[Wittrs] Re: The Institution of Slavery and the Concept of Free Will
- From: Martha Sherwoodpike <msherwoodpike@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: CHORA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2011 09:57:41 -0700
On 4/22 JL Speranza wrote:
Native Americans, for example, possibly lacked the notion of "free" (or "slave"
for that matter).
I am continually amazed about the sweeping statements made by educated people
about what "Native Americans" did or did not do. Even if you restrict the term
to those tribes that whose historical territory lay within the the boundaries
of the United States, you are talking about thousands of different tribes with
widely varying cultures, only a few of which are well enough documented to be
able to make meaningful statements about their cultural values. Extend your
scope to central and South America and you encompass highly stratified
civilizations where slavery, feudalism and nested levels of autonomy were very
much the norm.
It is worth remembering, also, that until quite recently any western concept of
free will applied only to adult males. The degree of freedom and autonomy
enjoyed by women differed much less from culture to culture and did not
necessarily mirror the degree of freedom enjoyed by adult males of a certain
social class.
Martha Sherwood
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