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US History Lecture 2 — Transcript

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0:00In today's lecture, we're going to chat
0:02about the earliest Native American
0:04lifestyles,
0:06specifically for the first few thousand
0:09years of human occupation of the
0:11Americas.
0:12What was life like? What were people
0:15doing? What, you know, can we get a
0:18visual here? Can we see what human
0:20beings were like?
0:23Well, the best we can do to try to
0:25reconstruct at least a generalized
0:27picture of American Indian life is to
0:30look at the life of modernday hunters
0:33and gatherers. Is to look at the first
0:35historical records we have about hunters
0:37and gathers in the Americas and to look
0:39at archaeology.
0:41Those are the best pieces of information
0:43we have, which of course they are not
0:44going to give us a very detailed story
0:46line. We're not going to know about
0:49specific individuals or even specific
0:51tribes.
0:53But we can probably piece together at
0:56least a general picture of life in the
0:59Americas
1:01specifically. You heard me refer a
1:03minute ago to hunting and gathering
1:04which is the way in which human beings
1:08have been making a living for 99% of the
1:13time we have been around as human
1:14beings. We have lived like this. So what
1:16I'm going to describe definitely
1:18describe life in North America but also
1:20describe life in other places as well.
1:24What I'm going to sketch out for you is
1:26at least the basics of what usually and
1:29again keep in mind there are plenty of
1:30exception but usually what a hunting
1:33gathering lifestyle entails.
1:36First you hear me refer to hunting and
1:38gathering. These are two separate
1:40activities. the hunting of animals and
1:43the gathering of plants, berries, roots,
1:46and all sort of other edible materials.
1:49Across the globe, there's a division of
1:52labor when it come to hunting and
1:54gathering with men doing the hunting and
1:58women doing the gathering.
2:01And you know, if you find something in
2:03one place but not in another, that's a
2:06cultural thing. But if across the globe
2:09everywhere you find that people do
2:12something, probably that's not a
2:14cultural thing. There's a biological
2:16element to it. And when it comes to why
2:19the division
2:22along gender lines between uh men doing
2:25the hunting, women doing the gathering
2:28has a lot to do with biology. Now, of
2:30course, women can hunt and men can
2:33gather. There's no barrier that makes it
2:36impossible for either gender
2:39to perform both activities.
2:43However, the reason why we see this
2:44division is because well, it's kind of
2:46simple really is it has nothing to do
2:49with men being physically stronger than
2:52women or stuff like that because again
2:54women
2:56can perfectly hunt. There are excellent
2:58women hunters. The problem is something
3:00else is that women's bodies do something
3:04that men's bodies can't do.
3:06Specifically, the ability to get
3:08pregnant
3:10and after a baby is born, you know, a
3:13father can be the most involved father
3:15in the world and take care of the kids
3:17and do all they want, but you know, put
3:20the infant to your chest, squeeze all
3:23you want, no milk is going to come out
3:25of your nipples. So, that's a difference
3:27between men and women right there.
3:30Women can breastfeed. Men can't. What
3:32does that have to do with hunting and
3:34gathering? Well, it's simple. An infant,
3:39you're not going to be able to take an
3:40infant on a long hunting expedition
3:43chasing dangerous animals who are going
3:45to be fairly angry that you're trying to
3:48kill them. So whereas a woman could join
3:51a hunting expedition,
3:53a woman who had given birth is not going
3:56to be able to hunt for quite a long
3:58time.
4:00she will be able to strap an infant to
4:02her back and uh go gather plants. She
4:06will not be able to go on a hunting
4:07expedition.
4:09And so in societies where breastfeeding
4:11would sometime last quite a long time
4:14and you may have a few kids in your
4:16lifetime, it kind of didn't make sense
4:19for women to invest too much in an
4:21activity that they wouldn't be able to
4:24keep doing all the time. You know men if
4:28they are around great but if the father
4:30is not around the infant will still
4:32survive thanks to the mother's milk. If
4:35the mother is gone that's a much bigger
4:38problem because the infant depends on so
4:41it has nothing to do with men or women
4:42ability to hunt has everything to do
4:44with infants needing to be breastfed. So
4:48that's the number one reason why.
4:51Now when we talk about hunting and
4:53gathering tribes,
4:55what are we talking about? Thousands of
4:57people, hundreds. The typ this of course
4:59varies depending on the available
5:01resources, but the typical number for
5:03hunters and gatherers is anywhere
5:06between like 10 to 50 people. That's
5:09about the norm.
5:11There are exceptions to this, but that's
5:13fairly typical.
5:15And the number of people in a tribe may
5:17vary throughout the year because hunters
5:20and gatherers tend to they are a they
5:22are nomadic. They don't stay in one
5:24place all the time. They they move
5:26around a certain land base in order to
5:30access different resources that become
5:33available at different times of the
5:35year.
5:36And they also depending on the
5:39availability of resources they may join
5:41together in larger tribe or break apart
5:44apart in smaller groups throughout the
5:46year. So in the summer months when
5:49resources are most abandoned you can
5:52have those few groups who get together
5:54and live together in a super tribe for
5:57two three four months.
6:00But when resources become more scarce,
6:02as the cl as the weather become less and
6:06less friendly,
6:08people will break up in the smallest
6:10possible units that can still guarantee
6:13survival in order to access limited
6:15resources. You know, if a territory is
6:17not going to be able to support 60
6:19people living together in one spot,
6:22maybe will support 10 people. And so
6:25parts of the year you break down to a
6:28smaller family unit. and parts of the
6:30year you join together in the summer
6:32gatherings in a larger tribe. So that
6:35would vary throughout the year. Now one
6:39of the advantages of the summer
6:40gathering is increased knowledge. You
6:43can you know there are no libraries,
6:45there is no internet. The only knowledge
6:47you have is from other human beings. So
6:50you know meeting more people will be a
6:52way to learn more to trade items.
6:55And speaking of trade also to trade
6:57jeans because unless you and I don't
6:59mean jeans as in blue jeans I mean jeans
7:02as in ge nees
7:05because the thing is unless you have
7:09strange redneckish ideas about human
7:12sexuality.
7:13You really don't want to pick your mates
7:16among people you are related to. You
7:20know, aren't you happy today? You are
7:23you're getting a solid college
7:25education. You found out that men can
7:27breastfeed and that you shouldn't be
7:29having sex with your siblings. That's
7:31half of your college education is taken
7:33care of already.
7:35So, summer gatherings would allow you to
7:37meet people that you're not related to
7:40and pick a partner that you're going to
7:43have kids with. So, that was another
7:45function of this stuff.
7:48In terms of politics, in terms of
7:51leadership and even economics, hunting
7:54and gathering tribes are fairly
7:56interesting because on an economic
7:59level, it's based on sharing.
8:02Private property is minimal if existent
8:05at all. You know, maybe you have your
8:07weapon that's your own or a particular
8:09tool that you use, but for the most
8:10part, everybody in the tribe shares. If
8:13a hunter catches some food, that's not
8:16his food. It's for everybody in the
8:18tribe is um as long as one person is
8:22eating, everybody's eating. It's um
8:25because you know, one day you may not be
8:27lucky, the next person is and they share
8:29with you. And you know, it's easy to do
8:31in a small group of people. These are
8:32all people that you're essentially
8:34related to. It's a big extended family.
8:36Of course, this kind of sharing will be
8:38harder when the system gets when you
8:40have more and more people that you don't
8:42know. But at this level, it's all based
8:43on sharing. And similarly,
8:47you don't have a complicated political
8:50hierarchy. You don't have a rich hunter
8:52and gather and a poor hunter and gather.
8:55For one, because there's no room for
8:57accumulation of wealth. You know, all
8:59that you own, you have to carry it on
9:02your back. So that puts some serious
9:05limitation to how much you would want to
9:08accumulate, how many possessions,
9:12usually very minimal amount of
9:14possession that you carry. So there's
9:16really no room to become rich or poor.
9:19You just leave off the land. That's it.
9:21And similarly
9:24in terms of leadership,
9:26the way somebody become a leader in a
9:28hunting and gathering tribe is not by
9:29election. is not because you are the
9:32king who inherit the right is usually
9:36based on consensus is
9:40everybody knows each other in the tribe
9:42and they have known you from the time
9:43you are born. So if you have shown
9:46yourself to be brilliant, to be really
9:48smart, to give good advice
9:51when there's a decision to be made,
9:53people turn to you. They want to hear
9:56what you have to say, not because you
9:58won an election or you become a leader
10:00because people look at you as a leader,
10:02because they like your advice. They like
10:04what you have to say. If you decide that
10:06you get you want to get too bossy or you
10:09start saying things that don't make
10:11sense to anybody, nobody has to listen
10:13to you. You can be the tribal leader,
10:16but if you become really annoying, you
10:18wake up the next day to be the leader of
10:20yourself because everybody has left you
10:21behind and they don't want to deal with
10:23you. So leadership is based on charisma,
10:27is based on persuasion, is not based on
10:30your ability to tell other people what
10:33to do. You have none as a
10:37as as a hunter and gatherer, as a as a
10:40political leader in a hunting and
10:41gathering community.
10:44And the way you make decisions is by
10:48consensus. Usually somebody will make a
10:50proposal and people sit around and chat
10:53until everybody agrees that they can
10:55live with that decision.
10:58This is probably the best system you can
11:01think of in terms of respecting
11:03individual freedoms, but of course is
11:05one that can only work as long as
11:07numbers are small. Because in a small
11:09community, you can sit around and talk
11:12things out until you find a compromise.
11:15Once those 30 or 40 or 50 people become
11:18500 or a thousand or 5,000
11:22or even more, that ability to sit around
11:24and talk things out clearly disappears.
11:28So great system only works for small
11:31communities.
11:34One more thing I should mention in terms
11:35of warfare, hunters and gatherers are no
11:38more warlike or less warlike than
11:40anybody else. You know, human beings
11:42have the same instincts, the same
11:43psychology.
11:46They do have a couple of less reasons
11:49than most mo than most of the humans
11:52that live in the societies we are
11:54familiar with to wage war.
11:58Specifically, as we're going to see,
12:00we're going to discuss that in a minute,
12:01so I don't want to spend time on it
12:03right now. But they are not going to
12:05fight too many wars based on religion
12:08for reasons we'll be seeing. And they
12:11are not going to fight too many wars
12:13based on wanting somebody else's
12:15property because as we have established
12:18there's no incentive in gaining property
12:20that then you have to carry. It just
12:22make no sense.
12:24They would fight over hunting grounds.
12:27They would fight over things like that
12:28but not over property not over religion.
12:31So that removes a couple of the reasons
12:34that today you still see people waging
12:36wars against one another.
12:39Having said that, let's jump into the
12:42religious angle. You know, what was uh
12:45what kind of a religious outlook did
12:46these people have? What um what's their
12:50worldview like? How did they see their
12:52place in the universe? And so we at
12:55least sketch some ideas in that regard.
13:00So when it comes to the most ancient
13:04form of religion there is
13:07there there isn't even a commonly agreed
13:10upon word for it. Some people use the
13:13term animism, some people use shamanism,
13:16some people simply refer to them as
13:17tribal religions.
13:20Regardless of how you call it, this is
13:21the most ancient form of religious
13:25outlook that human beings have ever had.
13:28And in many ways you can see how many
13:30other religions will still conserve some
13:33traces of this worldview. Now obviously
13:36there are tremendous differences from
13:38one tribe to another, from one place to
13:41another, and we can get into all that,
13:44but what we can do is focus on some of
13:47the common themes that these traditions
13:49present. By the way, I should probably
13:52mention still to this day about 10% of
13:54people in the world practice some form
13:56or another of tribal religion.
13:59The reason for this decline, well, there
14:01are a couple. For one, when human beings
14:03moved away from a hunting and gathering
14:06lifestyle and started living in farming
14:09communities first and cities later,
14:12their religions were modified to fit the
14:17new the new context in which they lived,
14:19the new cultural context in which they
14:21lived. And when that happened, a lot of
14:25the decline for hunting and gathering
14:27people in their outlook was tied to
14:29conquest to the fact that if you look at
14:32the two biggest religious traditions in
14:34the world today are in terms of numbers
14:36at least they are Christianity and
14:38Islam. And if you look at some of the
14:41religions with the greatest numbers of
14:43wars and conquest and things like that,
14:46they are also Christianity and Islam.
14:48And the two things are not coincidences.
14:50You know it's uh the way Christianity
14:53and Islam have expanded for the most
14:56part is to conquest is you know most
14:58animistic people
15:00converted not because somebody knocked
15:03on their door and said hey here is a
15:05great idea do you want to join us was
15:08more that somebody showed up with a
15:10sword and say we're going to cut your
15:11head off or you're going to convert and
15:14people say of course I wish nothing
15:16better than to convert to your religious
15:18tradition. So a lot of it force
15:21conversions has been you know if you
15:23look at the history of the Americas,
15:25Africa, parts of Asia, even Europe for
15:28that matter. Warfare was the way in
15:31which religions have expanded and this
15:34has caused the decline for animistic
15:37shamanic traditions, however you want to
15:39call them. In any case, regardless as to
15:43why they decline, let's look at a little
15:45bit some of the themes that characterize
15:48these worldviews.
15:51The very term animism is an interesting
15:53one because it comes from the Latin word
15:55anima which means a spirit or soul.
16:00And it refers to this belief that these
16:03folks said that everything in the
16:05universe is spiritually alive.
16:07Everything has a soul. Human beings have
16:11it. Animals have it. Certain forces of
16:15nature have it. There are spirits that
16:18you don't see in physical forms, but
16:20they exist nonetheless according to
16:22these guys.
16:24So this is a diametrical opposite views
16:28of what you find in many modern
16:30traditions which are commonly described
16:32as anthropocentric tradition.
16:34Anthropocentric means from the Greek
16:37word anthropos which means man or human
16:39being and to center on to focus on
16:42meaning these are traditions that
16:43believe human beings are a step above
16:47all other life forms. Human beings are
16:50the for example religions that believe
16:53that human beings are the only ones that
16:55have a soul. Those would be
16:57anthropocentric traditions. Whereas the
16:59animistic ones believe that animals and
17:02humans are no different in that regard.
17:06They also believe that human beings
17:09learn from spirits. That through dreams,
17:13through visions,
17:15you can uh you can make contact with
17:19some of these other beings. And if they
17:21like you, they may decide to help you
17:23out and teach you useful skills. So
17:27that's something else that characterize
17:28it. Big emphasis on the role of um of
17:33dreams
17:35because in addition to this belief that
17:37the universe is spiritually alive,
17:39meaning everybody has a spirit.
17:42They also have this belief that there's
17:44a there's an energy that pervades the
17:47whole universe.
17:49If you guys have watched Star Wars,
17:52you're well prepared because it's
17:53basically the same concept. You know,
17:55George Lucas borrowed the idea of the
17:57force from these beliefs from tribal
18:00people. Is the notion that there's this
18:03energy that's in everything and that you
18:06can tap into it. And if you're able to
18:09tap into it, you'll be able to do some
18:11quasi magical things, things that
18:13ordinary people don't seem to be able to
18:16pull off.
18:17Much like the force in Star Wars,
18:21this energy has no moral dimension. You
18:23don't have to be a nice person to tap
18:24into it. You don't have morality doesn't
18:26come into play.
18:28How you use it may have a moral
18:31component. Uh you may use it for good
18:34purposes, bad purposes, but the ability
18:36to tap into it is not tied to morality
18:39in any way, shape, or form.
18:42Now, the way these guys believe it,
18:45theoretically speaking, everybody can
18:49tap into it. And to some degree,
18:52everybody does. Um, they would point to
18:56things like, you know, when maybe you
18:58have uh you haven't thought of a certain
19:01person or you haven't talked to them in
19:03years and for no good reason they pop up
19:06in your head and the next day you run
19:08into them and you're like, "Wow, that's
19:10a really weird coincidence. How did that
19:13happen?" According to these guys is
19:16well, that was you tapping into this
19:18power. Now, we all have weird moments in
19:22life when things that don't seem to make
19:24sense happen where
19:28but the problem with that stuff is that
19:29usually we can control it. You know, if
19:31we could it would be sweet, right? You
19:33could be just like focusing and going
19:35blackjack, blackjack, blackjack, but it
19:38doesn't work that way. It's like when it
19:39happens is random. It's kind of cool.
19:42makes you wonder,
19:45you know, it kind of makes you think
19:46about how weird the universe we live in
19:49is and how probably we don't understand
19:51most of it, but that's the end of it
19:53because we we don't consciously control
19:55when these things happen.
19:58On the other hand, according to these
20:00guys, some people are able to control it
20:05to some degree. Some people are better
20:07than other at tapping into it. Um these
20:10would be the people that in tribal
20:11society would be referred to as the
20:14shamans or for lack of a better term
20:16like medicine men, medicine women.
20:19People who have this special ability to
20:21tap into this power and use it for
20:26a variety of purposes. So for example,
20:29in many different tribal traditions,
20:32healing is not just a physical thing.
20:36Yes, the healer may be able to set your
20:38bones if they pop out of place or give
20:41you herbs that have certain medical
20:43properties, but also they have a
20:45spiritual role is tied to this worldview
20:49where the influence of spirits is big.
20:52And so that's one aspect there are.
20:56Maybe you tap into power to become a
20:58better hunter or maybe you tap into
21:00power to become a better warrior. Either
21:03way, whatever that may be is, you tap
21:05into this power to help you do things in
21:08a very practical kind of way. Because
21:11that's the thing that sound weird about
21:12it is that may sound very outlandish and
21:15woo woo, but the reality is that it's
21:18also a very pragmatic outlook on the
21:20universe. This stuff need to work.
21:23You can claim that you had these visions
21:26of whatever
21:28little flying man that tell you that now
21:30you have these powers, but the only
21:32question that matters to tribal people
21:34is okay, show us. Do you have the power?
21:38Can you show us that it works? If it
21:40does, we're tell us again about your
21:42vision. If it doesn't, that was no
21:44vision. That was an hallucination.
21:46That's you losing it. It's it's not
21:48real. So in order to be believed, this
21:52stuff has to work.
21:54Give you guys an example. There's a
21:56tradition in northern Mexico on this
21:58tribe, the the Tar
22:01where for
22:03longest time they've had this tradition
22:05of running
22:07where they could run insanely long
22:09distances for hunting and for other
22:12purposes.
22:14And in some cases running distances that
22:16seem downright impossible. you know, 100
22:19miles, 150 miles, 200 miles of running
22:22with no break.
22:25And the way they explain it is that of
22:27course you need to train. You know, you
22:30train like an athlete. You train your
22:31body, you train your muscle, you train
22:33your breathing. That's great and all,
22:35but in addition to that, you need to
22:37spiritually train. And when you're
22:40running is not just your muscles that
22:42are pushing you forward. You tap into
22:45this power that allow you to use this
22:49energy that's in the universe in order
22:52to run more effectively. So partial is
22:56your body, partial is something else
22:58entirely. And again, this is what I mean
23:01by the ability to tap into power. It
23:03needs to have a very concrete result in
23:08order for it to be believed.
23:11And so that's where this idea of the
23:13shaman or the medicine man or medicine
23:15woman is somebody who can do that
23:20more reliably than anybody else who has
23:23that skill to. Now keep in mind when
23:27westerners hear about the shaman it
23:29sound like a cool thing like you know I
23:31want to be a shaman. It sound like a
23:32Jedi knight or something.
23:35In most tribal traditions,
23:38the role of the shaman or medicine man,
23:40medicine woman, however you want to call
23:42them, is kind of an ambiguous one
23:45because on one end is very much
23:47respected and loved. On the other end,
23:50there's an element of fear
23:53because the reality is you do not know
23:56whether this person is your good shaman
23:59who's out to help the tribe or is an
24:03evil witch who's out to kill you.
24:05because you know you don't see how you
24:07just see that they have power. You can't
24:09quite figure out you know you can only
24:11judge the results. So let's say if they
24:14bring sick people to a medicine man and
24:17these persons are these people are
24:18healed. Well then great that's our good
24:21sweet shaman.
24:23But what if they bring somebody and that
24:25person dies and maybe it happens again
24:29and maybe it happens again.
24:31Then the perception is this person is
24:34not just our maybe this person is our
24:38nice sweet shaman who just lost their
24:39power. They messed up. Spirits don't
24:42like them anymore and they took the
24:43power back.
24:45Or even worse, they didn't lose their
24:47power at all.
24:49But this is not it's it's a witch posing
24:52as a shaman using their power to kill
24:55people they don't like. So there's kind
24:57of an ambiguity surrounding the role of
25:00the medicine man. And in some ways you
25:03can see how even modern religions have
25:05traces of these beliefs. You know when
25:07you look at the Jesus story for example
25:09the Jesus story is the classic shamanic
25:11story. Guy goes off for 40 days in the
25:14desert, fast and pray, come back as
25:18begin to display these amazing powers
25:21for healing and for other purposes that
25:23are the classic shamanic powers of
25:25somebody who tapped into
25:29into this energy and is able to use it
25:32for some practical purposes. So that's
25:35that's an example of you know the
25:37differences in Christianity. Jesus is
25:39special, is son of God, is something
25:41that no ordinary human being can copy.
25:44In a tribal tradition, if you tell the
25:46Jesus story, it will be like, "Oh, of
25:48course, Jesus, good, good shaman, good
25:50medicine man." Because that's kind of
25:52what a medicine man is supposed to do.
25:55In any case, the other things I should
25:59tell you about this, they tend to have a
26:02very
26:03animistic tradition intimately tied to
26:06nature. So very positive outlook on what
26:09nature is like. Most of their sacred
26:12places they are not built as temples or
26:15they're not man-made buildings. They are
26:17natural spots. A mountaintop or a river
26:21or certain spots where you know what is
26:24that make that sacred as opposed to
26:26another place? Well, that place you feel
26:28it. You go in that place and you feel an
26:30energy that's different from any other
26:33place.
26:34And there's more power in that place
26:37than in others.
26:39But in any case, this was all warm up.
26:41There was one concept that part of the
26:43reason why I'm even talking about this
26:45is there's one concept that I want to
26:47drive home because this is going to
26:49apply to a lot of the other things that
26:52we see some historical events that we're
26:56going to see in the semester in much
26:58more recent times.
27:01And this is the difference
27:03in world views between inclusive world
27:07views and exclusive world views.
27:11Here is what I mean by this.
27:15Most tribal traditions, all of these
27:17animistic shamanic tribal religions,
27:20they are considered inclusive.
27:23What I mean by this is there's more than
27:26one right way
27:28to the throat.
27:31Here is what I mean. I give you an
27:32example.
27:34For example, in the language of the
27:36Lakota people, you know, a tribe,
27:38American Indian tribe from the great
27:40plains,
27:42these guys have two words. Um not that
27:46you need to remember the exact names for
27:48any exam or anything but the term wakan
27:51is sometime has been translated by
27:54missionaries as god
27:57it's not exactly a precise translation
27:59because wakan tanka is something that
28:01tanka is something that's great big
28:03amazing and wakan is something that's
28:06both sacred slash mysterious so it's
28:08more like great sacred mystery or great
28:11mystery something like this
28:13now even if you know nothing about these
28:15people culture. Think think about the
28:17differences between those out two
28:19outlooks.
28:21If you think of the ultimate reality as
28:25a great mystery versus if you think of
28:29this ultimate reality as uh God in a
28:32western sense
28:34those are two very different concepts
28:37because a great mystery you know is not
28:39an aist thing. You very much believe
28:41there is something out there. There's a
28:43spirit at the roots of all thing, but
28:44it's largely beyond human comprehension.
28:48It's mysterious. You can at best get
28:52glimpses of what it's like, but you can
28:55never fully know it.
28:58God in a western sense, if you look at
29:00all the scripture of the various western
29:03tradition, you know, Judaism,
29:05Christianity, Islam,
29:07God is a character in the story. now is
29:09the most important character of all but
29:12he tells human being what to do what not
29:14to do. Um it kind of draw a line in the
29:18sand whether
29:21you know this idea that God reveals his
29:23will to human being makes it so that you
29:25either follow or you don't there's not a
29:28whole lot of room for neutrality.
29:31So here is the difference that you see
29:33between the two that whereas
29:36for example in western tradition you
29:38cannot belong to two religions at the
29:41same time. You cannot be Christian and
29:42Muslim at the same time because they
29:45both claim that they hear God's word but
29:48the specific message they get is a
29:50little different. And so clearly unless
29:53you assume God is schizophrenic which is
29:55not the assumption here then you got to
29:59believe that one of them heard it wrong
30:02that if both are claiming to be God
30:04spoke person then and they have
30:06different messages where we have a
30:08problem here. So this is a what I mean
30:11by exclusive worldview. There's only
30:13room for if there's one God that reveals
30:16his will then there's one truth and one
30:19path to it.
30:22This is different from the more
30:24inclusive approach that say yes there is
30:27a source of everything but human beings
30:30can never fully or even to a large
30:33degree know its will.
30:36So
30:38you need to try different approaches.
30:40There's more than one approach may be
30:42correct. Uh because maybe our
30:45understanding of the truth just goes
30:46from A to B. Somebody else has a
30:49different message but that's because
30:50they are they are looking at the truth
30:52from a different angle and it's still
30:54valid and it's something that we are
30:55missing.
30:58So in tribal traditions in even in Asian
31:00religions for example you see people
31:02sometime belonging to multiple religions
31:05at the same time. You know you see
31:06people who are dowist, confusion,
31:09Buddhist altogether because they are
31:11borrowing the strength from each
31:14tradition feeling that none of them is
31:16complete in itself but all of them has
31:19their strengths and and they can go hand
31:21to hand. You know, if you feel like one
31:24religion is a good thing, then two,
31:26three, or four are even better.
31:29That's the inclusive approach. That's
31:31radically different from the exclusive
31:33one.
31:34Now, before you think you landed in some
31:37weird religion, philosophy class, this
31:40is very, the reason why I emphasize this
31:42is because it has very practical
31:44purposes here.
31:46If you believe that there's more than
31:48one way to the truth, then you're less
31:50likely to get into fights over religion
31:53because the fact that somebody's
31:56claiming, you know, they are preaching a
31:58different message than you are is not
32:00necessarily a threat to your message.
32:03Which is why you find lots of conflict
32:06among American Indian tribes for a
32:09variety of reasons.
32:11religion is not often one of them
32:13because most of the time their feeling
32:15is you know I'll check out what you do
32:17if I like it I'll add it to my existing
32:20religious practices if I don't who cares
32:22you can do your thing I'll do mine
32:24there's they don't see that as a reason
32:27for conflict
32:29whereas in a exclusive context it's very
32:33much a reason for conflict because if
32:34you believe that there's only one truth
32:37that there's only one god and there's
32:39the devil
32:41There's absolute good and absolute evil.
32:44If you are not on the side of the good
32:45guys,
32:47then clearly you must be on the side of
32:49the bad guys. So if your religion is not
32:52the correct one, then you are an
32:54unbeliever. You are an infidel and you
32:57are on the side of evil. Now, of course,
32:59not all exclusive people are
33:01bloodthirsty barbarians who want to chop
33:03off their neighbor head. I'm not saying
33:05that at all. I'm saying it sets up a
33:08slightly more conflictual relationship.
33:11Now, this may be mellow and pleasant.
33:13Maybe you just believe that you have the
33:15truth and they don't and it's your duty
33:18to show them the light and preach to
33:20them. Okay? You know, that's very diff
33:24but at the other extreme it can go as
33:26these guys are evil unbelievers who are
33:29servants of the devil and we need to cut
33:31their heads off.
33:32So the consequences is not that all
33:35exclusive religions lead to a simple
33:37consequence. It's not like that. But
33:39they do set up a context where it's a
33:41little easier to fight over religion
33:44than not. And we'll see it play out in
33:48US history again and again when it comes
33:50to encounter between Europeans and
33:52Native Americans.
33:54So keep that in mind because it's a
33:57rather important concept.
34:00Now having said that we close this
34:02religious parenthesis going back to look
34:05at the

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