The Myth of the Anti-Technological Native (1.2)

In Network Sovereignty: Building the Internet Across Indian Country, Marisa Duarte extrapolates on a book she came across by the Mexican-American philosopher Manuel de Landa, "in which he describes institutions as crystallizations of human ways of communicating with one another"

She explains that this concept "echoed Native concepts of creation, in which all forms that come into existence are understood as the outcomes of an endless cosmic dynamic, of which humans are a very small part. To create is to bring into being. Any object created by human hands is actually a physical manifestation of generations of conscientious human experience within a Native homeland."(27)

This concept really struck a chord with me: crystallizations of communication. I recently watched a pretty common science experiment in which baking soda and vinegar are combined to form sodium acetate; which in turn rapidly crystalizes as it's poured. This experiment is commonly referred to as 'Hot Ice', and you can check out a nice demonstration and explanation of it below.

With this fresh visual in mind, thinking of communications systems crystallizing into what we know as institutions is fascinating. Common examples of institutions that come to mind are education systems, religious systems, political and familial systems, and even the economy. All of these things have been hardwired to work for the proposed majority, and objectively against the considered minorities.

So what constitutes communication systems then? That's a broad question, and one that spans time, but for our purposes of examining the modern age we can look at digital communication. The internet is king in today's society, and without it communities are decidedly left in the dust, so to speak.

Duarte said it well:

Understanding technology— and, in particular, digital technology— requires understanding the conditions under which innovation occurs. At this moment in the tapestry of world histories, digital technology is fascinating precisely because, in the technically advanced places, there remains a memory as well as some judgment of what everyday life was like before the precision, efficacy, immediacy, and interoperability of ubiquitous computing. (11)

The most "progressed" nations decide what the definition of "progress" is, and the cycle continues. "Any object created by human hands is actually a physical manifestation of generations of conscientious human experience within a Native homeland."

As nations technologically advance, while actively leaving out the very people they have colonized, their methods crystallize. Exponentially, even. Systems asymmetrically solidify and ways of life move on, and the effect of being left behind compounds in the communities without these communication systems; so they are left out of the organization of institutions, as well.

Indigenous communities have not always had a choice, whether or not they adopt technological advances. But historically, it's safe to say that as a people they have generally invited innovation, knowledge, and trade. Who, then, is truly anti-native-technology? The natives? Or the institutions, and the communication systems that formed them: The very technology withheld.

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Duarte, Marisa Elena. Network Sovereignty : Building the Internet across Indian Country, University of Washington Press, 2017. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wsu/detail.action?docID=4987329.

Created from WSU on 2023-01-20