Story of the Wycliffe Translators. Pacifying the Last Frontiers
Hart, Laurie
The natives of the (Hawaiian) islands number only about 50,000 and the whites about 3,000, chiefly Americans. According to Captain Cook, the natives numbered 400,000 less than a hundred years...
...In the Peruvian and Colombian contracts, for example, SIL is permitted to undertake linguistic investigations, educational programs and "development" work, and is under obligation to carry out the educational programs of the cooperating national ministry when requested to do so...
...72-73 (emphasis ad- ded...
...3 7 a It is part of SIL's philosophy that "We should try to educate those with whom we come in contact that identification with a minority group does not necessarily mean lack of loyalty to the nation and exploiting such identification can be a sounder approach to an integrated nation both educationally and psychologically...
...7 0 This is the wealth of alternatives available to the assimilated Indian if the larger society remains unchanged...
...AID.730-3114-T (6-14-68 to 6-13.69): "Assistance in developing a (sic) educational program for minority language groups...
...The format is varied, colorful, resplendent with photographs...
...This is a misuse of science...
...5. Affiliated with the Univ...
...Who are the "influential persons from Villavicencio...
...or perhaps as another symptom of the same upheaval...
...125ff...
...Wycliffe, as we have seen, prefers not to risk its government relations to defend indigenous rights...
...A joint WBT/SIL Statement of Policy reads: "Our primary motivation is to glorify God and to build up His church by giving the scriptures to every man in his own tongue...
...This, in reality, is an expedient in the labor of conversion and integration...
...city of Quito "donated four acres of choice property valued at almost $200.000...
...Just as there is a useful vagueness regarding the institutional identities of SIL and WBT, by which they can never be fully separate and yet never fully equated, there is a failure to distinguish between the concrete need of indigenous persons for literacy and the very different "need" for spiritual regeneration which is projected upon them by the Christian missionary...
...principle of churchstate separation, in effect covertly establishing evangelical religion in certain regions...
...How does the proqfssional solidarity among linguists, and the common background of U.S...
...Generally, the translators have the task of (a) insuring that indigenous consciousness not proceed beyond defense of the status quo, and (b) moving it in the direction of peaceful submission to the incursions of civilization, with the result that indigenous peoples are ineluctably reduced to the minority status described above...
...But under scrutiny this position falls apart...
...Second, the indigenous person, because of the rapid and extreme changes within and19 without his/her society in this century, resulting from an industrial and technological revolution beyond his/her immediate comprehension, is extremely vulnerable to Christian propaganda...
...At the same time, one must keep in mind the fact that the Indian has had little reason to regard the nation as his/her "own country," and has been excluded ather intentionally from the mainstream, by the mainstream, when not subject to physical elimination...
...They are "forgotten...
...El Tiempo (Bogota), loc...
...government agencies, and assistance from host governments abroad...
...of Public Ed...
...We are looking to God for the purchase of new headquarters in Saigon and trusting Him for advance into Cambodia and other new tribes as he leads . . .30 The other train of thought which requires comment in this introductory piece is the proposition that what is "discouraging" (on the home front) about the war...
...The millenarian objective is one of assimilation into a community of evangelical Christians, not one of reconstruction: the "faith is not utopian...
...Initially this was to be a shortlived Commission simply to study SIL and what we are doing...
...3 7 These facts do not appear in Translation magazine...
...GHANA-TOGO: Bassari, Bimoba, Hanga, Kasena, Konkomba, Kusal, Slsaala, Tampulma, Valga...
...MEET MY AUCA FRIENDS: "See the transforming power of the Gospel in savage lives...
...WBT's sophisticated field methodology is unique among Protestant missions...
...although he may have been out of touch with it for a period of generations...
...Bledsoe's "Saint," Esquire, Vol...
...Box 833, Calgary 2, Alberta, Canada...
...Ibid., p. 36...
...This may take from two to twenty or more years...
...You know, that such persons use all means within their reach to foment hostile attitudes against the natives, to frighten them into escaping to the jungle, where they will probably have little means of survival...
...Farms of 125 to 190 thousand acres are not unusual in the region, while all the Indian reservations total only 32 thousand acres...
...Recently it has done exploratory research in the Soviet Union...
...Although initially founded as a religious corporation, WBT soon adopted an alternate identity for diplomatic purposes...
...1969...
...AID-730.3114-T (6.14-68 to 6.13.71): "Assistance in developing a program to improve the effectiveness of b-l.lingual programs in the primary community schools...
...It follows that if the indigenous person comes to adhere to this Christian ideology, he/she necessarily comes to despise his/her own culture, which has damned him/her, and to adulate that of the missionaries, which has saved him/her...
...contract specifies Bible translation...
...WBT/SIL, despite its criticisms of the behavior of nationals and Catholic missionaries (objections which may be cultural and not ethical), compromises the existence of Indian groups by its cooperation with neo-colonialist political and economic interests...
...Military terminology is used in descriptions of WBT/SIL operations, and the millenarian religious strategy parallels the neo-colonial political strategy: Our .WBT/SIL] members in Vietnam have often been discouraged...
...3 2 What that sense is, we are not told...
...1 2 Administered through Guatemala branch...
...and indigenous peoples of Europe...
...Box 489, Zaria, North Central State, Nigeria...
...60...
...It takes on this mission...
...Previously inaccessible areas rich in timber and oil are now being vigorously sought out and opened up by oil companies, expansionist landowners and the national governments in their USAID-supported "development" schemes...
...However, as time went on it became apparent that there was much to be desired in the government program for dealing with Indians and it was decided that a permanent Commission should be formed...
...Wycliffe aims for a psychological, social and economic restructuring of the Indian society in the mode of "Christian" capitalism...
...In recent years SIL has been asked to give instruction to Colombian linguists to the eventual end of replacing the SIL workers...
...See his article for a more detailed report on Rachel Saint and the Auca...
...These policies force upon the Indians a whole spectrum of relationships based on the private ownership of property and remove the underpinnings of their cultural survival...
...9 33 Dev...
...In Greek, topos means "place," and utopia means "no place...
...7, 8. 59...
...Wycliffe characterizes the U.S./Saigon axis as the ally of the Montagnards (mountain tribespeople) of Viet-Nam, and the NLF/Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam axis as their enemy...
...Nat' 1 Indian Fdn...
...We persuade them that they should move out of the way...
...This is made explicit in the issue of Translation entitled "Viet Nam-Behind the News" (Oct.-Dec...
...This work, which falls under the heading of 'Applied Anthropology,' must at least be directed and coordinated by Colombian anthropologists, after Indian policy has been clearly formulated...
...Further on it is explained: The course purposed to integrate them into the Brazilian way of life and instill in them a sense of responsibility, ability to make judgements, initiative, self-identity...
...The costs of training are largely outside the WBT/SIL budget, being diverted through universities, the International Linguistics Center, etc...
...Correal Report, p. 5. 67...
...The result of the conditions of labor, exposure to disease, etc., was to wipe out 80 percent of many indigenous groups in this area within a decade...
...Quoted in El Espectador (Bogota), Dec...
...of Interior...
...38 In order to protect its precarious position in foreign nations, however, and because the missionaries believe in the legitimacy of the expanding civilization ("Christian" capitalist) of which it is a part, WBT/SIL takes no stand whatsoever against the aggression of government and industry against indigenous groups...
...2 9 The complete incompatibility of Christian belief with socialist thought is assumed, despite the existence of a socialist Christian tradition...
...For the civilizado way, the price is work and maintaining what you've achieved...
...Ultimately, the Colombian controversy resulted in a compromise, with WBT/SIL strengthening its base of support...
...intelligence or paramilitary organizations such as the CIA has yet been revealed, we know that WBT/SIL is in part funded by grants from the U.S...
...a term designating Brazilian nationals...
...took more favorable attitude toward Montagnards...
...This imbalance in the native ecosystem sets the indigenous group on a path of irrevocable dependence...
...In so doing, it puts whole cultures in jeopardy...
...It does not establish ecclesiastical organizations in the field...
...6 1 Kietzman advocated a more specialized concept of WBT/SIL's role in development: "Education and development of the masses this manner a few very Influential persons from Villavicencio...
...Ibid., p. 122...
...Among church people, who provide the broad financial base, on the grounds that WBT/SIL misuses religion to facilitate the ethnocidal operations of governments and private corporations...
...21, Translation, Oct.-Dec...
...6 8 That northern nation is the same "America that made herself 'white' by the genocide of the native Indian population, the America that from the beginning was known by the black race, not as 'the promised land,' but as an earthly hell, not as the land of liberation, but as the land of slavery...
...Cambodia put all missionaries out of their country in 1965, and it seemed that God's work there was finished...
...PAINT ME RED...
...From the WBT/SIL point of view, the oil companies have facilitated the Christianization of the Auca...
...cultural and economic imperialism...
...provided land for Bogota building, & retired general donated land for Lomalinda base...
...With overlapping governing boards and purposes, SIL and WBT address themselves to different publics...
...In the 1972Translation Prayer Directory, Kietzman is listed with a different lob-Director of the U.S...
...illiterate...
...WBT flier, "Statement of Doctrine...
...2 5 In the last paragraph of the article, the author reports that funds for bi-lingual education programs have been cut "as the strategic Trans-Amazon Highway received top priority," 2 6 but there is no explanation of the "strategy...
...The lecturer is presenting to the Kaingaing an illusory choice between misrepresented alternatives...
...4 2 Guests at WBT/SIL bases in Peru that year included the Ministers of Education, War, Health and Government, as well as the commanding generals of the Peruvian Army and Air Force...
...The eternal life of the saved and the eternal punishment of the lost...
...4 The situation of the Indian in Latin America is extremely precarious at this time...
...Panama 1970 Min...
...Eric Wolf notes that the exploited Indian could perceive no universal meaning in his fuffering...
...In its capacity as a non-religious institution, WBT/SIL moved rapidly into areas previously off-limits to Protestant organizations, and this expansion led to the formation of the Jungle Aviation and Radio Service (JAARS) in 1947...
...MARK TWAIN The WyclifJt Bible Translators, who specialize in linguistic and religious work among tribal peoples, effiectively combine scientific technique with religious mystification to give'a new facade to the old process of pacifying and pillaging native peoples...
...Box 2270, Manila, Philippines...
...The contract specifies mutual obligations and restrictions...
...The "rights and benefits" conceded to the Indians by their "benevolent" conquerors were usually a piece qof wasteland considered useless by economic interests at that time...
...Linguistics, U. Michigan, 1948 -) 1952 Grand Forks, N.D...
...His subject is a Protestant periodical in Argentina, strikingly similar to Translation in form and content, 18...
...Street address: 240 Nguyen Minh Chieu, Phunhuan, Saigon, Viet-Nam...
...In this way the Indian ceases to become a problem to the dominant classes of the dominant civilization...
...1 8 Within this drama the world is divided into Christians and non-Christians and the key struggle is between these two universes (God and Satan...
...In 1824 Bolivar, having led Peru to independence, caused the dissolution of the highland Indian communities by permitting each member of a commune to sell the communal lands he possessed in usufruct (having rights to the use of and fruits of a certain land parcel without actual possession of the substance of that land...
...PHILIPPINES: Aeta, Agta, Amduntug, Ate of Davao, Atta, Balangao, Batak, Binokid, Binongan Itneg, Bontoc, Botolan, Sambal, Bukidnon, Dumagat, Dibabawen, Gaddang, Ifugao, Ilongot, Isneg, Ivatan, Kalagan, Kalinga, Maguindanao, Mamanwa, Manunua, Manobo...
...Sources: Summer Institute of Linguistics 1972 (course catalogue), Translation Prayer Directory 1972, and Translation magazine, Nov.-Dec...
...Assistance from USAI D in the other cases may be through channels other then technical service contracts...
...3 5 In other words, the message is not precisely contained in the spiritual statement (or "code") or in the political statement (which in the case of WBT/SIL is a supposedly neutral position) but in the position that emerges when these two are combined and reconstructed within our minds...
...Lalive, op...
...New York Times, oc...
...44 148 Total cost of new headquarters, for which site purchased in 1971,nearly $300,000...
...Instituto Linguistico de Verano, Apartado Postal 22067, Mexico 22 D.F., Mexico...
...The organization emphasizes the impermanence of the missionary and the lasting natures of the translated Bible and the native church...
...This woman, Dayuma, went back to her Auca relatives and convinced them to allow Saint to live with them and teach them about Christianity...
...Akwesasne Notes...
...Agency for International Development (USAID) in Viet-Nam, Peru and Nepal...
...3 9 At least one member has received support from the U.S...
...It is an active participant in the newest and perhaps final phase of conquest...
...II-WYCLIFFE'S ROLE The Summer Institute of Linguistics, a North American organization based at Loma Linda, entered into collaboration with the government's civic action program in Planas in order to attract the [Guahibol Indians who fight alongside Jaramillo [a cooperative organizer who led the resistance...
...From the scientific point of view, anthropological study must be prior to any practical end, since the latter will derive from the study itself and not vice versa...
...Cocamilla, Culina, Huambisa, Iquito, Jebero, Jivaro., Kandoshi, Machiguenga, Marinahua, Mayoruna, Muiane, Murui, Nomatsiguenga, Ocaina...
...Welfare & Com...
...Translation, April June 1972, p. 6. 16...
...each has a price and a recompense...
...Similar tendencies have emerged or will begin to appear in other parts of the world where tribal peoples are up against the wall...
...In October 1971, over a year after a Presidential commission of inquiry tried to lay the Guahibo case to rest, another group, the Movement for the Defense of National Culture called for WBT/SIL's expulsion from the country...
...and "be more" (like what...
...First, death per se is the terminus of all life...
...Sometimes the civilian guides themselvessettlers with old grudges against the Indians and whose interests are to despoil them of their lands--take the authority to assassinate the Indians into their own hands...
...1971, p. 2. 30...
...VIET-NAM: Bahnar, Bruu, Cham, Cambodian Chain...
...Summer session only...
...Same address as Guatemala...
...The 1961 Biennial Report contains the following notice: Technical assistance in helping the Peruvian Army establish a flight program to isolated jungle areas has required time and effort of our personnel but has been of real benefit to the work as a whole...
...The individual is the medium for the message...
...It is reported that murder was as common within and between Auca families as in their confrontations with outsiders...
...of Indigenous Affairs) controversy with anthropologists and pro-Indian activists...
...1953 Merstham, England John Bendor-Samuel, Ph.D...
...He/she is to defer to the moral and cultural proscriptions of the JudeoChristian tradition, and specifically to the teachings of the New Testament...
...NEW GUINEA: Agarabi, Asaro (Upper), Atzera, Bali.Vitu, Benabena, Boiken, Buang, Buin, Chauve, Daga, Fore, Gadsup, Gahuku, Gawigl, Gimi, Golin Marigl, Halia, latmul, Kalam, Kamano-Kafe, Kewa, Komba, Kunimaipa, Magagat-Baining, Maprik, Maring, Menye, Nagovisi, Nakanai, Nasioi, Nil, Oksapmin, Olo, Orokalva, Pasismanau, Rawa, Salt-Yul, Siane, Selepet, Tairora, Timbe, Wahgi, Wantoat, Wiru...
...This is a lay support association apparently created for fund-raising purposes and to cement the relationship between WBT/SIL and the conservative business community...
...the other half are support personnel, working in education, medicine, or technical capacities...
...ECUADOR: Auca, Cayapa, Cofan, Colorado, Jivaro, Lowland Quechua, Secoyah...
...37a...
...0 Millenial expectation (including the belief that U.S...
...93 344 Heavily staffed by Australian nationals...
...JOURNEY TOWARD TODAY: "Share the excitement of former jungle savages entering a new world of Scriptural enlightenment, education, and progress...
...Letter from Coordinator of Indian Affairs to the Villavicencio Army Commander, August 10, 1970...
...The ethnocentrism of the translators often reveals...
...33 1 6 4 b More "supporting" than tribal-team personnel...
...All this together produces an effect of urgency, rapid movement and drama, precisely the emotional premises on which the translation movement is founded (millenial expectation...
...of Public Ed...
...One, primarily defensive in30 nature, seeks to preserve the status quo-where there are reservations, they are to be preserved, as the irreducible minimum necessary for cultural survival...
...Prof...
...Gen'l Dir...
...and 2) in imposing, by way of Christianity, "criteria and patterns of thought and behavior alien to the colonised Indian societies," 6 which fragment and therefore neutralize Indian communities and turn their members into "marginal individuals, incapable of living either in the larger society or in their native communities...
...But this is the death which comes to the Indian tipically as a result of aggression from the outside as the civilizados advance on the interior-and not as a result of indigenous behavior patterns...
...That is, it defines and interprets a consciousness of one's place in the natural and social world...
...dMissionary Aviation Fellowship...
...Andre Gunder Frank, Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1969), p. 128...
...Although SIL is referred to as an "affiliate" of WBT...
...The problem of such dependence is complex...
...UNESCO bronze medal in 1969...
...Relations between church and state in Mexico, for example, were so sensitive as to make a formal relationship between the government and an evangelical mission organization impossible...
...That the two are so widely associated is a function of WBT's virtual monopoly of the literacy enterprise in many areas...
...This initial phase is often met with resistance as the indigenous people draw together to stem the invasion...
...AID-430-2365-T (1-9-67to 1-9-68): "Assist thegovernment of Vietnam in developing an education program for minority language groups...
...WBT/SIL has been supported in Viet-Nam by generous grants from the U.S...
...Their intention is to make their Bibles correspond as closely as possible to indigenous patterns of thought and speech, so they use traditional parables and vocabulary in place of the literal biblical images...
...Work seen as "nation-building" for New Guinean independence...
...3. Other faculty: Burton Bascom, Th.B., Ph.D., William Merrifield, M.A., Ph.D...
...See article cited in note 52 above...
...and yet we may trace the specific national and international circumstances that have caused them to be in their present condition...
...In other words, the translators believe that when the Bible has been made available to all peoples Christ will return to earth to reign for a period of one thousand years (a "millenium...
...government to manage the education of minorities in this country...
...Lalive, op...
...For all their abuses, the reservations have offered indigenous peoples a minimum territorial base for preservation of their collective existence and culture...
...Although the over-all focus varies, the subject-matter of the individual articles is of a consistent type...
...9,1971...
...6 1 2 b Administered through Colombian branch...
...Near East and South Asia INDIA: Abuihamaria, Halbi...
...Every possible precaution is taken to insure that the undeniably political and collective struggle of the Brazilian Indians be reduced to a question of personal psychology...
...3urera, Garawa, Gugu-Yalanii, Kunjen, Mabuiag, Manjiltiara, Pintupi, Tiwi, Wailbri, Walmatlari, Wik-Munkan, Yanyula...
...Note: in the case of New Guinea, we have not listed all the 93 tribes WBT SIL is working with, because of lack of space...
...WBT/SIL has in fact fulfilled its contractual obligation to put the services of its communications subsidiary, JAARS, at the disposal of Colombia's national ministries, be they of Health, Education or War...
...Particularly serious conflicts of interest have emerged in areas where Catholic missions have also been established, between the two camps of missionaries, and among Indians Wycliffe in the Colombian Controversy...
...The third tendency seeks a national minority status under socialism, joining its political energies to the larger anti-capitalist struggle in this country...
...Townsend described it as a "functional approach...
...MEXICO: 94 tribal teams working in the following language groups: Amuzgo, Aztec, Chatino, Chinanteco, Chol, Chontal...
...1970 Annual Report, New Guinea Branch of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, p. 3. 41...
...1970, p. 11...
...to Wycliffe presents...
...Christ died for him, and life takes on new meaning...
...Reporting and continuous personal attention to the Military Departments have netted us help and appreciation...
...Criticism, discouragement and doubts are laid to rest with these stories, in which the Indian is abundantly thankful for this gift of faith the translators have brought...
...Correal Report, p. 4: "We consider the methodological process of the compilation of ethnographic data adequate...
...The culture is to be "appreciated" just as museum art is "appreciated...
...The cost of a 27-month training program for work in Peru (several years ago) for example, ran to more than $6,000...
...The students in this new school choose for their motto, "By means of education we fight for the emancipation of our people...
...As they advance we fly ahead of them and explain to Aucas living in their path that they are coming...
...4 0 USAID has also authorized the use of a million dollars in surplus equipment, and Pacific Telephone and Telegraph donated a million dollars in outdated communications equipment...
...any discussion of the actual government of Brazil and its Indian policy...
...Information on contracting or cooperating national agencies was obtained from U.S...
...In 1970, WBT/SIL did in fact provide air and radio support, as well as interpreters, for national police and military units engaged in suppressing armed insurrection by the Guahibo Indians...
...See "Colombia Trial Bares Life (Everyone Kills Indians) on Plains," New York Times, July 9, 1972...
...9-10...
...They settled in the "same regions (marginal in comparison with the alluvial riverside zones) in which many of the tribal populations had concentrated and survived...
...Clifford Geertz, quoted in J. Milton Yinger, The Scientific Study of Religion (New York: Macmillan, 1970), p. 6. 17...
...TBE, 10...
...investment coming to more than $300 million...
...While this transference of loyalties is clearly dysfunctional to Colombian "national interest," it may on the contrary be quite functional to U.S...
...values presented in the organization's educational materials or concealed in its evangelical beliefs...
...The Auca had received no compensation for their lost territory or for its resources, except for an epidemic of polio that crippled or killed a large number in the settlement...
...what appears in the daily papers, the six-o'clock news (the casualty reports, the My-Lai incidents, domestic dissent) should not be the focus of attention: We may not have much longer, but it would be far better to have our eyes on the Lord's soon return than on the changing political scene...
...Tribal peoples, however, continue to resist the further encroachment of "Christian capitalist" civilization...
...The analysis that follows draws heavily on Lalive's essay, both in vocabulary and in concept...
...Oreion, Piro, Quechua, Santarosina, Saranahua, Shipibo, Ticuna, Urarina, Witoto, Yagua...
...Generally, the organization is willing not to press for land-grants, landtitles, etc., if the government is unfavorable to indigenous cultural, political, or territorial autonomy...
...Assoc...
...also because Wycliffe's contracts with foreign governments violate the U.S...
...Some adherents see this in socialist terms, while others would continue within a capitalist framework...
...This is the second element of the grid, Christian dualism...
...According to Captain Cook, the natives numbered 400,000 less than a hundred years ago...
...SIL workers are also granted visas and any equipment the organization brings in is free of import duties...
...UNITED STATES: Apache, Cocopa, Crow, Hopi, Kobuk River-Eskimo, Koyukon, Kutchin, Lakota, Mescalero, Apache, Mikasuki Seminole, Navajo, Northern Paiute, Papago, Tewa Pueblo, Tiwa Pueblo, Tlingit, Towa-Pueblo, Upper Kuskowin, Upper Tanana, Ute, Yupik-Eskimo, Zuni-Pueblo...
...Satan) and the borrowing of terminology between planes (the "spiritual advance" expressed in military terms) results in the association of the two levels as: Viet-Nam War = War of Souls Referring again to Lalive, who is quoting Roland Barthes, "this vagueness (between codes) constitutes in my opinion the story, for it defines the performance of the narrator...
...While Texaco and Gulf predominated in this venture, 25 other companies were involved, with the U.S...
...27, 1970, a portion of which appears in translation in material accompanying the present article...
...He or she immediately begins a period of language-learning and analysis and afterwards initiates translation and informal18s Bible teaching, taking one of the native people as an assistant (or "informant...
...The Spanish conquistadors, the Jesuit missionaries, the rubber hunters-all these groups had failed to subdue the Auca or to settle on their land...
...But Rachel Saint, a translator, whose brother Nate was among the slain missionaries, was determined to try it again...
...4.Other faculty: Irvine Davis, M.A., Ph.D., Esther Matteson, Ph.D...
...living without hope...
...Nevertheless, the number of SIL anthropologists (8with B.A.'s,l with a Master's) is insufficient for the direction and supervision of the process of compilation and analysis...
...As a result of this lose coordination by radio and telephone through our Quito office, there has been not one life lost to date...
...7 3 Wycliffe, with powerful political alliances in Colombia's ruling circles, would stay in the country for some time to come...
...Yet isolated...
...aFrom 1971 Biennial Reports (1971 data...
...In this project, God uses military troops, but He has other methods also...
...Their means of subsistence, hunting and gathering with limited agriculture, necessitated a large home area...
...The new society could command their labor, but it could not command their loyalty...
...Surinam 1967 Min...
...Elvira Townsend in an article from 1942...
...But a new wave of conquest during the 19th century overcame this resistance...
...God turned the tables in Indonesia on the eve of a Marxist revolution, and the spiritual response of thousands turning to Christ has been tremendous...
...Castillo Cardenas, op...
...SIL's official policy is "to cooperate with government officials whenever possible, rather than work independently or in competition with them...
...missionary-linguists, could best decide and administer Indian policy, or even the creation of a review board composed of Indians to pass on the policies and activities of anthropologists, linguists and missionaries alike...
...Cuiteco, Huasteco...
...USAID contracts with SIL in Viet-Nam, as listed In Current Technical Service Contracts (U.S...
...The feature articles in this issue of Translation make use of the same techniques of reduction to the personal we have previously discussed, A Vietnamese convert sharing his testimony with American GI's maintains that through all that this war has brought-his land laid waste, his home burned by the enemy, his brother lost,his arm lost, his life threatened- he could discern the hand of God in a way that made sense to him...
...7 Zander's predecessor, Clarence E. Church, was pleased with the formation of "a permanent Commission made up of linguists and anthropologists to define and evaluate the national policy for Indians," because its members were U.S.-trained and generally friendly to the Institute...
...This tribe took up arms against Colombian nationals who settled on their lands in a U.S.-supported land reform program...
...Some groups which partially or entirely survived continued their retreat to the interior...
...Such costs must be covered by the prospective translator...
...4 9 In 1956,five missionaries (not Wycliffe translators) tried to establish a mission among the Auca...
...1971 Biennial Reports, p. 34...
...Second, they would work to incorporate the isolated defensive struggles, which seem to face insuperable odds, into a long-term fight against the system of exploitation which perpetrates the continuing assault on indigenous lands and rights...
...Acts of direct aggression (massacres) and policies of "integration" (forced migrations) are breaking apart the vestiges of indigenous society...
...Powerful agencies of the Colombian state have demonstrated that they see the fragmentation of the Indian community as necessary for the "integration" of the nation as a whole--to which land development and the exploitation of such resources as the Indian lands hold is essential...
...Overseas, government agencies which contract Wycliffe's services absorb many of the expenses of educational programs and materials...
...Clarence E. Church, "Report of The Colombia-Panama Branch," in 1971 Biennial Reports, p. 72...
...The Kaingaing Case Here is an example of the "psychologizing interpretation" of the Indian situation, drawn from an article in Translation on bi-lingual teacher training in Brazil: A group of Brazilian Indians (Kaingaing) are rounded up and sent off to a newly formed boarding school for linguistic and literacy training...
...Institute Linguistico de Verano, Apartado 74, Guatemala City, Guatemala...
...2 3 Here we have some interesting assumptions...
...Ibid...
...one more, name unknown...
...Israel Shenker, "Expert Linguist Spreads the World with Missionary Zeal," New York Times, June 21, 1969...
...Did Wyclife, as it worked among the Guahibo, protest this aggression...
...1 3 WBT/SIL personnel are required to adhere to the theological position set forth in the organization's "Statement of Doctrine...
...NACLA translation...
...Poona 2, India...
...Three WBT/SIL tribes not accounted for between Canada and the United States...
...It is WBT/SIL's view that one new Christian justifies any measure of time and energy...
...Africa and Asia...
...Biennial Report, Corporation Conference, 1961...
...IV-A LINK WITH WYCLIFFE...
...It appears that this is the loop-hole through which WBT's Christian Soldiers find their way into "Catholic" Latin America...
...It is to be form but not substance: it is a particular way of expressing, not a thing expressed...
...The translators are clearly not motivated by a desire for wealth...
...Whatever the context, there is an illustrative story about the conversion of Manuel, or Makeba, or Dayuma...
...candidate, Robert E. Longacre, M.A., Ph.D., Eunice Pike, R.N., Frank Robbings, M.A., Ph.D., Dow Robinson, A. B., Ph D. 2. Other faculty: Frank Anderson, M.A., Ph.D., Henry Bradley, M.A., Ph.D., John Crawford, M.A., Ph.D., Marjorie Davis, M.A., Randall Spiers, M.A., Ph.D...
...4. The Declaration of Barbados (Geneva: World Council of Churches, Programme to Combat Racism, 1971, mimeograph), p. 3. S. Ibid, p. 1. 6. Ibid, p. 3. 7. Ibid, p. 4. 8. It would be an interesting and useful project to examine the social and ideological content of descriptive linguistics as it relates to the Indian question, and in par ticular to analyze the writings of Pike and Nida in this context...
...Emancipation means that the Kaingaing must be liberated from the bonds of their own low estimation of themselves...
...According to WBT, "the difference is in emphasis...
...and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (in condensed form...
...The true account of his own miraculous transformation in a first-person narration that reveals the heart of a seeking Indian...
...Several professors of the Linguistics Institute have begun to work in the area...
...Nor did the representatives of the anthropological profession examine-in all their investigation of WBT/SIL-the political-economic factors undermining Indian survival, and the linkages of these factors to the Wycliffe organization, its bases of support, its leadership and its ideology...
...Bolivia 1955 Min...
...SIL, 3, Guru Nanak Nagar...
...Tercer Mundo, 1971...
...The doctrine of justification by faith...
...From Translation...
...16, 1963...
...5 3 The furore generated by this attack caused a quasi-official entity, the National Council on Indian Policy, to commission a team of four anthropologists to study Wycliffe's role...
...Ibid., p. 9. 33...
...Suddenly with the discovery of a vast reserve of oil under the Eastern Jungle twenty-one companies are working 1500 men there...
...Gerald Cannon Hickey, "The Lost Montagnards," New York Times, August 16, 1973, p. 35...
...Mission centers were established in a scattered fashion, modeled after the hacienda, and wherever their influence reached, the Indians were forced into a new society "stratified by ethnico-racial segments and socio-economic classes...
...For your way the price is lack of progress, hunger and death, and the recompense is a life without the pain of change...
...emphasis added...
...Chrau, Chru, Cue...
...Cocama...
...In addition to the linguistic and literacy work, the translators engage in medical aid, sanitation programs and programs for "economic development...
...The assumption that tribal extinction is inevitable is . . a dangerous view because it is a selffulfilling prophecy that encourages people either to do nothing, or else work to speed the 'inevitable,' and lets them feel good about helping the natives accept it...
...Probably the $8.7 million reported falls short of the actual cost of support for the entire apparatus...
...4 5 In some forms there was concerted and briefly successful resistance which delayed attempts at further penetration of the tropical forests...
...if the indigenous person is "saved," i.e., converted, he/she gains eternal life in heaven (which in no way implies a change of situation in this world...
...In 1942, WBT/SIL moved to the University of Oklahoma, and in the following years initiated summer courses in several other universities in the United States and abroad (see box on page 20...
...NIGERIA: Abua, Agbo, Alago, Angas, Bekwarra, Busa, Dghwede, Engenni, Gude, Higi, Igede, Igbirra, Izi, Jibu Kale, Languada, Mambila, Mbembe, Mumuye...
...TBE, (est...
...Moreover, educational materials relating to civics, history and other areas of "national life" were prepared by WBT/SIL with no supervision or review by nationals...
...the second coming depends on the dissemination of the Bible in native tongues to all peoples) and concern for the salvation of souls with regard to the after-life clearly persist as the core of WBT theology in the 1970's...
...The fall of man, his consequent moral depravity and his need of regeneration...
...1973, pp...
...One is absolved if one has trust in the "advance...
...and so as our workers have gone into these areas as dedicated linguists, God has used their testimony once they have stablished their identity as scientific experts...
...These religious oppositions are superimposed and in no way correspond to the traditional structure of indigenous society...
...East Asia and the Pacific AUSTRALIA: Bandialang...
...Some translators may be entirely self-supporting and therefore no income would be reported for them...
...TBE, 1. Institute Linguistico de Verano, Apartado Postal 5227, Panama 5, Republica de Panama...
...Govt...
...For several reasons Shell decided to leave Ecuador...
...which includes linguistics (the study and transliteration of the native language), literacy (teaching the native people to read and write this language), and translation (of the Bible), in fulfillment of the New Testament command to bring the teachings of Christ to all peoples ("Souls cannot be born again apart from the Word"), and in expectation that "the millenium" will follow upon its completion...
...SIL makes contracts with governments abroad, organizes the summer training sessions in linguistics, and takes charge of field work...
...Where reservations have not yet been created, as in many areas of the Latin American interior, defense of the status quo may mean remaining on traditional lands and fighting removal to new preserves...
...Peru 1946 Min...
...The primary overt motivation of the individual trans- lators is a belief in the WBT mission...
...After a thorough basic training in the Bible and linguistic field methods, and a survival course at one of Wycliffe's jungle training camps if necessary (depending on the location of his/ her post), the translator establishes himself in the assigned area...
...The Auca, who number only a few hundred, were until recently a reportedly aggressive and hostile Indian group inhabiting the Oriente, or eastern jungle, of Ecuador...
...Scott Robinson, personal correspondence, January 24, 1973...
...Some Documents and Questions I-REPRESSION AT PLANAS The prolongation of the [Guahibo] conflict has brought as a consequence the permanent harassment of the Indians, thanks to constant army patrols, interrogations based on mistreatment and torture of prisoners and, finally, the death of many natives, including mothers with babes in arms, who, disconcerted and frightened by the order to halt, flee the army and are executed in the act...
...of Ed...
...Parale, as well as two others not given in source...
...Stephano Varese, op...
...SIL enters into a contract with the government of a country where field work is to be carried out...
...94 310 Excellent govt...
...of Ed...
...it has its topos to the north of the Rio Grande...
...Viet-Nam Minorities govt...
...5 7 By the argument of national interest, WBT/SIL, as a North American Protestant organization, is seen to violate the independence of the Colombian nation in assuming responsibility for the integration of marginal peoples...
...5 9 Similarly, WBT/SIL-run "development" programs have come under fire as being responsible for creating dependence on the missionary.bO Dale Kietzman, Coordinator for Anthropology and Community Development, frankly admitted in the 1971 Biennial Conference of the organization, "We do everything ourselves...
...Cambodia 1971a - - Work initiated by Viet-Nam branch...
...That these two interests are at odds and must be discussed separately is a function of the situation of internal colonialism coupled with nationalism and an increasing sensitivity to U.S...
...Ibid., p. 64...
...It is the same as calculating an eclipse...
...7 4 Wycliffe's performance as the cultural penetration team in service of an expanding world market has succeeded in isolating indigenous communities from one another, and breaking down the social organization within them necessary to mount resistance to their cultural and/or physical elimination...
...1 Financial support comes from private donations in the United States, grants from U.S...
...It is at this.juncture that the exponents of the translation mission are active...
...forces to leave their villages...
...Insofar as the corporate Indian community has been isolated at all, this reflects the self-chosen retreat which is the Indians' only available means of protection from the ravages and exploitation of the capitalist system...
...WBT) Rudolf Renter (Chmn...
...70...
...Mansaka, Maranao, Marore, Northern Kankanay...
...From El Espectador (Bogota) February 27, 1970.* How was the decision made to collaborate in military-civic action...
...what the WBT lecturer is clearly referring to is violent, unnatural death...
...Indigenous Latin Americans are treated as, and thus functionally constitute, a specific racial and societal class (or caste...
...Although Rachel Saint is not pleased with the numerous violations of Indian rights on the part of government and industry, she feels it is inevitable that the Indians make way...
...1. Other faculty: Doris Bartholomew, M.A., Ph.D., Joseph Grimes, M.A., Ph.D., Sarah Gudsehinsky, M.A., Ph.D., George Huttar, M.A., Ph.D., Peter Lan derman, M.A., Ph.D...
...Similarly, it was not wanderlust that led the Indians of the Sierra to settle in the tropical forests in the first place, but the growth of a new national ruling class, and the development of new forms of agriculture and industry...
...They are to be the teachers for their own communities when they have graduated...
...2 The objective of the Wycliffe Bible Translators (WBT) is to bring the Christian Gospel to the 2000-odd peoples of the world whose language is as yet unwritten and who therefore do not have access to the Bible...
...The Correal report favored a greater emphasis by Wycliffe on bilingual literay education and withdrawal from "development" work...
...Pressure from the government and the oil companies forced the Wycliffe missionaries to step up their attempts to convert the remaining Auca...
...These "isolated jungle areas" hold a two-fold interest for national governments: for their natural resources, and for the potential they have, being outside government control, as areas of political resistance...
...This is done by Auca Christians through a loud speaker mounted on the plane...
...Hope for Viet Nam-Right Now...
...Colombia 1962 Min...
...1973, p. 6.31 24...
...3 4 The scene of the battle is neatly transferred from the harshly practical and political, to the hygienically mythical and religious...
...of Ed...
...Macuna, Maloyo, Muinane, Paez, Piapoco, Piratapuyo...
...V-WYCLIFFE CONSOLIDATES We did very little to defend ourselves [in the controversy] except to make sure that people had an opportunity to see firsthand what we were doing...
...2. Santa Ana (California) Register, Sept...
...1972 Dallas, Texas Calvin Rensch, Ph.D...
...In terms of personnel, it recently became the largest Protestant missionary-sending agency in the world, displacing the Southern Baptists, though as late as 1969 it ranked only fourteenth in terms of reported income...
...received Order of Cruzeiro do Sul from the military dictatorship...
...2 7 In this way the Indians are prevented Institution21 from grasping the real elements of their struggle for survival...
...racially, as an excluded minority...
...First, religion determines a "general order of existence" 1 6 for the believing individual, particularly in the case of a new convert...
...The earthly vision is doomed to become increasingly more terrible, but the heavenly vision more wonderful...
...53,000...
...It is obligated to teach Spanish in addition to the native language...
...It is significant that, under the direction of Kenneth L Pike and Eugene Nida, both respected scholars in the field of descriptive linguistics, 8 the quality of SIL linguistic work (in academic terms) has been excellent...
...Area Dir...
...Such a challenge might be undertaken through Congressional investigation or public hearings under private auspices...
...WBT public relations flier...
...cit., p.130...
...Our translation...
...In clarifying-and neutralizing-this rather strong term "emancipation," which in the North American mind inevitably suggests the emancipation of slaves (a bitter...
...Although these classes are open to anyone, those who participate in the SIL field operations are necessarily Bible translators (or support workers), not merely linguists, because WBT is the domestic branch through which the SIL field personnel are recruited and sent abroad...
...itself as racism against Latin Catholics-their morals, their culture, etc.-while the same translators are inclined to excuse the state of Indian morality (that is, what they perceive this to be) as derving from "ignorance...
...Executive Director Benjamin F. Elson, in 1971 Biennial Reports of the Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc., and the Summer Institute of Linguistics, p. 16...
...Worth It All...
...ibid., p. 147...
...3 6 The rest languish in poorlyequipped refugee camps, dependent on the official agencies for the wherewithal of survival...
...The list above includes only those tribes with over 5,000 speakers, and is adopted from the 1970 Annual Report of the Summer In- stitute of Linguistics, New Guinea Branch.29 Wycliffe's own millenarian faith...
...Alberto Pinzon Sanchez, "El linguistico: la realidad de una noche de verano" (mimeo...
...In fact it is only in communist-controlled areas that "montagnard refugees are being returned to their former sites to rebuild villages...
...Department of Health, Education and Welfare...
...We must keep two postulates in mind as we consider and evaluate this "ideology...
...A short way down the highway...
...Institute of Linguistics, P.O...
...At least 85 percent of the Montagnards have been required by Saigon or the U.S...
...In the past, "peace treaties" were sometimes signed between the colonizing nation and the tribal nations...
...6 5 WBT/SIL engages in this "pacification" in the name of saving lives...
...Carrier, Slave, Stoney...
...Kekchi...
...Indonesia 1971 - - 13 New Guinea 1956 Australian Ter...
...A fourth organization, Wycliffe Associates, has been formed and incorporated recently...
...3 14 Ghana-Togo 1962 Dept...
...armed resistance of this type has too often served the conquerors as an invitation to massacre...
...As the Indians move we notify the oil companies...
...WBT + SIL +IAARS=WBT There is a degree of intentional confusion about the relationship between the three nominal sections of Wycliffe...
...The essays are built up out of an anecdote, or a series of anecdotes, concerning miracles of faith, conversion, the frustrations and gratifications of the translator, and the like...
...Also the Linguistics Institute provided the radio equipment in order to establish direct communications between the police station in Planas and the departmental capital...
...Chants, incantations, animal sacrifices, and sorcery are used constantly to try to appease the many demons which are feared by the highlanders more than tigers or war or anything else...
...First, that the Indian has a "choice" as to whether he/she will be assimilated into the national society...
...5 5 The criticisms from Colombian anthropologists and proIndian activists deal with two separate but related issues: first, that SIL's activities are contrary to the national interest...
...Suddenly-a coup d'etat and a new responsiveness to missionary work...
...and the missionaries brought the means of grace and got them ready...
...of Ed., Govt...
...As reported by WBT/SIL's Corporation Secretary, John S. Henderson, in an interview with another researcher, January 14, 1972...
...cit., p. 72...
...5 6 This fragmentation is the inevitable consequence of the "individualist-type acculturation" forced upon collectively organized indigenous societies...
...5 1 The Colombian Controversy In 1962, the Summer Institute of Linguistics signed a contract with the government of Colombia, whose basic outlines were described above...
...1 7 The major axis of this grid, to borrow the terminology of Christian Lalive in his "Culture et dependence en Amerique latine" (see note 17), is a "psychologizing interpretation" by which the heart of the individual is the center and cause of all manifestations of evil and good...
...Similarly, "hunger" in the interior is largely the consequence of an ecological imbalance occasioned by demographic pressure from the20 Training Centers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics Program Location Initiated Director U. of Oklahomal* U. of North Dakota 2 U. of Washington3* Gordon College4* Internat'l Linguistic Center,5 Emmanuel College British School of SIL Seminar fur Sprachmethodik U. of Auckland 1942 Norman, Oklahoma Kenneth Pike, Ph.D...
...TBE, at least 400...
...Alleged incidents of the persecution and execution of Christians by the National Liberation Front (NLF) abound: "We never saw Doe again...
...The question is of course reduced to the personal level: whether Armandio (in this particular case) will opt for "hard work" and "salvation...
...Missions from one country to another represent the 'planned diffusion of religion' and hence the mediated ideology of the missionary-sending country...
...You see the Indians as the translator sees them, as he begins learning the language, helping to meet physical need then communicating the hope of the Gospel...
...Moreover, his use of the term "death" also suggests its supposed contrary, "eternal life," which, along with food and progress, is by implication the particular gift of the Christian God...
...Cuiva, Desano, Guahibo, Guambiano, Guanano, Guayabero, Huitoto, Inga, Kogui, Kwaiker, Macu...
...Asia & Pacific, WBT/SIL) 1958 Seattle, Wash...
...Paramaribo.Zuid, Surinam...
...What is notably missing from this report on bi-lingual education and from its analysis of the Indian situation, is any historical positioning...
...NACLA translation...
...According to WBT/SIL, Indian society is internally motivated, static and closed...
...Such cultural imperialism and economic oppression by colonizing groups, be they Spanish, Portuguese, North American or national, have transformed the Indian into a "minority" even in countries where Indian peoples as a group form more than half of the total population.24 Wycliffe is a Global Corporation Year National Agency 1972 Branch Entered Contracting/Cooperating Iribes Personnel Comments Australia 1961 - 13 45 Grants for housing and regular subsidy for linguistic work received from Australian government...
...19 In these articles indigenous persons are characterized as children, born by culture into sin and ignorance, not yet "mature men" of "Christ's full stature" (Ephesians, 4:13...
...Translation Prayer Directory 1972 of the Wycliffe Bible Translators...
...Townsend created the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) as the "scientific" corporation-theoretically involved in pure linguistic and educational research-to get around this problem...
...What was thecommand structure in the field...
...Mopan Maya, Pocoman Oriental, Pocomchi, Quiche (Cantel, Chichicastenango, Cunen and Joyabai), Tzutujil, Uspanteco...
...Good Soil in Hlang Hearts...
...Generally, WBT/SIL tries to work within traditional indigenous authority structures...
...imperialism and local exploiters, not of indigenous peoples...
...Although no covert association with U.S...
...Katu, Mnong Rolom...
...WBT/SIL members in the field live in conditions similar to those of the native people-though in the larger base camps such as Yarinacocha in Peru, Loma Linda in Colombia and Ukarumpa in New Guinea, they maintain U.S.-style houses and indigenous servants...
...New members have reinforced our ranks, we have entered new tribes and seen God's blessing in new places...
...We are not therefore talking about a phenomenon rooted in and confined to some "spiritual quarter" of the brain, but about an interpretive mechanism that necessarily figures in all thought and action...
...Now and again she would return to the United States for fundraising...
...Indians are collectively an oppressed nation and favors the creation of an independent nation-state...
...Beyond this, "hunger" is the lot of most Brazilians, civilizado or not...
...Douglas Hostetter, in an interview...
...1971...
...As in the past the Arauca of Chile long resisted the Spanish conquerors, so today the Xavante of Brazil carry on the tradition...
...USAID provided at least $163,000 (1967-70) for bilingual education programs...
...110,000...
...This great need of the indigenous for spiritual education, and therefore their great need for the translator, is the emotional currency by which the translators are bought and which sustains them throughout their terms...
...WBT recruits the field volunteers and represents the organization to the churches, to other missions and to the lay public in the United States who support the field work through private donations...
...TBE, 8. Summer Institute of Linguistics, P.O...
...Instead of treating indigenous peoples as conquered nations with rights, these are regarded as backward sectors of the conquering nation who have to be "educated and integrated" into it...
...administered through Nepal...
...In this way Rachel Saint joined a group of 56 Auca and set about establishing the first permanent and Christian Auca settlement...
...This is a modern-day Job, not the victim of a political war...
...With a convert at her side, she would appear on television and at evangelical rallies...
...The resurrection of the body, both in the case of the just and of the unjust...
...These reservations, where starvation was endemic, became the graveyard of/ thousands upon thousands of indigenous persons...
...In 1969 a reservation had been set up for the original group, and Dayuma had drawn the boundaries thinking it would be adequate...
...to lend technical (air and communications) assistance to authorized sectors of the government...
...Since then, in a period when other sending agencies have trimmed their budgets, Wycliffe's has risen sharply from under $6 million to $8.7 million-a 45 percent increase in four years...
...but God has not let us be satisfied with merely continuing on...
...July 5, 1973, was highly critical of the attitudes and conduct of missionaries from the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Viet Nam, but contrasted these with WBT / SIL personnel, who, he said, "cared about the people beyond their Christianizing role...
...In return, SIL is given office space, the use of government air strips, and fuel for its aircraft...
...to disseminate national texts on civics, health and morals...
...U. of 19 56 USAID is "enthusiastic sponsor" of the bilingual school program, underwriting costs of reading Guatemala materials and salary supplement of program director...
...A group of leaders from the Llanos and the National Territories, headed by Congressman and current Mayor of Villavicenclo, Narcisco Matus Torres, defends the work of the Institute's linguists...
...22, Translation, July August 1968, Cover...
...as SIL President Pike said in an interview in 1969, "We recruit for motive, and the first has to be religious motive...
...The Translators About half of WBT/SIL's members are translators...
...1, (July 1972), pp...
...It was not, and became increasingly less so as the settlement was enlarged with new recruits...
...SIL represents itself as an independent agency, but it is not, and its first priority in the field is evangelization...
...Much of the organization's private support has traditionally come from politically right-wing Orange County, California...
...There is a clause in most of SIL's contracts however, which asserts that SIL may undertake the "moral improvement" of the indigenous group...
...publishing of translated segments of the Bible, are often picked up by cooperating organizations such as the David C. Cook Foundation or certain Bible Societies...
...as they are strategically and morally (until they are with Christ) the weaker...
...My translation...
...According to the Correal Report, SIL made no effort to coordinate its programs with those of the DAI, or to keep DAI informed of its own operations (nor did DAI request such information...
...JAARS is composed of pilots, airplane mechanics and radio technicians, and is formally a subsidiary of SIL In Latin America alone, JAARS maintains a fleet of 30 aircraft, including a DC-3 cargo plane and two Helio-Couriers for short take-off and landing...
...1971 Biennial Reports of the Wycliffe Bible Translators...
...Interestingly enough, though there was an attempt by some to give the Commission some sort of permanent control over the work of SIL, our friends on the Commission, as well as the Minister of the Interior [Minister of Government] himself made sure that this did not happen...
...U. Philippines Republic of 1957 Min...
...What is necessary is the cooperation of the Indians in projects of assimilation, forced migration, and the like, which deprive them of their land and culture...
...Founder William Cameron Townsend...
...Neither the "moral improvement" clause nor the "translation of texts needed in cultural work" clause in the 1962 contract specifically allows (or forbids) Bible translation...
...TBE 25...
...From Translation...
...North America CANADA: Blackfoot, Beaver, Babine Lake Carrier, Dogrib, Micmac, Stuart-Lake...
...The Indian is thereby alienated from the traditions of the mainstream of the Colombian nation...
...Trade with missionaries as well as merchants results in the overexploitation of certain resources, and therefore an ecological imbalance...
...In 1964 the oil prospectors had moved back into the Oriente...
...It is often remarked that in this they differ from the bulk of Protestant missionaries, who remain aloof from and contemptuous of the indigenous culture...
...I thank God that though He has often led in ways I did not want to go, He has enlarged my vision and my joy as I see Him work...
...Translation, Oct.-Dec...
...WBT 'SIL in Latin America WBT, known as SIL abroad, is active in the Latin American countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Surinam, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil...
...Gonzalo Correal, Mauricio Cardona, Alvaro Chavez and Ligia de Ferrufino, "El Instituto Linguistico de Verano en Colombia" (Bogota: March 10, 1972), in El Instituto Linguistico de Verano, Documentacion No...
...cJungle Aviation and Radio Service, a WBT/ SI L subsidiary...
...With these factors in mind, it is not possible to consider the inhabitant of the remote jungle as suffering from a lack of contact with "Christian civilization...
...The thesis of the issue is "continuing support...
...Bruce Hooley, M.A...
...Auckland, N. Z. George Cowan, Ph.D...
...To this end the translators disseminate an ideology of submission and humility...
...The WBT world-wide "evangelical advance" is a religious manifestation of U.S...
...and economically, in a system that needs them only as a surplus labor pool...
...The objective of these integration policies is to remove the tribal peoples in order to complete the control of national territory by the dominant class of the prevailing national group...
...The supposition is that through industry and at the cost of nothing more than an occasional growing pain, the Indian will "have more" (of what...
...Hist...
...One of the original motivations for the WBT/SIL mission was a reaction on the part of some Christians to the crude exploitation of the Indian at the hands of these "planters," "white merchants" and "great corporations (who) consider the world their sales territory...
...COLOMBIA: Arhuaco, Barasano (Southern), Barasano (Northern), Camsa, Carapana, Catio, Coreguaje, Cubeo...
...its function is to make available the translated Bible so that indigenous churches may grow...
...They are separated from the perception of the sociohistorical forces which involve them and have for centuries involved them in a global network of political, social and economic relationships, and will not then act as they would had- they this knowledge...
...The continual alternation, throughout this issue of Translation, between two planes, practical (the Viet-Nam War) and mythical (the War of Souls) and their corresponding protagonists and antagonists (the United States vs...
...9 In other words, the language work, is in all senses a preliminary to the real task, the conversion of indigenous peoples to Christianity...
...Gonzalo Castillo Cardenas, interview, January 1973...
...Wycliffe's Statement of Doctrine Wycliffe's translators are necessarily theologically conservative...
...As regards a country such as Brazil, in which official and non-official campaigns of genocide against indigenous people have been reported internationally by journalists, educators, missionaries, etc., and cannot have escaped the notice of the resident translator, this matter of choice is clearly a pretension...
...a beggar in the nearest town, or a maid in a city house...
...more restrictive contract signed 1971: financial aid from W. German evangelical source...
...47 But the missionaries objected to the whiskey and the bloodshed, and not to the fundamental violation-that of the cultural and territorial sovereignty of an indigenous people by a colonizing people...
...Others who receive support from their home churches may receive it in dependently of WBT/SIL...
...Ibid...
...land for headquarters granted by presidential decree, expires 1990...
...Inst...
...In the United States, three tendencies have emerged in the native American movement...
...cit., p. 71...
...Believing themselves the harbingers of "modern civilization," they have infiact served as a cultural vanguard of a massive robbery on the frontiers of imperialist expansion, with no regard for the sovereign dignity of native peoples...
...Nung, Pacoh, Rengao, Roglai, Halang, Sedang, Stieng, White Tai., Black Tai...
...The Correal Report, having recognized the missionary-linguists' right to the private and collective practice of their faith, proceeded to say: But to introduce any sort of religious change in the indigenous communities, without adherence in the process to anthropological criteria, means the unleashing of cultural changes which could bring on dislocations in other aspects of the culture, with the consequent disintegration of the economic and social life of the group.66 The practical effect of conversion to Christianity is to concentrate the Indians so that they can be displaced, as in the example given earlier of the Auca in Ecuador...
...branch in charge of arrangements for Rural Affairs work in Argentine & Paraguayan Chaco...
...This thesis obscures the historical process that has brought the Indian under the influence of colonial groups for the last 500 years...
...Ibid., p. 118...
...the titles are large, of vivid type, and often punctuated by exclamation points or question marks...
...In the last hundred years, however, so much gold, oil and uranium have been discovered on these otherwise unusable lands that "democratic governments" are becoming embarrassed to be seen repeatedly turning over the reservations to business interests...
...Hfonduras 1960 Inst...
...Latin America BOLIVIA: Araona, Aymara, Baure, Cavinena, Chacobo, Chiquitano, Chipaya, Eseeiae (Chama), Guarani, Guarayo, Ignaciano, Itoanma, Movima, Pacahuara, Highland Quechua, Siriono, Tacana...
...A particular mission is considered complete when the New Testament and selected background portions of the Old Testament have been translated, and a nucleus of literate indigenous believers has been established to carry on when the translators have gone...
...Who, exactly, are the friends who declared themselves and what sort ofl'quid pro quo was involved...
...Moreover, integration into national life as well as the improvement of living standards are conceptions of an Indian policy which is still under study in Colombia today, as a function ofthe National Council on Indian Policy...
...From Translation...
...A linguist must not go out to study an indigenous tongue for his own advantage...
...Huave, Huichol, Lacandon...
...I believe that the army, if it continues its present policy, will in the end achieve this objective of depopulating the region of Indians, with the cure being worse than the disease, favoring in27 of the same tribal group whose religious affiliation differs...
...Instituto Linguistico de Verano, Casilla 1007, Quito, Ecuador...
...While in some cases this resistance is organized and carefully planned, in most others it is isolated and spontaneous...
...The thrust of the content, structure and literary genre of the little essays printed in Translation, is clearly to move out of the spatial and temporal localization of the anecdote into a reaffirmation of those "transhistoric constants . . . man and his heart...
...The causal relationship is one way from the individual toward society" (i.e., society is the exteriorization of the individual) and therefore "the political is voided to the benefit of a drama concerning the heart of each individual in his relationship with God...
...That is, they must believe in The doctrine of the Trinity...
...LXXVIII, No...
...of Ed., Nat...
...Ibid...
...Box 115, Kathmandu, Nepal...
...Subsidies from Govt...
...Concurrently, he/she is likely to be teaching the people to read, and to speak the national language if they do not already do so...
...Linguistic Society of America, 1961...
...5, 1972), p. 2. See also Juan Gossain, "Violencia en los Ilanos: fracaso cooperativoorigino la rebelion," El Espectador (Bogota), Feb...
...4 6 Adding to this demographic pressure, the rapid expansion of the rubber industries toward the end of the century opened up the interior to merchants who made common practice of raiding Indian settlements and enslaving Indians, whose skilled knowledge of the jungle was crucial to the early' rubber-gathering industry...
...Without this high academic standing, SIL would have found it difficult to enter and remain in antiecclesiastical and/or anti-Protestant nations...
...contract...
...training, serve as an international obstacle to the ./reedom ol'indigenous peoples...
...It is also working among the Indians of North America...
...The third element, or axis, which situates the grid in space and time and is the motivating organizational force behind the missionary advance, is millenial expectation...
...Box 378, Tamale, Northern Region, Ghana...
...Several people visited Lomalinda, including a governor, generals, writers, anthropologists, linguists, high-level government functionaries, and a Congressional Commission...
...The success of this mechanism relies on a less obvious "indeterminacy of codes," to which we will refer later in a political context...
...also see Gustavo Perez Ramirez, Planas: Las contradicciones del capitalismo (Bogota: Ed...
...4 3 While Indian cultures are not merely a culture of underdevelopment but also unique and vital in their own terms, it is unavoidably evident that they have been greatly influenced in their development by the intervention of successive phases of a continuing process of conquest...
...72...
...TBE, at least 5. Institute Linguistico de Verano, Casilla 2492, Lima, Peru...
...There would seem to be three avenues open to challenge WBT/SIL in its comfortable presumption of divine right: -In anthropological and linguistic circles, because the missionaries use their extraordinary linguistic skills, along with the credibility and mystique that accompany them...
...Crucial to this point of view is the organization's contention that the Indian is in a state of cultural and economic "isolation" and is severely deprived because of this "isolation...
...bFrom U.S...
...Pres...
...Mexico 1935 Sec...
...Uncle Cam" Townsend Museum...
...for Academic Affairs & Linguistic Coordination for SIL...
...The courses in the United States are taught by17 non-affiliated linguists as well as by SIL linguists on leave from their field posts...
...of Anthro...
...HONDURAS: Jicaque...
...6 7 Unlike mission models of the past in Latin America, particularly those of the Catholic Church which have traditionally been self-contained and self-sufficient com- pounds, microcosms of the larger colonial society, the Wycliffe mission is diffuse, impermanent and transitional...
...The internal order of our dependent countries leads them to act as colonising powers in their relations with the indigenous peoples...
...The question, however, is in reality collective...
...36 226 New...
...Eric Wolf, quoted in Frank, op...
...More training for the country's professionals must be included . . ."71 He defended Wycliffe against the anthropologists' contention that its methods were not scitntific by means of a counterattack: he argued that Our aim in the training of Colombians must be the improvement of the standard of living of the indigenous peoples...
...outside...
...violent and ongoing struggle), the Wycliffe writer explains...
...ibid...
...From El Tiempo (Bogota), Oc- tober 23, 1971.* What is the relation between the "influential persons from Villavicencio" in Item III, and the "leaders from the llanos" and the "mayor of Villavicencio" who defended WBT/SIL ? What was their relation to WBT/SIL's role in pac&ifing the Guahibo insurgency...
...SI L, P.O...
...The Indians, finding themselves without land and with little if any capital, went to the selva in search of new territory...
...1970, reprinted in El Instituto Linguistico de Verano, op...
...TBE, 20...
...Fears, Frustrations, Frights--But Why We Stayl...
...of SIL since 1942...
...Ecuador 1953 Min...
...23 70 Ahmadu Bello U. (Zaria) Cameroun 1968 U. of the Cameroun 3 10 India 1966 Deccan College 6 a 13a Predominantly British commonwealth personnel: considering organization of a "home branch" because of inability to obtain govt...
...What would the North Americans who back Wycliffe's missionaries think if the Catholic Church formed an entity composed only of ardent (and traditionalist) Catholics, called, let us say, the Institute for Basic Education, and hired out to the U.S...
...Yet it is their conversion to Christianity that has facilitated the oil company land-grab, by concentrating and making sedentary a previously less assailable population, and by disseminating an ideology of passivity in the face of injustice...
...5 4 By late 1971, however, WBT/SIL in Colombia was recovering from the shock of criticism...
...1 5 Wycliffe's mission is to prevent the "spiritual disintegration" of the indigenous person before the forces of modernization...
...Non-Profit Organizations in Development Assistance Abroad, 1971 (New York: Technical Assistance Information Clearing House, 1971...
...WBT/SIL gives "meaning" to the suffering of the Indian undergoing the process of deculturation and assimilation...
...5 2 Because of WBT/SIL's supporting role in the suppression of this revolt, its work became for a time the target of a critical barrage...
...Trained Christian tribesmen are using the grassroofed village schools as a tool of evangelism...
...These funds generally come from the translators' home churches...
...The question of liberation is meaningless on an individual level, because liberation cannot be effected on that level...
...Non-Profit Organizations in Development Assistance Abroad, 1971 (New York, Technical Assistance information Clearing House) and WBT/SIL's 1971 Biennial Report...
...III-INTERESTS AT STAKE You know, for we have discussed the matter frequently, that in the Planas region [Guahibo territory] there are certain interests who would despoil the Indians of their few lands, in order to gain control of them...
...In the first and second centuries succeeding the Spanish conquest, the Europeans had minimal interest in developing the tropical forests, but nonetheless they came to occupy its fertile riverside zones, forcing the indigenous people to migrate to areas poorer in natural resources...
...NACLA, "Civilizing Them-To Be What...
...and no mention of the slaughter of Indians that accompanies the progress of the highway...
...2 4 This last sentence is crucial because it indicates the nature of WBT/SIL's supposed fight for the "preservation of Indian culture...
...Even when Vietnam is at peace, these people have none...
...2 8 The "hope" that is expressed throughout this issue is that Wycliffe will be able to continue working in Viet-Nam, ergo, that the U.S/Saigon military forces will be victorious over the communist and (by implication) atheist enemy...
...Unique govt...
...In WBT phraseology, "translation provides the Book for the readers, and literacy provides readers for the Book," 2 2 and that is that...
...SIL arranged none of the required exhibitions of Indian artifacts, nor any of the contractually required lectures on philology and culture, and failed to undertake the required training of nationals for linguistic work...
...Black Carib, Cakchikel, Conob, Ixil, Jacalteco...
...NEPAL: 19 languages which break down into the following groups: Tibeto-Burman, 15...
...They may extricate themselves from this unfortunate situation through Christ, whom they will come to know through the translated Scripture...
...but so that his studies may serve to improve the Indian's situation...
...The charge of ethnocentric bias cannot be deflected by reference to the translators' assiduous attention to cultural and linguistic detail...
...6 3 In sum, running beneath the nationalist objections of the Colombian anthropologists and activists is the feeling-for which WBT/SIL seems to provide ample grounds-that Wycliffe leads the Indian to "skip over" his own country ideologically, and to identify with the U.S...
...1944 33 73 Headquartered in Denver...
...Wycliffe's critics, it appears, made the best of the affair by turning the discussion into a reformist debate over how the professionals, Colombian nationals and the U.S...
...They became strangers in it, divided from its purpose and agents by an abyss of mistrust...
...The Indians of America remain dominated by a colonial situation which originated with the conquest and which persists today within many Latin American nations...
...There is no indication that the strategy for the Amazon basis is to open up Indian lands for exploitation by North American corporations...
...Hereinafter referred to as "Correal Report...
...Most of the linguists on the Commission have had training in the States, been exposed to tagmemics and heard the legend of the Summer Institute's K. L. Pike...
...Unlike missionary groups which seek out the largest possible constituency, WBT concentrates on small and extremely remote peoples...
...But the traders brought labor and fancy diseases--in other words, long deliberate, infallible destruction...
...TBE, 13...
...8949, Abidjan-Cocody, Ivory Coast...
...George Cowan, LL.D., (Pres...
...Ifso, how...
...A second tendency takes the position that U.S...
...Christianity is proffered as, taken to be, the magic by which dominant groups have gained control over the material forces of the planet...
...Laurie Hart FOOTNOTES 1. There are various reasons for this comparatively low official income...
...Ukarumpa E.H.D., Territory of New Guinea...
...Late Summer 1973...
...West German evangelical foundation donated $17,000 in equipment...
...Muong...
...GUATEMALA: Achi (Cubulco and Rabinal), Aguacateco...
...Exploiting to the fullest this "pride in their own language," Wycliffe workers are able to establish themselves among groups which have resisted the simpler conversion tactics of earlier missionaries...
...friendly relations with royal family...
...civic groups finance JAARS equipment...
...The anthropologist-linguist critics seem to have been satisfied to gain a stronger voice in Indian policy, with some concessions from Wycliffe...
...Agency for International Development), end.of-year editions for 1967, 1968 and 1970, respectively: 28...
...So the two forces are working along harmoniously and anybody who knows anything about figures can tell you exactly when the last Kanaka will be in Abrahams's bosom and his islands in the hands of the whites...
...Scripture in his own language gives him the stamina he needs to withstand persecution...
...some govt.opposition to WBT SIL role, as Nepal is Hindu state...
...The oil companies subsequently discovered a rich strike on the reservation, and are attempting to put oil wells there...
...Certain mission agencies, attempting to make aggression seem less cruel, have provided a velvetgloved alternative to the iron .fist of armed conquest...
...At the orientation ceremony, a WBT/SIL speaker tells them this: You can choose between your own way of life or the life of the civilizado (literally, "the civilized...
...Letter from Coordinator of Indian Affairs to the Villavicencio Army Commander, August 10, 1970.* Which specific interests desire to take over Indian land...
...Correal Report, p. 5. 64...
...relations dating from founder Townsend's friendship with Lazaro Cardenas...
...58 The 1962 contract stipulated that WBT/SIL was to work in close cooperation with the Division de Asuntos Indigenas (DAI), or Bureau of Indian Affairs...
...The "Christianized" Indian readily assumes this attitude of pious indignation toward the national, by whom he has been none too kindly treated in the past...
...Thus they manifest a minimum of overt racial and cultural prejudice.11 Ecuador: Wycliffe's emissary smiles as Cofimn tribesman Iponders "progress...
...The mission as an institution corresponds in every age to the particular model of society as a whole of which the mission is a part," 3 and WBT's work abroad "reflects and complements the reigning colonial situation with the values of which it is imbued...
...The divine inspiration and consequent authority of the whole cannonical Scriptures...
...Govt...
...SIL President Kenneth Pike himself spoke of it as linguistic "first aid" for the rapid translation of the Bible...
...Their descriptive catalog contains these notations: MY NAME IS CERVO--"Cervo is a humble Satere tribesman of the Amazon River...
...communists...
...cit., contains a masterful analysis of this situation...
...of Health, Education & Welfare...
...It would appear then, that those who work in the real interests ofindigneous peoples would, first, in the short run, support resistance against immediate encroachments...
...SURINAM: Carib,Djuka, Saramaccan...
...of Bd...
...Summing Up The translation mission of WBT/SIL serves the interests of U.S...
...Ibid...
...cooperation with govt...
...Sources: Year of entry, number of tribes entered, and personnel figures were found in WBT/SIL's Translation Prayer Directory 1972, unless otherwise noted...
...if not, eternal damnation in hell...
...Colonial domination of the aboriginal groups, however, is only a reflection of the more generalised system of the Latin American states' external dependence upon the imperialist metropolitan powers...
...The linguistic orientation was and is a tactic in the conversion strategy--an extremely successful tactic both politically, in relations external to the indigenous community, and as a way to gain the trust of the indigenous peoples...
...Quoted in Clarence W. Hall, "Two Thousand Tongues to Go," reprinted by WBT SIL from Readers Digest, August 1958, p. 15...
...Wycliffe ferried the first oil company geologist in a JAARS plane as he explored the area...
...His family and his tribe are changed as he makes his first break with tradition, and accepts the hope of the Gospel...
...What brought the Guahibo case to public attention in the press were the protests of persons later associated with the Colombian Committee for the Defense of the Indian, a group including activist social scientists and affiliated with the Program to Combat Racism of the World Council of Churches...
...Non-Profit Organizations In Development Assistance Abroad.25 Continuing Conquest of the Auca The Auca situation in Ecuador is probably the most widely publicized of all WBT/SIL enterprises...
...Summer Institute of Linguistics, P.O...
...Nepal 1966 Tribhuvan U. 19 59a May have USAID financial support...
...The cover title (Translation) is printed in slanting lower-case letters-it fairly races across the page...
...Their efforts were supported by the government's Coordinator for Indian Affairs...
...it is not an entirely separate organization, but rather a term which designates certain aspects of WBT itself...
...Santa Ana (California) Register, July 27, 1961...
...After touring the organization's installations in several parts of the country, in March 1972 they submitted a report (which for convenience we shall refer to as the Correal Report), which, while respecting Wycliffe's linguistic field work, called for tighter official control thereof, a role for Colombian anthropoligists in the training and supervision of WBT/SIL field workers, and a prohibition of any religious activity on the part of the organization among Colombian tribal peoples...
...The vigorous evangelical Protestantism of Wycliffe, however, is seen by some of the critics to be contrary to the interest of national "integration," as Colombian nations are almost all nominally Catholic...
...6 4 WBT/SIL's encouragement of "skipping over" supports and reinforces an understandable anti-national tendency already present among the Indians...
...The point of this example is that the exploitation the Indians met at the hands of the early merchants, which caused them to suffer or to flee, sacrificing desirable land for the safety of the undesirable, was not a random or selfcontained phenomenon, but rather a repercussion on the tribal level of the world market demand /br rubber and the resultant inter-imperialist rivalries for control of rubberproducing regions...
...Cashinahua, Chayahuita...
...The particular forms of Catholic missionary control in this era were determined by the forms of control typical in the larger society...
...The message implied in these illustrations is generally succinctly restated in the last paragraph, and established as authoritative through the use of a Biblical quote or analogy...
...According to conservative estimates, 200,000 of 900,000 Motagnards have died since 1963...
...Poltical Orientation The WBT/SIL ideological grid not only gives rise to a general misreading of the situation of indigenous peoples, but it also derives from and supports a specific political orientation...
...TBE To be entered...
...Nat'1 36 190 According to a publicity brochure, "top-level officials are with us...
...PRAISE GOD...
...The atonement through the substitutionary death of Christ...
...TBE, 40...
...Summer Institute of Linguistics, c/o P.O...
...Her appearances brought in support money for WBT/SIL...
...See also Correal Report, pp...
...TBE, 1. Institute Linguistico de Verano, Casilla 64, Riberalta, Beni., Bolivia...
...Bill Eddy, a JAARS flier and the public relations agent for the Auca region (which is to say that he acts as a liaison among the oil companies, the government and the Indians) sees the situation in the following way: Twenty-five years ago the Shell Oil Company lost many workers to Auca spears...
...They were able to remain in control of this extensive territory through their extreme dispersal (living and moving in small family groups), and their ruthlessness in defending their ground...
...They have presented their military overlords with an ultimatum: if the Brazilian government does not soon demarcate the boundaries of their reservation, which neighboring landwners have invaded and claimed as their own, they will revolt...
...so the example of one such convert will serve to sustain an entire regional mission...
...Statement of Policy," in Corporation Conference Report, p. 2; published in Translation, Oct.-Dec...
...Thus, a new strategy has been adopted by many countries (such as Brazil and Colombia...
...Magsaysay personally recommended WBT SIL to VN Pres...
...Comments drawn from Biennial Reports, WBT/SIL brochures, and other sources, while communications data are from the organization's country brochures and U.S...
...Berrimah, Darwin, N.T., Australia 5788...
...In 1971 "efforts were underway to bring the last group of wild Aucas to the reservation . . . (a large group numbering almost half the tribe...
...Of some groups (like the Bruu) only a tenth of the original population may still survive...
...Consequently, we consider the theoretical conception behind this clause highly prejudicial to a healthy Indian policy...
...We in no way 'develop' the community...
...We have been tempted to withdraw or cut back...
...After landing in Auca territory and making an apparently friendly preliminary contact, they were killed...
...5 0 As nonChristian Aucas came to live with the Christian Aucas, conflicts developed and the tribe was divided within itself...
...Philippines 1953 Depts...
...Already, in December 1971, "Captain" Forrest Zander, director of WBT/SIL in Colombia, was offering compromises in declarations to the press...
...Non-Profit Organizations in Technical Assistance Abroad, 1971 (Probably 1970 data...
...See Pinzon Sanchez, op...
...relations further improved after the "1963 revolution" against Diem when new govt...
...Ibid., p. 4. 34...
...Originally in Lectures Dominicales, El Tiempo (Bogota...
...Institute of Linguistics, P.O...
...Brazil 1956 Min...
...These would be terrible days in which to live if our only vision were the television...
...Work of linguistics consultant Robert Longacre for Papua & New Guinea financed by US Dept...
...Summer Institute of Linguistics, P.O...
...2 1 And they thirst for salvation...
...they do not live lavishly and are responsible for seeking support funds on their own...
...4 1 SIL has received financial assistance from the Mexican and Guatemalan governments and land parcels from these and other Latin American countries...
...of Ed., Health, 17 71 About half of personnel devoted to support activities...
...Institut de Linguistique, B.P...
...JAARS personnel specialize in technical work in aviation and communications...
...This places several nations in the dual role of the exploited and the exploiters, and this in turn projects not only a false image of Indian society and its historical development, but also a distorted vision of what constitutes the present national society5 WBT assists in this cycle of exploitation on two fronts: 1) in contacting, concentrating and converting indigenous groups to facilitate their removal from areas desired by national and international corporations and lending technical assistance in the suppression of indigenous resistance...
...Some other costs, e.g...
...Editorial from Vaupes al Dia, Oct...
...Sione, Tatayo, Tucano, Tucano-Macu, Tunebo, Tuyuca, Yucuna...
...WBT is not mentioned in SIL publicity literature...
...Richard Pittman, Ph.D...
...The Ideological Grid A look at the WBT magazine, Translation, gives a clear view of the ideology--a religious, social and political worldview-behind the translation mission...
...69...
...the National Con- stitution...
...20, Translation, July August 1968, p. 14...
...7 History of WBT WBT was begun in the 1930's by William Cameron Townsend, a North American from Orange County, California...
...With what other organizations, Colombian or international, do JAARS radio systems interconnect...
...But there was a "problem": the oil lay in Auca territory...
...The Colombian debate, though it was defused and apparently became a debate among anthropologists over who would control Indian policies, holds some useful lessons for our present study...
...Ibid., p. 3. 31...
...In terms of the indigenous person, Wycliffe's doctrines suggest that he/she is in a state of moral depravity and in need of a "moral regeneration" which must take place through Christ...
...At the level of government, by challenging the public financing of the translation mission through USAID and the Department of Health Education and Welfare, which seems to represent a case of doing abroad what the law does not permit at home: the establishment of religion in foreign policy...
...The Indian "who becomes fully devoted to the Lord" comes to believe that "it is the most important thing in his life to follow Jesus, to believe in Jesus, to praise Jesus, and to wait for the moment when life will come to its fullest, after death...
...cit., p. 65...
...Translation is a thin, bi-monthly magazine which is distributed free, by subscription...
...She learned the language through an Auca woman who worked at a hacienda on the edge of Auca land...
...It has been hypothesized that some choose to go abroad to escape the pace of social change in the United States.12 The phenomenal growth of fundamentalist missionary organizations in the last decade might be seen, in part, as a reaction to the contlicts at home during the 1960's...
...Samal, Sarangani, Sarangani Bilan, Sarangani Manobo, Sangir, Subanum, Tagabili, Tagbanwa, Tausug, Tinggian, Tigwa Manobo, Uniray Dumagat, Western Bukidnon Manobo, and Yakan...
...It is a mystical trinity of sorts...
...6 2 But SIL's Colombian critics stated their opposition to a development role of any kind for the North Americans in the :indigenous communities: We consider, moreover, that the social economic, civic and moral im- provement of the Indian communities is the direct responsibility of the state, and must not be delegated to any other type of national entity, and much less to foreign entities, in conformity with...
...He no longer feels worthless and downtrodden...
...African Studies, U. Ghana Ivory Coast 1971 U. Abidjan 4 14 Nigeria 1963a U. Nigeria (Nsukka...
...bound by superstition...
...The religious mission is repeatedly justified through illustrations of the newly-gained self-reliance or progressive autonomy and cultural pride of the indigenous which in fact stem from literacy, not Christianity...
...They are in fact in certain respects the "underdeveloped product of capitalist development...
...neo-colonialism, analyzed at the beginning of this essay...
...Maya, Mazateco, Mixe, Mixteco, Otomi, Pame, Popoloca, Seri, Tarahumara, Tarascan, Tepehuan, Tepehua, Tololobal, Totonaco, Trique, Tzeltal, Tzotzil, Yaqui, Zapoteco, Zoque...
...4 8 The labor of the Indian is no longer necessary in Latin America...
...played pacification role in Guahibo revolt...
...7 66 5:2 ratio of supporting to tribal-team personnel...
...SIL, Box 68, Eastlake, Colorado 80614, USA...
...of Ed...
...Once deculturated, the "integrated" Indians are forced into a marginal situation: culturally, in a society to which they cannot completely adjust...
...JAARS recruitment propaganda, however, emphasizes religious commitment, and its members may also participate in direct missionary work...
...Indian land is being appropriated for national and international "development...
...It aimed also to inspire them to serve and to demonstrate the value of study...
...in NACLA's Feature News Service, NO.2 (Feb...
...Translation, Sept...
...It is also stipulated in the contract that 'practical ends for the better understanding of each culture and the determination of what programs may be necessary' be taken into account in the anthropological studies...
...Div...
...any realization of what "Brazil's way of life" is...
...works in Canada as well as the United States...
...IVORY COAST: Bete, Toura, Yakouba...
...1970 Wenham, Mass...
...BRAZIL: Apalai, Apinaye, Apurina, Aripaktsa, Asurini, Bakairi, Bororo, Canela, Deni, Fulnio, Guaiaiara, Guarani, Hixkaryana, Jamamadi, Juma, Kadiweu, Kaingang, Kaiwa, Karaja, Kayabi, Kraho, Maku, Memainde, Maxakali, Munduruku, Mura, Nambiquara, Palikur, Parintintin, Paresi, Satare, Terena, Txukahamei, Urubu, Waura, Xavante...
...of Ed., Ethnic 21 59 Philippines former Pres...
...TBE, 3. Summer Institute of Linguistics, Postbus 1919...
...While "Christianizing savages," missionaries have seldom questioned the "need" for taking the lands of tribal people, but rather have seen it as the "inevitable advance of Civilization...
...the money is cir- culated through WBT but earmarked for a particular mission...
...1, Sociedad Antropologica de Colombia (Bogota, 1972, mimeo...
...How did the Minister of Government make sure the commission had no permanent control over WBT/SIL 's work, and why...
...The writer does not think to connect the search for religious solace in Indonesia with the very real bloodbath perpetrated by the military, who slaughtered a half million leftists in an attempt to eradicate all opposition...
...The article headings are, to name a few, "New Things-Behind the News in Viet Nam...
...The "integration" policies, however, designed to abolish the reservation, wipe out the material basis .for any possible continuance of indigenous culture...
...Thus, the integration of tribal peoples into the prevailing national group means the disintegration of the social and economic life of their own group...
...15...
...He said, "The new agreement must be more nationalistic...
...The results of this colonial structure is that lands inhabited by Indians are judged to be free and unoccupied territory open to conquest and colonization...
...Protestantism-or any religion for that matter-provides a kind of conceptual "grid" which "permits its adepts to situate themselves in the world and in contemporary history and givesthem direction...
...Diem...
...Indo-Aryan, 3; Dravidian, 1. SIL...
...An ethnocentric bias is inherent in the very fact of missionary activity, but the Wycliffe translators find it expedient to accomodate themselves in some respects to the cultures within which they work...
...Guatemala 1952 Min...
...the Indians suffered not only exploitation and biological collapse, but also deculturation-"culture loss"-and in the course of such ill-use also lost the feeling of belonging to a social order which made such poor use of its human resources...
...PANAMA: Bayano Cuna, Bogota, Empena, Guaymi, Paya Cuna, Waunana...
...Internat'l Dir...
...North Am...
...Ibid., pp...
...Turning to the second basic issue, that WBT/SIL acts contrary to the Indian interest, we find that "the Institute" has served the objectives of the Colombian government, narrowly defined, in contributing to the neutralization of political and cultural resistance of indigenous groups...
...almost unbelievable', 2 0 They live in "Satan's stronghold...
...33 The possible jeopardy of burgeoning numbers of Christians is the Wycliffe POW issue: the reason for perseverance in the face of adversity.22 The tragedies of bloodshed, hunger, disease and displacement are little, to the WBT/SIL author, compared to the tragedy of paganism: This is frustration, and I have felt it often...
...Your recompense is that you will have more...
...Sources: U.S...
...The style of writing is simple, personal, colloquial...
...TBE, at least 15, same address as Nigeria...
...Lamani...
...No evangelical activity of any kind is mentioned...
...Thus, we have a situation such as that of a single tribe in the Vaupes within which Protestant Indians oppose Catholic Indians...
...In addition to the value of its skills in the documentation and instruction of indigenous languages, SIL is attractive to Latin American governments because of JAARS...
...Events in the national politics of these countries had their effect at the local level...
...He/she will suffer his/her oppression in the image of the suffering Jesus as the basis for the development of "selfesteem" on the part of the indigenous person: "This esteem becomes an integral part of the tribesman's experience when Christ enters his life...
...of Texas at Arlington, operates on regular academic calendar...
...As a pacification .force, they have used religion to substitute "peace" (surrender) and "hope" (promise of reward in an after lif) .for "death and destruction...
...1971 Biennial Reports, p. 73...
...In 1970, the repressive response of the armed forces to the Guahibo Indians' guerrilla defense of their lands against the encroachments of settlers in the eastern plains touched off a controversy about Indian policy which continues today...
...Core...
...Box L-11, Saigon, Viet- Nam...
...Agency for International Development...
...imperialism...
...airstrip at Limoncocha jungle base built free of charge by an oil company...
...Because of "lack of security" translators live in provincial centers, rather than among the Montagnards...
...Defense...
...Yet these issues impinge essentially on the subject supposedly being examined...
...They hold that it has been beneficial for the country, especially for the indigenous population of that region...
...Ibid., p. 7. 26...
...Moreover, we also consider insufficient the anthropological preparation of the linguists in the field in charge of this work...
...55...
...The place reserved for indigenous "language and culture" is ornamental...
...Klaus Sprecta) Darleen Bee, Ph.D...
...A first step towards "integration" is to teach the indigenous people the language and customs as well as the religion of their conquerors...
...Though Wycliffe boasts of its alliance with the rich and powerful, it is vulnerable to counterattack, especially on the homefront, where it seeks trainees and financial support under cover of humanitarianism and millennial expectation...
...we only succeed for a time in placating its socio-economic needs and wants...
...b 9 WBT/SIL's labor makes it possible for the Indian to become "a semi-slave in the nearest plantation, a peon on a farm...
...7 I I26 must be the responsibility of the government . . . Our efforts should be directed toward the development of a spiritual leadership that can mediate outside forces and guide the people in development and spiritual growth...
...A second peculiar assumption is that "hunger and death" are inherent in the traditional way of life, and not in that of the civilizados...
...So the Indians will also then "prefer to give up rights or land rather than break their religious principles as they understand them . . . to live their enemy, not to resist violently, and to give a witness by this suffering to their Christian faith...
...of Wycliffe Assoc...
...For hundreds of years, the collusion of government, commercial and religious interests has brought about the genocidal displacement and concentration of indigenous peoples living on the frontiers of capitalism...
...Ibid...
...As an example, we might look at the situation of Indian groups in the selva, or tropical forest, of Peru.44 This area contains a group of people considered classically "isolated" in WBT/SIL terms...
...3. Stephano Varese, "Inter-Ethnic Relations in the Selva of Peru," in The Situation of the Indian in South America (Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1972), p. 120...
...Contract numbers for USAI D/Viet.Nam are given above in note 28...
...This branch is in charge of developing a program in the Soviet Union...
...65 and 66, respectively...
...Though it emphasizes such activities in its promotional propaganda, WBT/SIL has not developed the organizational capacity or personnel to take charge of widespread literacy and development programs, or even extensive anthropological work is criticized by the Correal Report for its pragmatic orientation, which results in a non-scientific and unevenly stressed picture of Indian culture...
...The Wycliffe Institute produces and distributes films telling of its work...
...Institute Linguistico de Verano, Apartado Nacional 5787, Bogota, Colombia...
...Lalive, op...
...and, second, that they are contrary to the Indian interest...
...Ethnic groups in Latin America are integrally related to the history of colon-23 ialism and neo-colonialism...
...Each issue focuses on some particular geographical area or aspect of translation work, and generally contains an introductory article, several one- and two-page articles, "Wycliffe World News" (briefs on each area), and periodically a financial report...
...1949 Brisbane, Austral...
...In many cases there has so far been no development of the two national tendencies, and any resistance remains at a defensive, fragmented level...
...9. A WBT/SIL brochure 10...
...7 5 The effect of this process is to destroy the existence of the tribe as a distinct community and transform indigenous peoples into a marginalized (and oppressed) ethnic or national minority...
...My translation...
...Summer Institute of Linguistics, Caixa Postal 14.2221, Brasilia-D.F., Brazil...
...US oil companies in takeover of Auca lands...
...instil a religious ideology destructive of indigenous cultural identity...
...Another aspect of WBT/SIL's erosion of Indian interests is its raison d'etre: the religious conversion of the Indians to Tribes "Occupied" by Wycliffe Africa CAMEROUN: Fal, Nso, Dowayo...
...1 4 The last point is officially interpreted "as implying Scriptural inerrancy...
...It was certain of help from its highly placed supporters, among whom was the Minister of Government-occupant of the26 politically most powerful post in the cabinet and superior of the Coordinator of Indian Affairs...
...WBT SIL's largest jungle training camp here, as is central facility for coordinating worldwide translation activity...
...It was an opportunity for our friends to declare themselves, which they did, with tremendous effectiveness . . . One of the positive things that has come out of the situation reported above has been a permanent Commission made up of linguists and anthropologists to define and evalute the national policy for Indians...
...Even a "fair trade" in these circumstances (i.e., a number of animal skins for a manufactured item of comparable "value") is to the disadvantage of the indigenous person, as it prevents him/her from ever returning to his/her independent methods of subsistence in the tribal community...
...The recorded history of oppressed classes and castes suggests that this is extremely unlikely...
...The Indian Situation in Historical Context As we have demonstrated in the analysis of Translation magazine WBT/SIL relies on an essentially anti-historical point of view in bringing about Christian conversion...
...From WBT/SIL 1971 Biennial Reports, pp...
...In order to overcome indigenous resistance, they skillfully manipulate people's wants and needs to effect a quiet resignation to eventual genocide, be it cultural or physical.16 The Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc., also known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics, is a non-profit, nondenominational missionary organization with some 3000 members in 25 countries...
...With such a complete psychological restructure, the students needed to cultivate a more helpful attitude toward integration while appreciating their own language and culture...
...In the 1940's Shell Oil tried some prospecting in the region but withdrew after losing a number of employees to the Indians...
...PERU: Achual, Aguaruna, Amahuaca, Amarakaeri, Amueshi, Arabela, Bore, Campa, Capanahua, Cashibo...
...But most frustrating of all is to learn of the endless superstitions and taboos which rule our friends here...
...The sale of this land led to the development of large estates, in Creole hands, forming the backbone of a new national ruling class...
...Pres...
...El Tiempo (Bogota), October 18, 1971, p. 9-A...
...While learning to integrate into Brazil's way of life they must respect their own traditions and language...
...What these missionaries ignore, however, is that they are continuing the ancient practice of destroying the identity and resistance of a people by getting them to worship the gods of their conquerors...
...Their task is to serve as direct spokesmen with the Indians in their own languages or dialects in order to convince them that they should return, with the assurance that they will not be punished...
...Indigenous Latin Americans also continue their long history of resistance to the incursions of expansionist capitalism...
...3 1 So the factor of millenial expectation has a dual function: 1) to legitimate the imperialist and racist nature of missionary objectives, and 2) to mediate the actual physical horrors of that racist, imperialist "advance" which give rise to questions-of legitimacy, by focusing the eye on the heavenly vision...
...According to Townsend, it "trades upon three facets in their mentality that are common to almost all primitives: their pride in their own language, their eagerness to better themselves economically, their insatiable curiosity...
...Having initiated an active campaign to improve its public relations, including an audience of William Cameron Townsend with Colombian President Misael Pastrana Borrero, the Wycliffe leadership was confident it could ride out the storm...
...Indian peoples of the United States-the native Americans-have begun to organize themselves politically to fight for their "national" survival, cultural and political self-determination, land and Indian identity...
...Christian Lalive d'Epinay, "Culture et dependence en Amerique latine," in Modalidades internas de la dependencia en America latina (Geneva: Centre Europe-Tiers Monde, 1972), p. 67...
...Home Division...
...God vs...
...1962 Holzhausen, Ger...
Vol. 7 • December 1973 • No. 10
