- Anything Else -

Not to mention...

Posted by: Nikhil Jaikumar ( DSA, MA, USA ) on December 12, 1999 at 17:19:35:

In Reply to: On the other hand... posted by Samuel Day Fassbinder on December 11, 1999 at 21:27:16:

Sam, you forgot the four most effective way of dominating the Amerindians.

1) Burning down their villages, with them inside, as did teh CIA's minions in Guatemala.
2) Infecting them with diseases as did the Americans 200 years ago, the Brazilians 40 years ago, and as is happening with the Yanomamo today.
Haven';t the Yanomami population dropped my some gigantic fractioon in the last few years?
3) Hire some greedy, randy miners, ranchers and prospecters to walk in, shoot the men, rape the women, steal the land, and establish a reign of terror. Agaoin, the Brazilians seem to have been the masters at that, but I heard the Paraguayans did a fairly effective job on the cannibalistic Ache some time back. Our crimes were similar, we just did them long enough ago (c. 100 years) that no one alive remembers.
4) Just turn them into slaves like the rubber companies on the Putomayo River.

Incidentally, on teh subject of 'alcoholism', Floyd has kindly informed me that recent evidence shows that the 'alcoholic American Indian' idea is a myth. He claims that tehy are not mroe geneticallymore susceptible to alcohol, and that the only factors are socioeconomic. If so, that woudl be a major revelation. I don't pretened to know the facts, so you'd better ask him.


Follow Ups:

The Debating Room Post a Followup