This thread could probably go in some other forum but I posted it here because of its spiritual/religious implications.
Brotha anAfrican recently raised the question of defining indigenous. His answers raised other questions for me that I would like the scholars and erudite members of Destee to explore. But then we are all erudite and knowledgeable about whatever we perceive as we perceive it. And to my mind the definition of indigenous is far more a perceived than an actual reality.
Now the common definition of indigenous is people who are native to a particular continent or location on a particular planet. In the simplest understanding of this definition anyone is indigenous to the place where they were born. However in practice the white man is not indigenous to any land based on the birth of individual white people. We mistakenly call the red man native americans when in reality they too came here from somewhere else. In fact, since all mankind started in Africa means that Africa is actually the only place where anyone is truly indgenous, including white people.
However in practice indigenous has come to refer to whatever people were inhabiting a particular land mass before the white man came to colonize that land mass. Meaning that the term indigenous is wholly contingent on white history and not the history of all people's.
Comments?
Brotha anAfrican recently raised the question of defining indigenous. His answers raised other questions for me that I would like the scholars and erudite members of Destee to explore. But then we are all erudite and knowledgeable about whatever we perceive as we perceive it. And to my mind the definition of indigenous is far more a perceived than an actual reality.
Now the common definition of indigenous is people who are native to a particular continent or location on a particular planet. In the simplest understanding of this definition anyone is indigenous to the place where they were born. However in practice the white man is not indigenous to any land based on the birth of individual white people. We mistakenly call the red man native americans when in reality they too came here from somewhere else. In fact, since all mankind started in Africa means that Africa is actually the only place where anyone is truly indgenous, including white people.
However in practice indigenous has come to refer to whatever people were inhabiting a particular land mass before the white man came to colonize that land mass. Meaning that the term indigenous is wholly contingent on white history and not the history of all people's.
Comments?