Is there a good reason to preserve the religious/cultural practices of indigenous peoples?

Question

Abrahamic religions seem to feel that these practices are evil and these peoples should be assimilated into western religion and culture. Atheists might feel that their practices are superstitious and ignorant. What do you think?

Answer 1

In Australia, the aboriginals have been told for two centuries that their beliefs and practices were wrong. They were forced to speak English, babies were taken from their mothers and raised as Christians, and forced to deny their heritage, creating the stolen generation.
Tribes were slaughtered because they chose to remain true to their culture. They were turned into slaves, paid only in cruelty.

What was the outcome of the British reason?

Aboriginals are now so lost that they know not where they fit into this society that is not their own. Try as they might they are not accepted by the majority as citizens of this country.
They live in communities of squalor. Because that is all our government will allow them. They have lost their culture, ways and their pride. This has lead to widespread acholisim and depression, as they struggle to fit in a society that will never accept them as equals. They are lost without their heritage.
Their children grow up believing that the white man is their superior and that they are second rate citizens of their own country.
It pains my heart to see a once proud and respectable race of people crammed so tightly into a box that is not their own that they are suffocating and choking on the principles and beliefs that we have forced upon them.

This should be reason enough that man never again tries to deny a culture their ways and beliefs.
But as much as i hate to admit it we continue to do so to this day and will probably continue to do so for a long time to come.
Blessings
Ariel
)O(

Answer 2

I've been called a xenophobe for making this comment before so please actually hear me out before you judge my opinion. I don't think any nation should forcefully (either fiscally or legally) preserve any culture whatsoever. Culture goes through a social evolution much like organisms do biologically. To imply that the way things have been is better than any possible, novel changes to culture is in itself an ethnocentric position (if you think about it). Even if the colonizing culture had not imposed its own culture on the indigenous people, the indigenous culture would have ultimately evolved anyway. Change is inescapable. I see impeding change tantamount to forcing a group of people to adopt your own culture. (i.e. I feel that forcing the perpetuity of an indigenous culture to be no different than what the colonizing people did to that culture to begin with!) Academically speaking we should always be preserving that which our predecessors left behind, however we shouldn't be ascribing some type of inherent value to tradition in of itself.

Answer 3

I had this debate when studying Anthropology.

Yes ones religious/cultural practises are what defines them as a people. They are vial for Indigenous groups identities.

Do a role change - if a modern day Genghis Khan was able to take over Europe & forced the Europeans to abandon their religious/cultural practices? Even Atheists have cultural practices if not religious ones.

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Answer 4

The reason I would see to preserve the religious/cultural practices of indigenous peoples is for historical purposes, so we might have a reminder of the way things were before the world was made new.

Answer 5

On the one hand people deserve access to their cultural heritage as a matter of human rights, but on the other no one wants to be a museum exhibit. Change in human affairs is inevitable, and the isolation that preserved much of the diversity of human cultures is breaking down, particularly over the past century.

It's a very good question. Cultural heritage is part of what defines people, but it isn't all. I personally would regard the loss of Shakespeare's works as a cultural catastrophe, but I wouldn't like to live in 16th century England.

Answer 6

I think both these things are true, but also that assimilation into western (or eastern) religion is evil, superstitous and ignorant as well.

We would do better teaching these people rationalism and reason, not give them a new false god.

Keeping information on old pagan ways explains the source of current religions, all of which are built on old superstition and fable.

Answer 7

all cultures are worth preserving. However when it comes to Indigenous religious beliefs. in most cases i think that government should stay out of it and allow the Medicine Men, Shamen. and spiritual leaders of that Tribe/people decide what to teach.

for example in America. it is hard to find a Medicine Man to teach you authentic Native American ways. there are many factors in this. but one of thim is that the BIA and AIM say that any Shaman that teaches the "white man" is not a real shaman. no matter what his training and experience. they actually have a list pf people that do this. and list them as fake people. when the tribes actually respect and encourage , and endorse them.

for example i know one of the men on that list. some of the things that the AIM claim .

he Charges Money for Vision Quest.
he charges money for sweat lodge ceramonies.
that he had no direct relation to the tribe that he claims to be from.

I have done his vision quest. it did not cost me one cent. nor did it cost anyone there anything.

I have participated in many Inipi (sweat lodge) ceramonies. and have never paid a penny for it. nor have i seen anyone pay for any healings or spiritual work.

i have seen the DNA test that he had done to prove his relationship to the Apache.

but he teaches the White man. and the Government does not wnat people to think like the Native man. which is to say "for themselves".

Answer 8

Well, I think it is elitist to assume that indigenous peoples consist of individuals who are helpless, passive, and unable to decide what is best for themselves.

If new ideas are not presented with coercion, then why must people be "protected" from them? If traditional ideas work for a particular group, what is that to anyone else? If they don't work, they have the ability to consider other options.

History advises us to be wary of visions featuring "invigorated" or "rediscovered" "ethnic" religions. Such ideas are nothing new, and have been used in the dubious service of nationalism and racism.

Answer 9

Female Genital Mutilation: Is there a good reason to preserve this religious/cultural practice of indigenous peoples? I think not!

Answer 10

I think there is good reason to allow indigenous peoples to preserve and carry on their faith practices.

Different cultures express faith in different ways. It is an integral part of who they are. When you arbitrarily take this away you are taking away a part of who they are. It is not up to the invading culture to determine which faith practices are 'correct'.