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Primitive Racism: Reuters about “the world’s most primitive tribes”

Published on February 7, 2006 by lorenz Posted in Andaman & Nicobar societies, anthropology in the news, indigenous people / minorities, Us and Them

(via ethno::log) Looking for another example of everyday racism? Read reuters story about “the worlds most primitive people”:

Members of one of the world’s most primitive and isolated tribes have killed two fishermen who strayed on to their island in India’s Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, a senior government official said on Monday.

(…)

A group of about 20 Sentinelese tribes people were surrounding them, Negi said. “They (the tribals) were naked and carrying bows and arrows,” he told Reuters by telephone.

The Indian government has banned anyone from going near Sentinel Island where about 250 tribe members live a hunter-gathering lifestyle little changed since the Stone Age.

UPDATE: Story no longer online. >> Read the same story in The Times where the India correspondent even dares to write “Described by anthropologists as a lost tribe of Stone Age aborigines, the Sentinelese…”

Our obsession with the notion of the primitive society

“Stone Age Tribes”, tsunami and racist evolutionism

Ten Little Niggers: Tsunami, tribal circus and racism

(via ethno::log) Looking for another example of everyday racism? Read reuters story about "the worlds most primitive people":

Members of one of the world's most primitive and isolated tribes have killed two fishermen who strayed on to their island in India's…

Our obsession with the notion of the primitive society

Published on June 24, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Andaman & Nicobar societies, anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, indigenous people / minorities, persons and theories, Us and Them

Quite regularily, newspapers report about so called “primitive peoples”. The newest example is the Reuters-story “Hunter-gatherers face extinction on Andaman island” where we read “how primitive tribesmen came out of the jungle armed with bows, arrows and spears, raided a village in the Middle Andaman island and looted tools, food, clothes, cash and jewellery” and the reporter asks if this is an “indication that the Jarawa hunter-gatherers remain untamed primitives — or a cry for help from man’s earliest ancestors, their forests and their lifestyle, their existence under threat as never before?”.

I’ve always wondered why Westerners are so obsessed with this notion of the primitive, with the notion of linear evolution where the so-called so called enlightened West reigns on the top. From an anthropological point of view one could explain this phenomenon like this: These so-called primitives are used by the West in order to construct a positive image of itself – the “primitives” play the same role as the so-called “Orient” – as shown by Edward Said in his classic “Orientalism”.

Or as Adam Kuper wrote in his book The Invention of Primitive Society: “Primitive society was the mirror image of modern society – or rather, primitive society as they imagined it inverted the characteristics of modern society as they saw it.”

This also applies to anthropologists as we know. Kuper writes:

“The anthropologists took this primitive society as their special subject, but in practice primitive society proved to be their own society (as they understood it) seen in a distorting mirror. For them modern society was defined above all by the territorial state, the monogamous family and private property. Primitive society therefor must have been nomadic, promiscuos and communist. (…) Primitive man was illogical and given to magic.”

UPDATE: See also Evamaria’s ramblings: As an anthropologist, Cameron Diaz’ travel show on MTV is pretty offensive to my sensibilities. ‘The life of the Massai has remained the same for the last 600 years.’ Ugh, that kind of remark makes my skin crawl! >> continue

Quite regularily, newspapers report about so called "primitive peoples". The newest example is the Reuters-story "Hunter-gatherers face extinction on Andaman island" where we read "how primitive tribesmen came out of the jungle armed with bows, arrows and spears, raided a…

“Stone Age Tribes”, tsunami and racist evolutionism

Published on May 4, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Andaman & Nicobar societies, anthropology in the news, Asia, indigenous people / minorities, Us and Them

The belief that the so-called Western civilisation represents the final goal of human evolution, the idea that we’re on the top of the evolution is still alive – both among journalists and anthropologists as the coverage of the tsunami disaster has shown. Today, again such a story full of racist evolutionism appeared – the Daily Telegraph writes: Chief’s death brings end of Stone Age tribes a step nearer. Quote: “Some anthropologists believe that the tribes are a vital link in the chain of human evolution. They have no written script.” >> continue

SEE ALSO:
19th Century Social Evolutionism – Anthropological theories
(Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama)

The belief that the so-called Western civilisation represents the final goal of human evolution, the idea that we're on the top of the evolution is still alive - both among journalists and anthropologists as the coverage of the tsunami disaster…

BBC: Tsunami “folklore” saved islanders

Published on January 20, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Andaman & Nicobar societies, anthropology in the news, Asia, culture traditions, ecology nature, indigenous people / minorities, Tsunami Dec 2004

BBC

Traditional knowledge handed down from generation to generation helped to save ancient tribes on India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands from the worst of the tsunami, anthropologists say. Samir Acharya, convenor of the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology (Sane), said the aboriginals have a collective memory of earthquakes and tsunamis so they knew to move to higher ground. >> continue

BBC

Traditional knowledge handed down from generation to generation helped to save ancient tribes on India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands from the worst of the tsunami, anthropologists say. Samir Acharya, convenor of the Society for Andaman and Nicobar Ecology (Sane), said…

Ten Little Niggers: Tsunami, tribal circus and racism

Published on January 16, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Andaman & Nicobar societies, anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, Asia, indigenous people / minorities, Tsunami Dec 2004, Us and Them

Kai Friese, Outlook India

Yes, anthropology is alive and well, in the islands and it’s having a field day in the news. The Indian Express on Sunday gave us a double-page spread (slugged ‘Black and White’) with a field guide to “the tribes and their survival tricks”. The Great Andamanese “whose strongest physical characteristics are distinctly Negroid”; the Jarawas who “look at heavenly bodies and can decipher what is to come”; the Shompen, “the only primitive tribe of the islands with Mongoloid features”, and so on.

It’s revealing that most journalists have invoked racial labels like Mongoloid or Negroid (I’ve even read ‘Negrative’) only as a marker of primitivism. Meanwhile, NDTV’s more sensitive reporter wittered on about the “dignity” of Nicobarese tribals, and the BBC’s web edition fretted about the fate of “some rare indigenous tribal groups”. >> continue

Kai Friese, Outlook India