Monday, September 18, 2006
Race post 1
I've decide to make the race post a series and even though I am busy this week hopefully I'll post every other day till I get it out. Today's post is the Native post (and maybe these will be posted out of order).
My mother's family is mostly Taino, a good chunk Yoruba, a good chunk Portuguese (not Spanish as people assume), a bit Spanish and a tiny bit Irish. When my uncle died a year ago I inherited the responsibility of honoring my family's ancestors. As for as I know it stems from the Taino/Yoruba belief structure. So fairly often, I light candles, burn incense, give gifts and rum to an image of a Native.
Now I know this image is not completely accurate depiction of how the Natives in my tribe looked but it is a symbol. And while I hate the idea of a generic Native culture (much like I hate when people talk about Africa as if it was one country), it is the symbol I have inherited and the duty is mine to follow.
The Indian ring I have not taken off my finger since September 2000 (when my grandmother died) is also a symbol of my ancestors. It symbolizes my guardian spirit and I try to treat it with respect and I tend to freak out when people I am not related to touch it. Part of the reason I know John is my soul mate is that it never wigged me out when he touched it.
So where am I going with this?
I do not understand why non-Native people, and by this I mean people who don't have a drop of Native blood not even the 1/32 every person tries to claim, decorate their houses with statues of Natives or Native imagery.
Really I mean--you don't see it in any other culture. You don't walk into a Korean man's home and find statues of Irishmen and you don't walk into a Jewish woman's home and finding statues/ depictions of black people everywhere. So why do people drip their houses in native paraphernalia? It irks me.
And don't ask me about the Seminole thing cause I'm all over the place on it and the whole darn thing just makes me glad I am not a Seminole.
I've decide to make the race post a series and even though I am busy this week hopefully I'll post every other day till I get it out. Today's post is the Native post (and maybe these will be posted out of order).
My mother's family is mostly Taino, a good chunk Yoruba, a good chunk Portuguese (not Spanish as people assume), a bit Spanish and a tiny bit Irish. When my uncle died a year ago I inherited the responsibility of honoring my family's ancestors. As for as I know it stems from the Taino/Yoruba belief structure. So fairly often, I light candles, burn incense, give gifts and rum to an image of a Native.
Now I know this image is not completely accurate depiction of how the Natives in my tribe looked but it is a symbol. And while I hate the idea of a generic Native culture (much like I hate when people talk about Africa as if it was one country), it is the symbol I have inherited and the duty is mine to follow.
The Indian ring I have not taken off my finger since September 2000 (when my grandmother died) is also a symbol of my ancestors. It symbolizes my guardian spirit and I try to treat it with respect and I tend to freak out when people I am not related to touch it. Part of the reason I know John is my soul mate is that it never wigged me out when he touched it.
So where am I going with this?
I do not understand why non-Native people, and by this I mean people who don't have a drop of Native blood not even the 1/32 every person tries to claim, decorate their houses with statues of Natives or Native imagery.
Really I mean--you don't see it in any other culture. You don't walk into a Korean man's home and find statues of Irishmen and you don't walk into a Jewish woman's home and finding statues/ depictions of black people everywhere. So why do people drip their houses in native paraphernalia? It irks me.
And don't ask me about the Seminole thing cause I'm all over the place on it and the whole darn thing just makes me glad I am not a Seminole.
Comments:
I think folks want to be connected to something. Not sure though. When I say my grandparents were Cherokee, people inevitably start telling me how they have "some Indian in their family too". It bugs me because I actually spent time with these people growing up. I guess technically I am not as much as some folks are (like half or whatever) but still...
hi nina!
i noticed a similiar thing when i spent christmas one year with the family of a by-marriage uncle of mine (you can see me already trying to put distance between myself and them). they lived in maine, and looked like mother and father christmas, and were staunch, outdoorsy hardworking protestant-types. . I was Astonished to find pictures of Native Americans all over thier house. But apparently Native American memerobilia was a huge deal as recently as the 1950's when all the boyscouts were running around camping looking for arrowheads and of course the westerns and all that. Fascination with "Indians" has fallen out of fashion, but the trinkets are still around.
My own theory is that it has to do with no-longer-European folks who, n past generations, were painfully aware of how Europe takes pride in all its ancient structures and connections to the land; only recently american white people still had an inferiority complex about being the 'new' world. Hanging up pictures of the noble ancient world they destroyed in order to live where they were living might in some twisted way have assuaged the wierd feeling of newness/unconnectedness. And, of course, the trinkets and some of the fascination linger on.
But that's just my theory, and attempt to be an expert on white people. . .
(how are you? congrats on the marriage! i wish you all the best!)
i noticed a similiar thing when i spent christmas one year with the family of a by-marriage uncle of mine (you can see me already trying to put distance between myself and them). they lived in maine, and looked like mother and father christmas, and were staunch, outdoorsy hardworking protestant-types. . I was Astonished to find pictures of Native Americans all over thier house. But apparently Native American memerobilia was a huge deal as recently as the 1950's when all the boyscouts were running around camping looking for arrowheads and of course the westerns and all that. Fascination with "Indians" has fallen out of fashion, but the trinkets are still around.
My own theory is that it has to do with no-longer-European folks who, n past generations, were painfully aware of how Europe takes pride in all its ancient structures and connections to the land; only recently american white people still had an inferiority complex about being the 'new' world. Hanging up pictures of the noble ancient world they destroyed in order to live where they were living might in some twisted way have assuaged the wierd feeling of newness/unconnectedness. And, of course, the trinkets and some of the fascination linger on.
But that's just my theory, and attempt to be an expert on white people. . .
(how are you? congrats on the marriage! i wish you all the best!)
Hi Nina. You don't know me, but I've been popping in here from time to time over the last couple of years.
On the Native American memorabilia... could it be that people just like the stuff? I dunno.
I saw an interesting scene one time on the corner or Rivington and Clinton on the LES a few weeks after that actress was gunned down on that corner a couple years ago. There was a memorial of sorts set up there and sometime in the middle of the afternoon, there was a guy burning incense and doing what I perceived to be some kind of Native American chant. Had I taken a picture of him you would have agreed with me that he was the legal definition of a white guy.
Congrats on your marriage and blessings to you both.
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On the Native American memorabilia... could it be that people just like the stuff? I dunno.
I saw an interesting scene one time on the corner or Rivington and Clinton on the LES a few weeks after that actress was gunned down on that corner a couple years ago. There was a memorial of sorts set up there and sometime in the middle of the afternoon, there was a guy burning incense and doing what I perceived to be some kind of Native American chant. Had I taken a picture of him you would have agreed with me that he was the legal definition of a white guy.
Congrats on your marriage and blessings to you both.
# posted by 
: 5:12 PM
: 5:12 PM