Saturday, November 27, 2010

When Worlds Collide

An amazing documentary by Ruben Martinez that tells the story of the conquista not so much as the conquering of the Native Americans but more of an account of how European and Native American cultures interacted with one another, both positive and negative.

What makes this documentary the more interesting is the way in which it challenges the traditional narrative of European superiority to Native culture by demonstrating how Natives for all accounts and purposes invented corn and found a way to create the rich crimson color from the cochinilla bug.  It discusses how the Natives used their genius to build around nature using nature as opposed to the traditional tearing down of nature to build up on nature.  Given that Natives also did not have certain animals native to the New World that brought about certain diseases, the idea is posed in the documentary that perhaps the Natives had a more healthy diet and a longer life span than the Europeans on average. 

It leaves us with a lot to think about...

A++

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