This era Lutz describes where Europeans and Indigenous people began to make contact with each other became a ground-breaking moment in Indigenous history because they had never made contact with people outside of North American territory. Lutz describes the perspective of how “many Indigenous peoples initially confused Europeans with supernatural beings” (Lutz, 32). You cannot blame them for sharing this initial thought as you could compare these moments in history to the phenomenon if humans ever made contact with alien species that are not from Earth. In both cases, it could become complicated for both parties to effectively communicate initially because both groups came from cultures that are “distant in time and alien in culture” (Lutz, 32).
Erika and Lutz make a valid point that it is more difficult for Europeans to understand Indigenous performances because of the different cultural attitudes both parties embody. Lutz’s reading emphasizes how Indigenous people tend to have a greater spiritual connection with the world understanding it as they “lived in a world where there was no firm divide between the natural and the spirit world” (Lutz, 35). In contrast, Lutz describes how the European explorers perceived the world during this era through a scientific lens that accustomed to their culture in which they had a troubling understanding of why Indigenous people lived the way they did.
I believe that the Indigenous cultural tradition of perceiving the world through a more spiritual lens contributes to Lutz’s assumption because Europeans’ first contact did not affect this perception. For example, Lutz explains that it was easier for Indigenous people to understand the First contact performances because “rather than destabilizing their traditional beliefs, the arrival of Europeans was merely part of the ongoing proofs of these beliefs” (Lutz, 38). As a result, many of these Indigenous groups already shared the belief that they would eventually contact these people from a foreign land in which once contacted, their way of life would not change; instead, it was a new story to share for many generations. Compared to a European cultural perspective, the contact made with Indigenous groups changed Europe’s cultural perspective of North America forever as they now saw a new opportunity for trade and exploitation.
– KO
Works Cited:
Lutz, J. S., Binney, J., Dauenhauer, N. M., Dauenhauer, R., & Maclaren, I. S. (2014). Myth and memory: Stories of indigenous-european contact. In Myth and Memory: Stories of Indigenous-European Contact (pp. 30-45). Vancouver: UBC Press.
Hi Kyle,
I think that you raise some really good points. I agree that it would be extremely hard for the Indigenous people and the Europeans to relate. Especially because of their drastic differences in thinking, seeing that the Europeans were mainly thinking in a scientific lens rather than a world with no boundaries between the natural and spirit world.
However I have a question to pose. What if the Eurpoeans still had the scientific mindframe but yet were able to work alongside the Indigenous peoples to enhance both of their worldviews. Do you think it would’ve changed the outcome of colonization??
Hi Lenaya!
Thank you for the comment and you pose a very good question! I would argue that it would change the outcome of colonization if Europeans were more open to working with Indigenous people to enhance their worldviews. I think one of the biggest differences we would see today is a society (Canada) would have systems and institutions that are systemically integrated with Indigenous culture rather than having European dominated establishments. One of the biggest contributions to the disaster of colonialism in North America (as Cayla mentions below) is the fact that Europeans did believe that their ideologies were superior to other cultures’ in which they had little interest in learning and more so in directing. One of the key concepts I am beginning to learn from this course is the more stories we learn from other cultures, the better we are at understanding, discussing, and integrating the complexities and structures of other cultures.
Hi Kyle,
While I do agree that European colonialists were more scientific than the Indigenous people, this to me feels like a misdirection. From reading Lutz, I can agree that colonialists were not as spiritual as the native peoples of North America, but I cannot help but point out that much of European life during the time of first contact was still governed and dictated by Religion rather than science.
Would you agree that because of the feeling of Religious superiority that colonialists were more than willing to exploit the land and people?
Hi Cayla,
Thank you for the insightful comment on my post! I think you bring up a valid point and would agree that religious superiority played a crucial role on what caused Europeans to exploit what the land provided and the people that were living on it. This was clearly evident after first contact happened where many European colonialists would use religion as a way to “enlighten” Indigenous groups and used their own laws to exploit them. Maybe I should’ve acknowledged that earlier in my blog post because religion was a dominant factor in why Europeans carried out the processes of colonialism. What I specifically wanted to emphasize in this blog post is when Europeans first came over to North America, it seemed like they shared a scientific curiosity of what North America had to offer. A lot of Europeans wanted to discover the landscape and terrain, the abundance of resources that could be used for trading back home, and potential areas that could be used to set up their own trading establishments. This era was a time where the field of science was becoming more popular and influential in Europe, however, you’re right on the fact that religion still did dictate a lot of European society.