9) Undoing False Science
'Indigenous' (Latin = 'self-generating') Knowledge practices for undoing colonial society's false science assumptions and processes in agriculture, economy and science upon which modern 'exogenous' (L = 'other-generated') institutions, education, business, industry, government, housing and human-aggression are based. How twisted and confused is modern thinking?
PIONEERS
When colonial 'pioneers' [Etymology from Middle French pionier (“originally, a foot soldier”), Old French peonier, from peon (“a foot soldier”) (modern French: pion). See 'pawn' in chess.] came to the Americas, we made certain false assumptions which we still carry with us as persons and as a people today and form the foundation for our worldview. We've internalized our oppression. Are you the pawn in someone else's game? Within colonial society, the word 'pioneer' carries a positive sense of accomplishment as he or she gives his/her life to expand institution and empire even though we may be asking ourselves deeper questions about what-for? if we consider the larger scope of life and ecology as well as the disintegration of the biosphere. The following examples give just four areas of false assumption and corresponding indigenous knowledge. The Indigene Community website gives thousands of examples of Indigenous Knowledge by which we can recapture sustainable development and biosphere for ourselves and future generations.
FALSE SCIENCE ASSUMPTIONS and thought processes include:
'Agriculture' (L 'ager' = 'field) 's 2-dimensional removal of mixed trees, bushes, shrubs, wetlands etc. is the revolutionary foundation of 'civilization', the greatest step in humanity's evolution. Agricultural policy is the foundation of world globalization today supporting the essential feeding of the whole military-industrial-commercial-media infrastructure.
Indigenous First Nations are 'primitive' (primary), 'savage' (L 'sylva' = 'tree'), 'unproductive' [produce (v.) late 15c., "to develop, be extended," from L. producere "lead or bring forth, draw out," from pro- "forth" (see pro-) + ducere "to bring, lead" (see duke).] peoples from which 'civilized peoples' have evolved. Because civilization supposedly brings great scientific advances in food production and land utilization, we have the right to invade (enter & control), kill, imprison and abuse without civil permission anywhere in the world. Invasion and war as a permanent industry for the world's most colonial societies (Israel, USA and Canada), continue unabated.
Individuals act alone often in competition with society and nature to establish the built-environment, career, livelihood, community and home. Each of us stands alone before society's institutions, business, industry and death itself, alone. Our forbidding of death is informed by our isolation as families, extended families, even urban dwellers for the lack of interaction and the lack of knowledge we have for our family and cultural stories. The stories we know are based in war and hierarchy, but we know little about our own family fore-bearers. 'Political' (Greek 'polis' meaning 'many') 'Democracy' (Gk 'demos' = 'people' + 'kratein' = 'power') is the ideal of 'exogenous' society even though, mathematically, political democracy means little more than marking an 'X' once every 4 - 5 years.. 'Religious' (L 'religio' = 'to relate') individuals may have a social conscience becoming the spiritual enforcers and justifiers of solitary division and even justifying (manifest-destiny) invasion.
Science like exogenous economy is linear and is best approached through fragmented 'reductionist' ('reducing objects of study to their smallest components') study. With rare experts guiding our society through their exclusive knowledge, we best impose knowledge and communication such as media from the singular mono-lectic points of view. Media is best to expound the knowledge of these experts.
INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE derived from hundreds of thousands of years:
'Polyculture Orchard' 3-dimensional mixed trees, bushes, shrubs, grains, vegetables, herbs, wetlands etc are the world's most productive food sources. A given area of land and its people will produce 100 times (10,000%) more food, material, energy, water, soil, air and other resources from 3-D polyculture orcharding than from agriculture. Agriculture was derived from 'farming' (French 'ferme' = 'contract of servitude between the peasant (pioneer) and the aristocrat [Etymology from French aristocrate (a word from the French Revolution), from aristocratie. < ἄριστος (aristos, “best”) (compare Old English ar) + κράτος (kratos, “rule”)]. The aristocrat or 'favoured one' is centrally appointed by exogenous power to rule over the peasant. Through experience the earth speaks to us so the aristocrat is constantly needed by empire to control these tendencies. The first 'farmers' sent to various parts of the empire can not get land ownership from the aristocrat if they leave the incredibly productive nut and fruit trees cultivated by indigenous peoples in place. The 'pioneer' chooses a life of slavery to plough and reap perpetual grim-harvest for the aristocrat and empire who maintain control through scarcity.
'Sylvalization' ('sylva' = 'tree') is the foundation of productivity for huge populations of indigenous peoples for hundreds of thousands of years. Institutional schools falsely interpret indigenous heritage as one of 'hunting and gathering'. Indeed, as indigenous peoples were exposed to empire-cultivated animal-based-diseases ('zoonoses'), imposed through forceful invasion by invading force , indigenous peoples experienced massive population die-off (95% in the Americas, read 1491 by Charles C. Mann) and fleeing to the 'hinterlands' began 'hunting and gathering' for survival. Original indigenous peoples lived in the richest river valleys and shores, cultivating abundant deeply mineralized, protein, enzyme, vitamine-rich complex nutrient plant based diets based on a scant hour of work per day. Exogenous peoples in partial genocidal policy (as much as peasant conscience could bear), war against epidemic survivors, their welcoming indigenous title-holders to impose nutrient-deficient diets, slavery and ignorance. While indigenous biosphere tree-based production provides great sustainable abundance, it can be overshadowed by the trinket industries and co-dependent addictions for those who are weak in mental-discipline and values.
Indigenous peoples communities are based in achieving 'economies of scale' in collaborative, inter-generational, inter-disciplinary work together. As the Longhouse, pueblo, mound / pyramid based cities cultivated 'proximity' in human relations, then young could work mentored by elders and learn, while elders enjoyed the freshness of spirit and energy of youth. Handicapped and injured continue to contribute to their societies through complementary interaction. The inclusive time-based accounting and economies of indigenous peoples found in the world's string-shell accounting systems allow them to welcome every and anyone as co-investors in each Production Society area of expertise and Economic Democracy. By 'caucusing' (Iroquois = 'joining of like-interests') in Production Societies and enabling 'progressive ownership' over the course of one's lifetime, indigenous economy enables a connected collective intelligence for the whole of society. The most productive corporations of the world including the Keiretsu of Japan (Toyota, Hitachi), Korea's Chaebol, Europe's Associative Economics and thousands of Participatory companies everywhere (Tom's of Maine Toothpaste, Ben & Jerry's Icecream, Dofasco Steel, Tembec Forest Products etc) employ the practices of progressive multi-stakeholder ownership and time-based accounting. Private but joined housing provides proximity for a continuity of economic contribution and relations for all ages. Indigenous people are not alone. Considering the domestic economy is equal to Industrial and Commercial economy, it is possible for intentional community to double the economic force of 'participation'. Every earner is as well a spender. Through the specialization of the story-teller and other cultural institutions were guardians of the longest social-memory ever developed on earth. Through 'graphic-writing' systems and 'mnemonic' devices, indigenous peoples kept important memory on epidemiology, science, food production, governance etc through spans of many thousands of years in detail and tens of thousands of years in allegory.
Science as we all are coming to realize is 'holistic' based in understanding 'whole system's design'. We gain understanding of whole systems through understanding the 'fractal' ('divisor or multiplier') interaction of all components at every level. Although the 'university' ('considering the whole') movement was meant to bring integration about in 'education' (L = 'to lead forth from within'), it is never achieved rather being destroyed through hierarchal imposition. Empowered action based indigenous life-long learning creates empowered individuals within critical mass economies who are the masters of their own destiny affording each impartial learning. Science can only be achieved by a constellation of factors as explained in the Indigenous Circle of Life. Dialectic (Both Sides Now, Equal time recorded dialogues) conversation is the foundation of Socrates original concept of 'Academia' (350 BC Athens, Greece city-garden). Every student in academia (supposedly the foundation of today's education) was meant to have the dialectic right to engage fellow students, teachers and citizens. Media does better service by providing opportunity for the dialectic exchange of individuals and diverse perspective or viewpoints.
Indigene Community is based in rediscovering everyone's worldwide indigenous knowledge. These four examples and hundreds more about Indigenous Science are found in more detail in the following 55 sections of the website. We hope you will join us in laying humanity's true foundation for life. The processes described are about how we interact determining what we become. Exogenous society is confused between communication content and process.