“The cultural superiority of Europeans at the time they reached the Western Hemisphere is a highly loaded notion.

“The cultural superiority of Europeans at the time they reached the Western Hemisphere is a highly loaded notion.

Now that the Richter essay has captured your attention – I think you will agree that it is a great icebreaker – for this week we initially turn to the Nash text (17) and his observation, “The cultural superiority of Europeans at the time they reached the Western Hemisphere is a highly loaded notion. For centuries, the categorizing of “superior” and “inferior” cultures has been the work of the conquering nations, with great emphasis placed on technological advances, such as metalworking, and on literacy. These have been promoted as benchmarks for describing and ranking cultures. [But] in exploring converging people in the Americas, it is best to leave aside crude comparisons, for example, between a literate Europe and a nonliterate Africa or pre–Columbian America. This kind of mind-set, leading toward claims of cultural superiority, masks the complex interaction of peoples from different parts of the world whose lives converged in the Americas.” What do you think? Reasonable advice? And I am just looking for an informal discussion…no footnotes required. 

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