Have you looked at some of the stuff being promoted on your new website rewild.info? Specifically that website about North American After Culture? To me, this is one of the most offensive websites I’ve come across. Not only does it mock Native peoples of North America by saying “The people of the Afterculture are not ripping off Native Americans. They ARE Native Americans. Wiser, with a greater store of knowledge, with a restored spiritual vision that has passed through the Fire, the good guys have emerged.” This quote seems to suggest that white people who are adopting Native Lifeways are wiser and smarter then the original peoples who practiced these ways of life.
I can’t believe this would be attached to your website, it is utterly disgusting!
I don’t even know how to respond to that other than, it seems like you’re just looking to twist things. The Afterculture site has been a place of inspiration for me, Willem and Jason since we discovered it years ago. Let me translate it for you:
“The people of the Afterculture are not ripping off Native Americans. They ARE Native Americans.” meaning, “The Afterculture is a culture that has gone back to living natively in North America.”
“Wiser, with a greater store of knowledge” Meaning, “knowing that civilization is totally fucked, this new native culture will never make the same mistakes as our scythian ancestors did”
“with a restored spiritual vision that has passed through the fire, the good guys have emerged” meaning “with a restored sense of place that was strong enough to survive bullshit civilization, the native spirit came back.”
I find it really hard for someone not to understand that. I would say that people who survived collapse are hardened in a different way than those who hadn’t. I think the Mayans who survived their civilized collapse came out wiser than their fore bearers. People learn from mistakes, so if you make a really big one, it can be assumed that you’ll learn a lesson. I don’t see how it is suggesting that, but that the new culture that emerges will have more insight into what “not” to do. I can’t disagree with that. The whole point is that a new culture is a mixture of native wisdom and civilized mistakes. That’s why it’s “wiser”. It’s a collective of knowledge from various cultures who lived different ways… it’s living in the old way with a new respect for it.
I wish I could say I have as much faith in people learning from their mistakes, but I guess those that don’t won’t last very long.
The question really at issue with the Afterculture exhibit is whether or not a theft of indigenous culture(s) has occurred. Theft of such cultural traits has been accurately described as genocide, so it’s something to consider. But the answer here is no, it hasn’t. That there are a few superficial similarities isn’t surprising, considering that the culture(s) depicted are conceived of as having evolved in the same place as those other place-based cultures, and the author seems to have chosen poorly in the wording describing the neo-indigenous people.
Not to mention that it isn’t all that traditional for American Indians to consider ‘blood quantum’ and other racist measurements as the yardsticks to decide who is native, but rather who is part of a culture, and adoption of whites, Chinese, and Africans in forced diaspora had been particularly common at certain periods. Given the post-civilizational view of the site, it isn’t too hard to imagine that those smart enough to learn and live indigenously will eventually find themselves adopted by or married into legitimate, long-standing indigenous cultures.
5 responses to “The New Rewild.info!”
Hey Urban,
Have you looked at some of the stuff being promoted on your new website rewild.info? Specifically that website about North American After Culture? To me, this is one of the most offensive websites I’ve come across. Not only does it mock Native peoples of North America by saying “The people of the Afterculture are not ripping off Native Americans. They ARE Native Americans. Wiser, with a greater store of knowledge, with a restored spiritual vision that has passed through the Fire, the good guys have emerged.” This quote seems to suggest that white people who are adopting Native Lifeways are wiser and smarter then the original peoples who practiced these ways of life.
I can’t believe this would be attached to your website, it is utterly disgusting!
Possum
I don’t even know how to respond to that other than, it seems like you’re just looking to twist things. The Afterculture site has been a place of inspiration for me, Willem and Jason since we discovered it years ago. Let me translate it for you:
“The people of the Afterculture are not ripping off Native Americans. They ARE Native Americans.” meaning, “The Afterculture is a culture that has gone back to living natively in North America.”
“Wiser, with a greater store of knowledge” Meaning, “knowing that civilization is totally fucked, this new native culture will never make the same mistakes as our scythian ancestors did”
“with a restored spiritual vision that has passed through the fire, the good guys have emerged” meaning “with a restored sense of place that was strong enough to survive bullshit civilization, the native spirit came back.”
I find it really hard for someone not to understand that. I would say that people who survived collapse are hardened in a different way than those who hadn’t. I think the Mayans who survived their civilized collapse came out wiser than their fore bearers. People learn from mistakes, so if you make a really big one, it can be assumed that you’ll learn a lesson. I don’t see how it is suggesting that, but that the new culture that emerges will have more insight into what “not” to do. I can’t disagree with that. The whole point is that a new culture is a mixture of native wisdom and civilized mistakes. That’s why it’s “wiser”. It’s a collective of knowledge from various cultures who lived different ways… it’s living in the old way with a new respect for it.
I wish I could say I have as much faith in people learning from their mistakes, but I guess those that don’t won’t last very long.
The question really at issue with the Afterculture exhibit is whether or not a theft of indigenous culture(s) has occurred. Theft of such cultural traits has been accurately described as genocide, so it’s something to consider. But the answer here is no, it hasn’t. That there are a few superficial similarities isn’t surprising, considering that the culture(s) depicted are conceived of as having evolved in the same place as those other place-based cultures, and the author seems to have chosen poorly in the wording describing the neo-indigenous people.
Not to mention that it isn’t all that traditional for American Indians to consider ‘blood quantum’ and other racist measurements as the yardsticks to decide who is native, but rather who is part of a culture, and adoption of whites, Chinese, and Africans in forced diaspora had been particularly common at certain periods. Given the post-civilizational view of the site, it isn’t too hard to imagine that those smart enough to learn and live indigenously will eventually find themselves adopted by or married into legitimate, long-standing indigenous cultures.
hi,
i was looking around and didn’t see it: will there be a RSS feed for the rewild blog? or is it already there and i missed it?
thanks!
Hi Urban, just wondering if the old site is archived somewhere? I’m looking for some of the old posts, any help would be severely appreciated.
Thanks so much for the old site, luck to you with the new one.
Cheers,
Reticent Lemon