the ones driving us toward the 6th mass extinction and potentially an uninhabitable earth (for humans)

      • Chunk@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Thinking about the language needed to express philosophical ideas and how language can impact your ability to form complex arguments is probably not the best use of my time. It’s pretty interesting though and I enjoy it so it’s not exactly a waste.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Their validity, or even their level of quality as a culture, is not necessarily measured by their ability to invent writing. We are not automatically better than them just because of that, and we certainly don’t have the right to pass them off as savages.

      They don’t have time to engage in any sort of philosophy.

      They did. Columbus made contact with a very sophisticated culture that was soon wiped out by disease, and effectively entered a dark age from which it never recovered.

      We normally divide human philosophy into Western and Eastern types. There’s some evidence that on the American continents, there was a third independently developed branch of philosophy. It was all but lost, with only oral retellings remaining.

    • crackajack@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      Wow, least racist comment I have seen. Bravo.

      Read up on Boasian anthropology and it states that no cultures are inherently better or worse than another. How is the culture of Christian Europeans killing and enslaving hunter gatherers, who haven’t made written records, better? Many oral records also turned out to be just as accurate, provided they have been corroborated by scientific evidence. Many tribes have knowledge and wisdom unknown or unthought of by arrogant civilised and pampered individuals. An American Christian missionary was de-converted when a Praha tribe member from Brazil asked him if he had seen Jesus. When he replied “no”, the tribe member quipped why would he believe Jesus is god if the missionary had not even seen him? The tribe’s philosophy live in the moment, unlike the Western society always thinking of the future and past, striving for status symbol and material wealth. The Praha tribe may not have running water or huge houses, but they live their life carefree.

      You think playing Civilizations game with its oversimplified digirtal cartoon tech tree makes you an expert on anthropology to judge others. No, it just makes you a donkey’s cunt for doing so.

      • jimbo@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Read up on Boasian anthropology and it states that no cultures are inherently better or worse than another.

        Ok, I disagree. Thanks Franz Boas.

        • crackajack@reddthat.com
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          1 year ago

          The Western capitalist and individualistic value of material consumption is totally not destroying the collective humanity by the result of environmental destruction in pursuit of profit. A totally superior culture indeed. Amirite?

    • ZaroniPepperoni@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yea fr, the only species that can even entertain the idea of “just being” are humans, it’s not part of the natural world whatsoever, it also comes at the expense of other humans who are actually supporting the society.

        • SpiderShoeCult@sopuli.xyz
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          1 year ago

          I am quite confused on the people here on lemmy. On the one hand, the consensus is ‘capitalism bad’ (presumably because people work themselves to death with little to show for it). On the other hand, this post seems to be somewhat populated by people that are against the whole idea of ‘just being’ vs ‘doing’. So, what would one conclude from this?

          • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            I hate capitalism but I do feel like people get carried away blaming everything bad on capitalism, slavery and authoritarianism were present in pretty much all the cultures around before capitalism even existed and the indigenous cultures of pretty much everywhere had class and caste systems often based on religious power which itself was based on violence.

            It’s so reductive to say ‘oh these people weren’t building factories so their lives were just sitting around in the sun doing whatever makes them happy’ but life in a tribe was every bit as rich and complex as modern life - generally without the luxury of being able to choose your life path, certainly for women and minorities.

          • the_q@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Capitalism and the influence it has over people creates some fucking morons?