Copenhagen:Nobody here, myself included, denies that Native Americans were treated brutally by their European invaders, nor that today they are the poorest and most oppressed on U.S. citizens. However, if you strip away the cultural context of the eagle situation, the basic issue of this case is:
An eagle is tied up for life, then smothered to death in corn meal.
That is the crucial point here, not Hopi religion, and not European imperialism. Rationalize and justify all you want, but you'll never alter the basic issue of this case. As I've pointed out before, from the bird's point of view, it's oppressor's motives are irrelevant: the bird cannot fly freely, as nature intended, and the bird dies a miserable, slow death.
You deny that you are engaging in moral relativism, but that is exactly what you've done by justifying it with all sorts of resort to Hopi tradition and European arrogance. Unless you find nothing wrong with the basic issue of this case -- the suffering of the eagle -- you are engaging in moral relativism. Yes, different cultures must learn to tolerate each other, but at some point a line must be drawn where we as human beings say, that is wrong. Cruelty to animals is wrong.
I asked you if you support female genital mutilation among African and Asian cultures. Well, would you? The basic issue of the case is that a young girl's genitals are mutilated; of course, it's wrapped up in all sorts of cultural and religious justifications, but the basic fact remains that a helpless young girl is mutilated without her consent. There is a broad-based movement in the United States and elsewhere to stop this practice -- do you find that arrogant as well?
I would bet that, just as there are Africans and Asians opposed to female genital mutilation, there are Hopi opposed to eagle smothering. In both cases, these people recognize the basic injustice and cruelty of the underlying basic fact, and they seek to change it. This has happened before in other societies and religions, and it can and should happen with the Hopi's smothering of eagles, and hopefully, with pressure from both outside and within, it will.
None.
