Nascy, the rest of your post was very interesting... but I thought the statement below came with some inbuilt bias.
2009/11/12 Nascy Caldeira <[email protected]>: > Christian Goans were socially advanced, in that they > had no taboos and other superstitions about eating > or handling food that the British and westerners ate; > and that is the reason they were employed in > large numbers on variuos Ships at the time, and > EVEN NOW. We could always see situations we like and claim that these are indicators of being "socially advanced" (whatever such a construct means). Could we point to the Christian Goan hang-ups over sexuality, their tendency to get involved in intense litigation or their weekly attendance of Sunday mass as a sign fo being "socially advanced"? I think different communities are just that... different from one another. We can see each for what they are, a mix of diverse preferences and backgrounds. It could be argued that a community is 'socially advanced' and enlightened because it chooses a (more environmentally sustainable and kinder-to-the-animals) vegetarian diet. But that would be as realistic as the argument above. At last count, my dentist was mentioning that the Goan Christian has teeth problem due to the consumption of vinegar. (Fact is, I hardly consume vinegar!) But the jury is still out whether that comment came because of established research or because a you-should-be-like-us tendency all of us have encoded in us! Thanks again for your other, though-provoking inputs. FN -- Frederick Noronha :: +91-832-2409490 Writing, editing, alt.publishing, photography, journalism Books from Goa: http://tiny.cc/goabooks
