Papers by Charles Flowerday
Anthropology of Consciousness, Sep 1, 2006
Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, Oct 7, 2020
Ishi represents a form of sentimental folk reductionism. But he can be a teaching tool for the Ca... more Ishi represents a form of sentimental folk reductionism. But he can be a teaching tool for the California Indian Genocide, John Sutter also. His mill was where gold was discovered-setting off a frenzied settlement in which Indians were legally enslaved and slaughtered, finally ending a decade after the Emancipation Proclamation. They had already experienced wholesale devastation under Spanish and Mexican colonization. The mission system itself was inhumane and genocidal. It codified enslavement and trafficking of Indians as economically useful and morally purposeful. Mexican administration paid lip service to Indian emancipation but exploited them ruthlessly as peons. The California genocide typifies an expanded understanding of genocide and how it operates in a developmental paradigm. We then turn to a related model of the indigenous experience. Using developmental genocide in a gangland "democracy" and Andrew Woolford's ontologies of destruction, a 500-year wholesale assault, we champion genocide as generic while including specific modes mediated by economic or civil destruction and challenging the unmediated model-direct mass killing-as the archetypical form. Allied with this, a model mediated by civil war also helps explain genocide in the Americas, including California. Genocide of native peoples operates through a cultural and moral reductionism that allows them to be manipulated (and destroyed) as objects. There are both biological and cultural aspects to this deadly dehumanization.
Anthropology of Consciousness, Sep 1, 2006
underscores the ability of the medieval Norse to exploit both the maritime and inland resources o... more underscores the ability of the medieval Norse to exploit both the maritime and inland resources of the Canadian Arctic and sub-Arctic. European accounts place the Norse in North America centuries prior to Columbus. In Chapter 8, "On the American Side," Kehoe suggests that a "true" history of the Kensington (Minnesota) region depends on "archaeological data correlated with ethnographic and ethnohistorical records" (p. 71). Due to budgetary restraints, there have been comparatively few large-scale projects and "little has been published" (p. 71). What has been established is that there is evidence for large-scale societies in North America from 900 CE. Many of these societies did not leave written records, but-as Kehoe reminds us-history is written by the dominant. I find this book exciting because it represents a dramatic "paradigm shift" in what we used to think we knew about the so-called "discovery" of America. Hopefully, we can broaden our perspective to include additional evidence that is probably right under our feet or in someone's barn. As Kehoe concludes, what matters most is that "educated Americans realize how much of the history they have been taught has been biased" (p. 87). This book should be read, taught, and savored. It is a gem. Highly recommended.
this study can also be understood in terms of a distinction used by Ricoeur (1970). These are the... more this study can also be understood in terms of a distinction used by Ricoeur (1970). These are the hermeneutics of-faith‖ and-suspicion.‖ In an article of the same name in Narrative Inquiry, Ruthellen Josselson (2004), a psychologist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wants to limit the polarization of faith and suspicion and instead call them a hermeneutics of-restoration‖ and-demystification.‖ As with other typologies, Josselson (2004) explains this is a dialectic. In both types of texts, meanings are restored and demystified, so these are points of emphasis. She offers these models in the spirit of Ricoeur (1970), she says, who said they could help reveal the-contours of the hermeneutic field‖ (p. 9). She says the difference is how one gets to the meaning, not that one requires work and the other does not. Josselson explores them as models of narrative psychology, but they also can apply to our readings of The Times and the Christian-left publications. Restoration is aimed at discovering the meaning of a relatively direct but symbolic message. It is typified by a-willingness...to absorb as much as possible of the message in its given form....It respects the symbol [system represented], understood as a cultural mechanism for our apprehension of reality, as a place of revelation‖ (Josselson, 2004, p. 3). The interpreter may seek to foreground what has been in the background, make smaller meanings larger, or vice versa, but does not alter the frame. In other words, implicit meanings may become explicit, but they are not at odds with the general tenor of the message. Its central method is one liberation theologians have used from the beginning: the hermeneutical circle. Parts, such as key passages on liberation, inform wholes, such as patterns of domination. Wholes, reexamined, inform parts, 32 or social ethics, or just insufficiently convinced they can have an effect, to become more than aesthetically involved, to become emotionally and ethically involved. Particularly germane to journalism, Boltanski (1999) also distinguishes between two kinds of relationships with implications for redress of suffering. One is communitarian-local or regional relations for which obligations are spelled out but which take place within a hierarchy of status. These require a-politics of justice,‖ meaning well-established routines, not broader social justice, so this justice is not impartial, meaning the well-connected count more. He contrasts this with cosmopolitan relationships, which are universal but to which our duties are not clear. This latter relationship requires an ad-hoc-politics of pity‖ (compassion). While he believes that an international humanitarian movement is building, one that strives to transcend politics and be truly impartial, with an attendant right to intervene, in general he sees ethical uncertainty pervading every system and action. In that way, Boltanski is post-modern in every sense. However, he does not despair and finally focuses on doing our best to relieve suffering when and where we find it, using both speech and action, regardless of history or ideology. But he does not pretend that this is easy, or even very manageable. [Any] critical relationship [to] the topics [of suffering] has the effect of revealing in each of them a disguised mode of accusation and a disguised mode of exclusion, which...is in conflict with their claim to universality and the good. This critical unmasking has been a feature of the political use of topics...polarized...between Left and Right....The tension between the different topics of suffering is politicized in the sense that it has been possible to connect all of them to different ways of selecting...from the ocean of the world's unfortunates those unfortunates who really matter...to whom it is appropriate to give aid. (p. 155) [italics original] But these violent acts are obviously not [often] publicized in the countries where they are committed. The effects of publicity thus presuppose the existence of an international public space. They are produced by...pressure...exerted by other countries on the leaders of States where suffering and atrocities shown by the media are taking place. The effects of media publicity given the suffering of oppressed minorities are [re]produced on other leaders [in other countries]...A consequence...is that spectators are given a preponderant role, at least in democratic States, in the series of mediations which end or reduce distant suffering. (p. 184) [italics added] Ultimately, Boltanski (1999) says some speech has value regarding mass suffering. He distinguishes between-verbal‖ or ephemeral speech, and-effective‖ or action-oriented speech. In the latter, the-action‖ of public opinion can be manifest through any semantically sound means of redress such as editorials, ads, petitions, protests and support for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), politicians or other champions. These can pressure politicians to act. Chouliaraki and adventure, emergency and ecstatic news. In-The Mediation of Suffering and the Vision of a Cosmopolitan Public,‖ Chouliaraki (2008) explores Boltanski's topics, then outlines her own event-based typology. Like most, it is a heuristic map, useful for purposes of discovery. She creates a hierarchy that links stories that invite or deflect action to various responses by viewers. Focused on television, she posits three types of engagement: a) bulletins called-adventure‖ news, which block feelings of compassion; b)-emergency‖ news, which alone produces a demand for action; and c)-ecstatic‖ news, an extraordinary category that brings people together in simultaneous viewing but can impede action. Using BBC coverage, she explains adventure news using shootings in Indonesia, a boat accident in India in which 40 minors drowned and extensive flooding in Bangladesh, all in 12 ORDEN stands for-Organizacion Democratica Nacionalista,‖ sometimes spelled in initial capital and lowercase. In 1963, the U.S. government sent 10 Green Berets to El Salvador to help Gen. Jose Alberto Medrano set it up, the first paramilitary unit and death squad in that country (Kirsch, 1990). 13 And so consign them to death.
Todd Smith does an exemplary job of documenting the origins, migrations, and deprivations-as well... more Todd Smith does an exemplary job of documenting the origins, migrations, and deprivations-as well as the depredations-of the Indians of Texas and western Louisiana. In doing so, he does a thorough and outstanding job of meticulously amassing and narrating his voluminous compilation of detail. Smith, an associate professor of history at the University of North Texas, has written extensively on Texas Indians. 1 Dominance to Disappearance provides the first detailed history of all Texas Indians, their tribal neighbors, and the eventual (Indian) immigrants from western Louisiana, ranging from the late eighteenth century (the end of the colonial period) to the mid-nineteenth century (the run-up to the Civil War). As the title suggests, Native Americans dominated the region, holding numerical superiority, a factor that Smith says constituted a social and economic fulcrum, until halfway through the period explored. By the end of that period, they were gone. Essentially, this is the story of three-quarters of a century of refugees in time-lapse migration.
Rangelands Archives, Apr 1, 1991
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Selected readings in the anthropology of relig... more Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Selected readings in the anthropology of religion: theoretical and methodological essays/edited by Stephen D. Glazier and Charles A. Flowerday. p. cm.(Contributions to the study of anthropology, ISSN 0890-9377; no. 9) ...
The teacher. Teachers offer lessons in conflict transformation. These may involve an alternative ... more The teacher. Teachers offer lessons in conflict transformation. These may involve an alternative worldview. They teach tolerance and problem-solving. Various education-for-peace efforts in Colombia and Peru fit this category well. (3) The bridge-builder. Anyone can build bridges across social, economic or cultural divides by facilitating good relationships. Bridge-builders create cross-cutting ties, develop joint projects and foster dialog. This category includes church and native leaders reaching out to rebels and the state in hopes of mediation, or state or rebel officials doing something similar. (4) The mediator. Mediators try to reconcile competing interests. They listen, ask people what they really want and suggest alternatives. They bring parties to negotiations, facilitate communication and help them find solutions. This role in particular has been performed by various tribes and inter-tribal organizations and by progressives of the Catholic and Protestant churches. (5) The arbiter. An arbiter is usually appointed by the court and can determine a settlement. Arbiters replace destructive conflict with nonviolence, promote justice and encourage negotiation. This role is appointed by the court and is generally outside the scope of this study. (6) The equalizer. Equalizers exercise their influence in particular on the more powerful. They help bring them to negotiations, build a more collaborative democracy and support nonviolence. Human-rights workers especially provide this service. (7) The healer. A healer sees the conflict will not be resolved until people and relationships have healed. Healers create the right climate, listen, acknowledge 13 feelings and encourage an apology. The Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission's mental-health workers and curanderos fit here, but with different methods and results. The absence of such efforts at healing are evident among human-rights professionals in Colombia. (8) The witness. These track conflict to keep it from escalating. They speak out and seek help. Witness for Peace (an NGO explored later) is an example of this role. (9) The referee. Referees limit the size and terms of the conflict. They establish rules for fair fighting, remove offensive weapons and build nonviolent defenses. Peace communities, commissions and committees fit here. Roles stemming from customary law provided by the Nasa in Colombia, examined in part IV, are another good example of this activity. So are the citizen watch and law-enforcement services provided by the so-called rondas campesinas in highland Peru. All or part of each are represented in this study. Of great significance in particular, Indian and church leaders have served in any number of these capacities in the pursuit of conflict resolution and transformation. (Conflict transformation is the process of managing social and environmental change to minimize conflict, but one that has no definite resolution.) They have also helped to create zones of peace and facilitated negotiations with the state behind the scenes, other third-side roles. For both the peasantry and the remote tribes, critical concerns have been battling transnational corporations for hundreds of years regarding access to natural resources. They most want to protect their lives and lands from exploitive development by petroleum, mining, timber or agricultural interests. For the rural and urban poor, their issues involve the most basic
Wild Animals and Settlers on the Great Plains is an informative but flawed book. As an example of... more Wild Animals and Settlers on the Great Plains is an informative but flawed book. As an example of environmental history written by a biologist unacquainted with the fundamentals of doing history, it fails to offer any theory (or theories) of history governing the time and place under scrutiny. What it does provide is a huge amount of information drawn from diaries, letters, and newspapers in an inadequately edited form. Lacking primary quantitative data, Eugene Fleharty, a zoologist at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, painstakingly provides a great deal of qualitative, albeit anecdotal, information about Euro-American settlement in Kansas and its effect on the native animal population. (Another problem is the title of the book, which purports to deal with the Great Plains but only examines Kansas. Fleharty explains that his state is representative, but I wonder if the impact on wildlife habitat of cattle ranches and cotton farms in Texas is the same as the wheat and sunfl...
Genocide Studies and Prevention, 2009
by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska- Lincoln.
... Chicago, IL: Aldine de Gruyter. Hitchcock, Robert K.; Koperski, Thomas E.; and Flowerday, Cha... more ... Chicago, IL: Aldine de Gruyter. Hitchcock, Robert K.; Koperski, Thomas E.; and Flowerday, Charles (2008).Genocidio YEtonocidio de Pueblos Indigenas: El Caso de Los Ache del Paraguay, pp. 43-54. ... London: Anti-Slavery International. Jones, Adam (2006). ...
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Papers by Charles Flowerday