Vine Deloria (Louis Proyect)

[nancybrumback@xxxxxx]

Louis wrote:

<<I have also seen lots of people with blind
<<spots on indigenous questions, like Nancy Brumback who dismissed Vine
<<DeLoria's arguments out-of-hand because there was a citation from some
<<Buddhist text. We have to be patient with each other and not explode in
<<rage. If Nancy had continued in that vein about Vine DeLoria, I would
<<have explained the error of her ways, not found reasons to exclude her
<<from the list for anti-Indian bias.

I am sorry that  my comment about Vine DeLoria's book was interpreted as
anti-Indian bias. Actually, it was not and I guess I should have explained my
reasons for my lack of enthusiasm for his book. For about 8-10 years, I
have been studying the human impact on the environment. The question of
the extinction of the large mammals on the american continent has been
controversial. I hoped I would find something that would reinforce my first
"take" on the question -- that it was climatic changes that killed them off,
not the Paleo Indians, especially since I have seen fewer and fewer arguments
for the latter since I started researching this.

So when I saw an argument  in DeLoria's book defending the Paleo Indians,
with mention of physical evidence, I went straight to the reference -- the one
from the Buddhist bookstore. I was not very reassured, especially since
earlier in the book he had made some arguments which suggested to me
that he wasn't aware of recent (but not prior to his book) work in physical
anthropology re: the evolution of homo sapiens from neanderthals -- it
didn't happen. This things together made me feel that his research was
less than reliable.

Probably I should have checked out the Buddhist bookstore reference anyway,
and as I reflect back on the whole thing now, maybe I will. But obviously, i
should have either (1) avoided making the comment at all, or
(2) explained why I rejected the reference in the first place.

thanks,

nancy


~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.