3. We began this unit by discussing assumptions and differences that we carry into our class. In “First Contact as Spiritual Performance,” Lutz makes an assumption about his readers (Lutz, “First Contact” 32). He asks us to begin with the assumption that comprehending the performances of the Indigenous participants is “one of the most obvious difficulties.” He explains that this is so because “one must of necessity enter a world that is distant in time and alien in culture, attempting to perceive indigenous performance through their eyes as well as those of the Europeans.” Here, Lutz is assuming either that his readers belong to the European tradition, or he is assuming that it is more difficult for a European to understand Indigenous performances – than the other way around. What do you make of this reading? Am I being fair when I point to this assumption? If so, is Lutz being fair when he makes this assumption?

I chose to respond to this question because upon reading Lutz’ lines on the “obvious difficulty” of comprehending the performance of the Indigenous participants, I felt what I can best describe as a tone bordering condescendence. Being a Canadian professor at the University of Victoria, John Lutz falls into the European category, thus meaning that understanding the absolute truth of the Indigenous performances upon first contact with the Europeans, is also a challenge for him.
By assuming that his readers “must of necessity enter a world that is distant in time and alien in culture”, I think Lutz is assuming that his readers belong to the European tradition. This strikes me as understandable as Lutz position as a professor in Canada probably means that he deals more with readers of a similar tradition. Albeit this is also an assumption that likely has many counter examples in reality. I do think that my professor is fair in pointing out this assumption, as his wording rather explicitly implies a barrier of understanding between European and Indigenous. When considering the globalized world in which we live in today, and more specifically the large bodies of international and multi-cultural students that attend UBC and the University of Victoria, and who have come across Lutz’ work, it seems to me that he would have been aware that his readers didn’t necessarily all fall under the European tradition, and that several of them might have been able to understand these performances without undergoing the difficulties he mentions.

I’m inclined to think that Lutz perhaps takes his position as a professor who is well involved with the historical contacts and exchanges between European and Indigenous, as enabling him to be a more able decipherer of Indigenous performances. After all his work is devoted to his own entering of a distant time alien to his culture in order to better make sense of them. It seems to me, that in making this assumption Lutz was projecting his own experience, and assuming that his readers would all have to go through similar ones in order to understand what he managed to understand. I don’t think he is being particularly fair when making this assumption; it reflects a generalizing of his readers, and a slightly condescending image he has of them as not being capable of tuning their understanding to the elements underlying the Indigenous performances.

Chamberlain and Wickwire both note the importance of listening as a step to make sense of the first contact stories between European and Indigenous people. The documentation of these stories definitely provide a challenge as it requires the investigator or the listener to take into account the centuries of myths and stories that contributed to how the exchanges between European and Indigenous are treated today. I’d hate to think that Lutz was actually being condescending towards his readers, which leads me to propose another alternative for the assumption he makes. Even if he did assume that his readers were of a European tradition, this tradition has grown and evolved since the very first encounters between Europe and the Americas. The myths and stories that had shaped the Europeans’ perceptions of the Indigenous are no longer as trusted and valued as they used to be. This is evident when one notes the efforts that many Westerners go through to delegitimize these assumptions in the hopes of restoring equality between European and non-European. Perhaps when referring to a distant time alien in culture, Lutz could have also been implying the European culture prevalent in the era of discovery, as opposed to just the Indigenous one.

I do think that my professor is fair in pointing out this assumption, as its ambiguity does leave space for questioning. If this is in fact the assumption Lutz was making, it reflects a hypocritical irony on his part, as he is projecting inaccurate perceptions on his readers, thus boxing them in the flawed image he has of them, just as the Europeans and Indigenous upon first contact, perceived each other not with “fresh eyes”, but with perceptions based on previous assumptions they had made of each other.

Works Cited:

Robinson, Harry, and Wendy C. Wickwire. Living by Stories: A Journey of Landscape and Memory. Vancouver: Talon, 2005. Print.