suzanne joy teune

the culture of words
"during the age of exploration, adventurers from various european nations traveled the globe, planting their flags and often trouncing local opposition with powerful weapons. the scientific method that helped develop these weapons also gave their owners a sense of intellectual superiority. european explorers routinely described indigenous populations as dim-witted, unmotivated, and backward. this prejudice still resonates, as scholars "discover" things about the world that indigenous people have known since prehistory. scholars are beginning to admit that indigenous peoples' local knowledge is extensive and worth learning. but our culture still maintains one of its most deeply held beliefs: that "real" learning is spoken, read, and written, that real knowledge consists of words."
-finding your way in a wild new world. martha beck