Visit villages that have existed for thousands of years, meet their inhabitants, and learn about their life, work, and family. You will see how their way of life presents hopeful alternatives to our Western culture that we must take seriously in order to create a sustainable future for ourselves, our human race, and the other dwellers of the planet.
About the Author:
Phil Dahl-Bredine, a Maryknoll lay missioner, lives with his wife Kathy in the village of San Isidro, Tilantongo in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca
About the Author:
Stephen Hicken, now founding an immigrant service not-for-profit, worked for 3 years with Services for An Alternative Education, a Oaxacan organization strengthens local indigenous governments and their economies
Preface
Acknowledgments
Invitation 1
Part I Leaving Behind the U.S. Cultural and Moral Border
1 A Modest Re-Encounter with Indigenous Communities: A Continuing Confrontation of Cultures 6
Forewarnings 8
Fiesta 10
A Struggle Renewed 12
2 Cultural Genetics: Do We Need Cultural Diversity? 13
Biological Diversity and GM Crops 13
Cultural Diversity and Healthy Human Beings 17
Mixtec Children on Culture 19
3 A Glimpse into the Mixtec World: Do These People Have Something to Teach Us? 21
The Culture of Dona Soledad 23
Plowing with Don Agustin 24
Ancient Tombs 25
Living History 28
Privatizing Land, Privatizing Culture 31
Ancient Rules 32
Part II Ancient Alien Values
4 A Mixtec Teaching about Work: Work, Tequio, and a Day at the Office 36
Work in the Land of Quetzalcoatl 38
Hay Bale Technology 40
Labor in Today's Market-Driven, Corporation-Driven Economy 42
The Vocation to Consume 44
Creative Work 45
5 Money, Wealth, and Mixtec Fiestas: Which Cultures Create Wealth and Which Create Scarcity? 47
Wealth and Money 49
Seeds: Creating Scarcity with Money 51
Free Trade, Privatization, and the Scarcity Trap 56
Free Trade: Creating Money and Poverty 59
6 Objection!: Romanticizing Indigenous and U.S. Cultures 63
Romanticizing Traditionalism and Poverty? 63
Why Mexico Has Never "Made It" 66
De-Romanticizing U.S. Culture: Our Nineteenth-, Twentieth-, and Twenty-First-Century Resource Wars 68
Maria's Story 72
7 Culture and Violence: Who or What Is behind Indigenous Violence- and Our Own Violence? 78
Quetzalcoatl and the "Reign of Peace" 82
Violence in Western Culture 83
The Body Count 84
TheHuman Nature Excuse 86
Reasons for Amoltepec? 88
Interlude 90
Part III Learning Hope
8 Mary's Paradox: U.S. Policy Errors Stimulate New Visions in the Global South 94
A Vision from Below 94
Mary's Paradox 96
The Paradox of Hope 99
9 The Organizing Poor and Their Advocates: Values for a Hopeful Planet 102
Citizens' Movements: The World's Second Superpower 104
Hope for Local Communities, Hope for Us 105
The World Social Forum 107
Civil Society and Change 108
Global Hope from Campesino and Indigenous Communities in the South 109
10 Exchanging Universes: Loving Unseen Possibilities for Change 116
Exchanging Universes 116
The Energy to Change 117
The Voice of Indigenous America 119
11 A Special Time of Hope: The "Mixtec Principles" and What They Suggest for Us 124
A New Kind of Politics 125
A New Kind of Civil Society 126
A New Kind of Science and Technology 127
A New Kind of Economy 128
A New Kind of Education 130
A New Kind of Work 131
A New Kind of Ecology 131
A New Kind of Religion 132
And a Very Old Way 133
12 Happiness and a Sustainable World: How Can We Respond to the Invitation of Indigenous Peoples and the Global South? 134
From Personal to Public Change 141
New Community and Policy Moves in the United States 145
Appendix A Support and Information to Continue Learning 147
Appendix B Citizen Declarations 162
Notes 173
Glossary 183
Index 185
Overview
Visit villages that have existed for thousands of years, meet their inhabitants, and learn about their life, work, and family. You will see how their way of life presents hopeful alternatives to our Western culture that we must take seriously in order to create a sustainable future for ourselves, our human ...