I'll tell you what mdg, whether the hopi will be irrevocably damaged by the removal of their eagl;e sacrificing rituals is a question of fact that neither of us are really qualified to answer. As i have said my preliminary reading has led me in the direction that eagle sacrifice is integral to their identity.
The point being though that removsal of this tradition could be akin to telling christians they can no longer worship christ. Can you imagine the desperate effect that would have upon them?
: : If you hold the life of animals above the life of the hopi people then and only then would you be justified in extinguishing their practice. (perhaps MDG you do hold this view i seem to recall you expressing the desire to see the 'fucking corposes of every hopi who supports this asinine tradition'.)
: A tad overwrought, but I was already angry from WTO events.
: : As to your contention that the eagles cannot fly 'as nature intended', i find that utter nonsense. Nature cannot intend anything (unless you wish to attribute a mind to nature. The great earth mother perhaps. Hang on that sounds kinda indian doesn't it?). The birds have the capacity to fly, whether they ever make it to the skies depends upon many factors, of which the hopi are only one.
: Do you really believe the things you write, Cope? That's like saying that you have the capacity to walk and run, but if I shackle your legs and tape your mouth, no moral crime has been committed.
But whether it is a moral crime or no is different to whether nature it intended it or no...
: : As to gentital mutilation i do not think that is a practice vital to the survival of the muslim religion that this is so is shewn by the fact that the religion continues to thrive even in countries where the practice is banned.
: That's not what the fundamentalists say, but you're right, somehow they can move on. Same with the Hopi, once they are forced (or volunteer, preferably) to stop suffocating birds.
There is as i say empirical evidence that establishes the veracity of my contention.
I consider the hopi to be a much more delicate situation. As i have said if the sacrificing of eagles is so integral to hopi identity then how can one force them to stop. Then you yourself would be guitly of a moral crime.
Perhaps you should cast your eye upon those natives of the world that through being 'civilised' have lost much of what it is to be alive, they have become wretched shadows of men, living in poverty and without purpose or meaning in their lives.
Would you throw the hopi to the same fate?
None.
