13th January 2008, 07:37 PM
Here's an interesting conundrum. The often-stated reasons why white Australians look down on Indigenous Peoples are because they regard them as lazy, drunken dole-scroungers. From a western perspective, it's perfectly reasonable to look down on people like that. This is an enormous problem for liberal lefty types, because many Indigenous Peoples [u]are</u> alcoholics and [u]do</u> claim welfare payments. The usual leftist explanations for this relate to disenfranchisement, empirialism, collonialism, racism, etc. which all boil down to abuse by Whitey. Even if this were the sole cause of any misery amongst indgenous groups, it's deeply unconstructive as it enshrines the status of those groups as passive victims, which is a discriminatory status in itself. No wonder well-meaning white researchers are sometimes met with less-than-open arms by the people they think they are helping. In any case, I don't think it's true, not all of these problems are caused by the evil white man. Let me explain why.
Michael Taussig wrote an excellent book called 'the devil and commodity fetishism in south america' dealing with an analogous situation in Bolivia and Columbia. First, he demolishes any argument that capitalism is anything other than a social construct, rather than the natural order of things as many modern economists and Social Darwinists would have us believe. Then, he describes how attempts to mobilise post-slavery peasant communities using capitalist incentives failed dismally. If the hourly rate was raised as an incentive to do more work, people worked less hours. If people wanted a specific expensive product (a fridge perhaps), they would do extra work until they got what they wanted and then stop working. All of their working relations also continued to be drenched in their 'pre-capitalist' world view, including witchcraft, the devil etc., which functioned in new and strange ways in their new world. Needless to say, globalisation hasn't been kind to South American peasantry.
What does this have to do with Australia? Well, the same processes are in operation. The Indigenous Peoples are not towing the line like good capitalists should, probably because a world-view based on ever-increasing consumption seems insane to people only a couple of generations from a subsistence foraging economy. In other areas of the world colonised by the British, people adapted better if their pre-existing cosmology and economy meshed more easily with that expoused by the Redcoats (e.g. the Mughals found convenient parallels with the Raj).
So the likely resolution to the problems of Indigenous Peoples is that they become obedient wage-slaves like white folks. That would be a terrible shame, not only because it would entail the destruction of a unique group of cultures, but also because the wider world needs to incorporate some of the thinking patterns of the Indigenous Peoples. It would be terrible because capitalism really isn't natural law, and us white folks would do well to note that in an environment of finite resources, rampant consumption will lead inevitably to everyone dying in the desert.
Rant over.
Read Talsig though: he's great.
Peace out.
freeburmarangers.org
Michael Taussig wrote an excellent book called 'the devil and commodity fetishism in south america' dealing with an analogous situation in Bolivia and Columbia. First, he demolishes any argument that capitalism is anything other than a social construct, rather than the natural order of things as many modern economists and Social Darwinists would have us believe. Then, he describes how attempts to mobilise post-slavery peasant communities using capitalist incentives failed dismally. If the hourly rate was raised as an incentive to do more work, people worked less hours. If people wanted a specific expensive product (a fridge perhaps), they would do extra work until they got what they wanted and then stop working. All of their working relations also continued to be drenched in their 'pre-capitalist' world view, including witchcraft, the devil etc., which functioned in new and strange ways in their new world. Needless to say, globalisation hasn't been kind to South American peasantry.
What does this have to do with Australia? Well, the same processes are in operation. The Indigenous Peoples are not towing the line like good capitalists should, probably because a world-view based on ever-increasing consumption seems insane to people only a couple of generations from a subsistence foraging economy. In other areas of the world colonised by the British, people adapted better if their pre-existing cosmology and economy meshed more easily with that expoused by the Redcoats (e.g. the Mughals found convenient parallels with the Raj).
So the likely resolution to the problems of Indigenous Peoples is that they become obedient wage-slaves like white folks. That would be a terrible shame, not only because it would entail the destruction of a unique group of cultures, but also because the wider world needs to incorporate some of the thinking patterns of the Indigenous Peoples. It would be terrible because capitalism really isn't natural law, and us white folks would do well to note that in an environment of finite resources, rampant consumption will lead inevitably to everyone dying in the desert.
Rant over.
Read Talsig though: he's great.
Peace out.
freeburmarangers.org