When cultures are plagued with the onset of devastation they often are said to be left with only two choices, to given to said devastation or fight against it. When this devastation comes with the onset of cultural genocide it becomes difficult to decipher which option is “correct” when the results of both choices are often interchangeable. However, Jonathan Lear’s Radical Hope tries to convey that in the outbreak of cultural desolation, the choices of how to handle the situation are a lot more complex than simply fighting back or giving up. Lear does this through providing commentary on Plenty Coups' choice to assimilate into white culture in the face of cultural genocide in comparison to Sitting Bull's actions of resistance. In Radical Hope,
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By definition the people of the Crow survived, but they would most likely be unrecognizable to the Crows of the pass. It is difficult to think of the current state of the Crows as one of survival when their own people are quoted making the following remarks, “I am trying to live a life I do not understand”, or “I feel like I am losing my children to this new world of life that I don't know” (Lear, Radical Hope, pg.61-62). In this situation, Lear uses the term “old-timer” to describe someone who is unwilling to find new meaning, “Old-timer: a person whose ideals and outlook would have been appropriate in a previous time or culture, but who cannot...change with the changing time” (Lear, Radical Hope, pg.119) In retrospect to this, if a culture is forced to change so much in order to survive that it becomes unrecognizable to the people who lived previously in the time of no impeding culturing changing factors, it would not be extreme to state that the culture in itself has transformed into something new entirely, and therefore is no longer “Crow Culture”. If large majorities of those who now live in Crow culture find it is meaning less than would it not have possibly been better to go down fighting for what they believed in, rather than holding onto this radical hope that by sacrificing parts of their culture they would be able to hold onto more of it? The …show more content…
When a culture has changed beyond recognition it becomes an entirely new culture. Cultures can survive changes to a certain extent, however, in this case of the Crow entirely new meanings were constructed, and many important traditions became obsolete and were then forgotten. The problem here is not that they became obsolete, but that they were forgetting. Lear argues that being able to keep their precious land was a way for them to be able to pass down tradition, however, when looking at the situation of the Sun Dance, many traditions were lost regardless to if they kept their land or not. Lear states, “In 1941, after a sixty-six-year hiatus, the Crow wanted to reintroduce the Sun Dance, but the steps of the Crow version no longer existed in living memory” (Lear, Radical Hope, pg.37). The Sun Dance was such a large part of the Crow culture, and yet today the Crows dance a different version of it from the enemy tribe because their version was lost in the face of cultural devastation. The Crow held onto their land, but they let their traditional memories disappear and became unable to pass them down to other generations; making Lear's biggest argument for why Plenty Coups acted “correctly” and Sitting Bull “incorrectly”
By definition the people of the Crow survived, but they would most likely be unrecognizable to the Crows of the pass. It is difficult to think of the current state of the Crows as one of survival when their own people are quoted making the following remarks, “I am trying to live a life I do not understand”, or “I feel like I am losing my children to this new world of life that I don't know” (Lear, Radical Hope, pg.61-62). In this situation, Lear uses the term “old-timer” to describe someone who is unwilling to find new meaning, “Old-timer: a person whose ideals and outlook would have been appropriate in a previous time or culture, but who cannot...change with the changing time” (Lear, Radical Hope, pg.119) In retrospect to this, if a culture is forced to change so much in order to survive that it becomes unrecognizable to the people who lived previously in the time of no impeding culturing changing factors, it would not be extreme to state that the culture in itself has transformed into something new entirely, and therefore is no longer “Crow Culture”. If large majorities of those who now live in Crow culture find it is meaning less than would it not have possibly been better to go down fighting for what they believed in, rather than holding onto this radical hope that by sacrificing parts of their culture they would be able to hold onto more of it? The …show more content…
When a culture has changed beyond recognition it becomes an entirely new culture. Cultures can survive changes to a certain extent, however, in this case of the Crow entirely new meanings were constructed, and many important traditions became obsolete and were then forgotten. The problem here is not that they became obsolete, but that they were forgetting. Lear argues that being able to keep their precious land was a way for them to be able to pass down tradition, however, when looking at the situation of the Sun Dance, many traditions were lost regardless to if they kept their land or not. Lear states, “In 1941, after a sixty-six-year hiatus, the Crow wanted to reintroduce the Sun Dance, but the steps of the Crow version no longer existed in living memory” (Lear, Radical Hope, pg.37). The Sun Dance was such a large part of the Crow culture, and yet today the Crows dance a different version of it from the enemy tribe because their version was lost in the face of cultural devastation. The Crow held onto their land, but they let their traditional memories disappear and became unable to pass them down to other generations; making Lear's biggest argument for why Plenty Coups acted “correctly” and Sitting Bull “incorrectly”