Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry - My Thoughts

Main Thesis or Argument:                                                                                   

         Widdowson and Howard are generally arguing that Indigenous cultures found throughout Canada are in some way less developed, or, at an earlier stage of cultural evolution than their Canadian counterparts. This cultural gap was highlighted at the time of contact between Aboriginals and Europeans, with Europeans being farther along some kind of cultural continuum, at a more developed stage than the Native American societies they stumbled upon. This was evidenced by the European use of “advanced” materials such as iron versus the Native American use of more primitive items such as stone tools.           

                        

         The Aboriginal Industry to which the authors refer is described as a kind of government structure consisting of departments, advocates and lawyers who, through their advocacy for the preservation of Indigenous culture, undermine the inevitable cultural advancement that Indigenous peoples must eventually undergo to successfully integrate into the world community.

         Ultimately, this book argues that the more we deny the fact that Indigenous peoples are culturally inferior to western culture, and consequently, the more we fight for preserving Aboriginal culture and autonomy, the more harm we do to Indigenous communities - we somehow delay their integration into western society, and we keep them living in some kind of fantasy world that places value on their almost primitive worldviews (examples: the oral tradition). Furthermore, we are isolating Aboriginals from the rest of the world, as their culture is somehow tribal and entails unviable economic pursuits that do not contribute to the economic initiatives that the rest of the world is pursuing.

Comments:                                         

                                    

         Reading this book was somewhat like watching a car accident in slow motion – at times I was reluctant to continue, and it just got worse the more it unfolded before me. While I must credit this book with being very good at highlighting some of the problems with Indigenous integration into Canadian society, it got carried away with its own intentions and tried to serve as a solution to how that integration ought to take place, leaving unquestioned whether integration is even viable for everyone.

         In my opinion, the book was irredeemable as soon as it tried to argue historical determinism by labeling Indigenous culture as being a stage or two below European culture, as if culture is something that develops in the same way everywhere. While there are some anthropologists that have successfully shown that all cultures undergo similar stages in cultural evolution (i.e. hunter-gatherer to technical civilizations), the authors overplayed this card and made cultural evolution seem like it takes place in a vacuum, and that given time, Indigenous societies would have developed much like European ones. The simple fact of the matter is that we do not know this for sure, and to lay this as the foundation of your argument is unwise. Who can say for certain where Aboriginal communities would have gone if left untouched? This is something we can never know, so let us not try and pretend like we can predict it.

         Overall, the authors’ use of a rigid and historicist understanding of cultural evolution left this book hard to swallow – the authors shield their intolerant and narrow minded views about Indigenous communities with some kind of pseudo-science about how cultures develop. Further, they take that understanding about cultural evolution and try to justify the idea that Aboriginals just need to suck it up and integrate already. Plainly, this book did not approach a very important issue with a view of Aboriginals that gives credit to their status as equal partners in the discussion, but rather regarded them as a nuisance that needs to be put in its place.