One of the best books I have found on the subject of technology and American Indians is Jerry Mander's "In the Absence of the Sacred: The failure of technology and the survival of the Indian nations". It was published by Sierra Books, San Francisco in 1991. Mander's book leans to the left at times, but it is well written with some very thought provoking ideas.
Mander, J. (1991) In the Absence of the Sacred. At Amazon.com. http://tinyurl.com/57kz9 The Western ethnocentric bias in software development is an obvious place to look for evidence of assimilation of languages and cultures. One indicator of the homogenization of humanity is the loss of linguistic diversity as documented by many sources including the UN. The link below leads to a horribly written, rambling press release on the subject (some interesting snippets though). The report itself is huge (25MB - 750 pages) but there is lots of good stuff in there. There are a number of people in the States working on the linguistic preservation issue including the folks at Red Pony. You may want to contact them. UNEP Press Release: Globalization Threat to World's Cultural, Linguistic and Biological Diversity http://tinyurl.com/6xyaa Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity - Edited by Darrell Addison Posey http://www.unep.org/Biodiversity/ Red Pony http://www.redpony.us/ Kelvin Wong Department of Computer Science University of Victoria My Blog on Aboriginal People and Technology http://nativetech.blogspot.com/ -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Wanda Jean Lord Sent: March 12, 2005 12:56 PM To: 'The Digital Divide Network discussion group' Subject: RE: [DDN] The real digital divide (fwd) As we focus on bridging the DD - it appears that there are cultural exchanges that are inherent in this work, with impacts. Are there models of completed DD projects that work specifically with the markers of retaining and/or strengthening the intact cultures to which the technology is introduced while bringing economic benefits to those communities? I wonder at the impacts technology can have that either purposefully, or without intent, act as a 'great assimilator.' Can anyone recommend readings/research on this topic? _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
