The Politics in Science

I'm taking a short break from the Alphabet of Virtues to make a brief comment on something I have been reading recently.

First off, I am a fan of North and South American Anthropology and Archaeology. I have been since I was a child. I've also been a student of folklore of many cultures, especially that of the natives of the Americas. I've been reading a great deal about the early archaeologists of North America, specifically about the excavation and cataloguing of the Adena and Hopewell cultures. They were Mound Builders (as this is what has not bio-degraded and all we have left of them) who occupied the Midwest and Eastern portions of the United States long before the Europeans came to the Americas. Their empire rose and fell, and there is enormous evidence that they had trade with the Mississippian cultures and with the Aztecs of Mexico. That's a lot of territory. Larger than Rome ever got.

I used to wonder why we didn't study these cultures more in school, as we make such a big deal about Egypt, Greece, and Rome. But the older I have gotten, the more I realize that we really do get a European-centric education. I mean, I've lived in Mainland China, heard their point of view on history, and have realized that much of what is taught in school about that place is usually limited to 2 paragraphs in a text book.

But back to anthropology.



While reading about the archaeological exploits of Lewis Henry Morgan and his counterparts, I learned many of them were motivated by the politics of the day - mainly land rights. His theories led to a belief of cultural evolution - which sets human beings in 3 stages of society (hopefully considered outdated today): Savagery, Barbarism, and Civilization. The main underlying reason for this logically follows that if he could prove the Native Americans to be savages then he could justify taking their lands and forcing them into 'civilization' of his own culture. It would justify putting the Indians on reservations, taking their children from their parents and indoctrinating them with European philosophies, and also to rob them of their culture. It also gave him justification to marginalize all the North American antiquities - especially the mound sites - and close the land from further exploration.

This just got me mad. Cultural evolution is nothing more than 'scientific' RACISM. It is using science to justify the maltreatment of others. Hitler used it in the Holocaust. And I think it is despicable to brush this piece of history under the rug.

It may also be the underlying reason racism is still alive today. When any one group assumes superiority to another and uses it to deploy violence... Well, I'm sure the Evening News is enough evidence that this happens.