Step into my Parlor… : Perceptions of Cultural Survival among the Kyapo and Yanomani :: Essays Papers

Step into my Parlor Perceptions of Cultural Survival among the Kyapo and Yanomani When caught in the web of global media, the cultural survival of indigenous communities becomes a unbendable planetary issue. As affirmed in a 1997 UN declaration, international communities receive, with gratitude, the communicate of harmony and respect for all life brought to us by quaint indigenous people whose culture maymake a worthy parting to the world community (Neizen 2). With the politics of shame winnowing away at the universal integrity of Brazil, the two cultures of the Kayapo and Yanomami are strategically set in the international web as endangered peoples suffering onslaught of cultivation, yet still worth some contribution to the world. even to what degree is their worthy contribution qualified by dominant international definitions of their culture? The global reception of threatened indigenous cultures is colored with preexist values and assumptions. In contrast to the dominant consumerist culture pulsing in global politics, indigenous groups are seen to offer elements of fantasy rather than diplomacy, and tin a kick-back to the primitive ideology of early man. As the general public enjoys indigenous romanticism like a favorite Hollywood movie, romanticizing indigenous cultures through media is quite common.Yet, romanticism creates an indigenous cultural dichotomy. Sustained interaction with governments broker change among indigenous people and elements of culture make. Interaction provokes Kayapo demands for goods from lean hooks to cooking pots (Rabben 48). The Kayapo became dependent on whites for goods they wanted but had no way of producing themselves (47). Dominant society assumes that cultural survival is only achieved by preserving a static and untransformed people. To safe guard indigenous authenticity and foreign appeal, the common assumption is such that native ways of life moldiness not be influenced or changed in anyway. However, to survi ve as a people in the modern world, indigenous cultures must be advised of their civil rights, for negotiations with imperialistic governments are essential. In 1981, the Kayapo were cheated out of 99.99% of their mining wage because they did not know enough arithmetic to perceive the trick in the white mans contract (71). Only after long time of litigation were they able to win 5% profit. The Yanomami are constantly pressured to assimilate into Brazilian society as the poorest of the poor rather than remain a fractioned culture (86). Cultural survival thus becomes a question of protect the collective rights of an indigenous people from governmental abuse, while educating the people to the limit that they people may choose and protect their own future in a world of inescapable influence.