Re: Last word on Kennewick

[Adam Levenstein <cleon42@xxxxxxxxx>]

I think there are some slight terminology problems
here.

Let me say, at the risk of being flamed (again), that
science *is* above the class struggle. Why? Because
it's a method, that's all. A tool, if you will.

However - scientISTS are NOT above the class struggle.
While science may be impersonal and calculating,
scientists are subject to the cultural aspects of
capitalism and imperialism.

Take a computer, as an analogy - since we all either
have one or are capable of basic operation of one. A
computer itself is neither progressive nor
reactionary. By itself, it does nothing. It is the
person behind it that can use it for progress or
reaction. (Or he can use it, as the guy in the next
cube is doing, to just surf for porn all day.) The
internet is an excellent case in point - although born
of imperialism in a very, very real sense - it can
easily be used by revolutionaries, for
revolutionaries.

Adam

--- cc136@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> This may be your last word, Joan, but I can't let
> this pass without
> comment.  No one has said that science is ONLY or
> SIMPLY a
> culturally-biased tool of oppression.  But it often
> has been, and it
> still has the potential to be so.  What we are
> saying is that the belief
> (and I do stress "belief") that "knowledge for the
> sake of knowledge"
> trumps all other values, like solidarity with native
> peoples, is wrong
> (in the political and moral sense).  At THIS point
> in history, it is more
> important for us to be sensitive, than to poke and
> prod and measure (and
> yes, violate) every human remain found on federal
> land.
>
> BTW, your claim that the US gov't has violated the
> separation of church
> and state would only be valid if you accept as just
> the colonial
> relationship between the dominant society and native
> peoples - which is
> precisely the point I've been trying to make.
>
> Chris Carrick
> PhD. Candidate
> Department of City and Regional Planning
> Cornell University
>
>
> On Tue, 14 Aug 2001 ermadog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > My last word on Kennewick.
> >
> > No one has denied that these bones were found on
> Federal land. These bones
> > are therefore found property of the U.S.
> government.
> >
> > The Umatilla themselves say that no matter of
> sovereignty is involved.
> > Their claim to the bones must be construed
> therefore to be entirely a
> > matter of religious belief that the bones belong
> to an ancestor.
> >
> > The U.S. government has allowed this religious
> claim to stand in the way
> > of determination of fact. (On the East Coast,
> skeletal remains might
> > actually be of Viking origin. On the West, there
> is some slight
> > possibility of previous migration of earlier
> people.)
> >
> > The U.S. government is therefore in violation of
> the constitutional
> > establishment of a wall of separation of church
> and state, and of the
> > constitutional prohibition of establishment of
> religion.
> >
> > Since no one on this list likes the value system
> of the scientists who
> > have been studying the bones, I think the bones
> should be turned over to
> > some scientist whose values we like. I vote for
> Dr. David Suzuki. He will,
> > of course, have to be persuaded to abandon his
> theistic belief in Western
> > science and return to the traditional
> spirituallity of his Japanese
> > forbears. He will first have to publicly
> acknowledge that all his data on
> > global warming is entirely valueless since it was
> derived through the use
> > of a cultural construct of oppression, and,
> furthermore, his use of this
> > construct shows that he himself is a racist pig.
> >
> > After that, we'll burn down all the universities
> because they are all just
> > biased cultural constructs of oppression.
> >
> > Joan Cameron
> >
> >


=====
Adam Levenstein                          cleon42@xxxxxxxxx
ICQ: 17125158

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