Re: [Marxism] Re: Query about scalping

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tom O' wrote:
> I've heard the Native Americans learned it from the British during the
> "French and Indian Wars", but I've never heard of the Dutch connection. If
> this were general Dutch colonial practice, surely I'd have heard of it in
> the Indonesian context. But while there were many horrors in the Dutch East
> Indies, I don't think scalping was among them

The only reference I could find to this was an article by James Axtell
debunking the "revisionist" history that has indigenous people learning
about scalping from the Europeans. The first reference to this was in
leftwing literary critic Leslie Fielder's "Return of the Vanishing
American".  You can find Axtell's rebuttal here:

http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_034800_scalpsandsca.htm

He's probably right, but his motivation in debunking this claim is rooted
in his overall shitty politics. Axtell's stock in trade is writing history
that practically makes the case that the Indians got what they deserved. I
deal with him at:

http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/indian/axtell.htm


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