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Show 64 The scientific criteria, however, cannot be used exclusively as concerns ethical, esthetic, religious, social, political and legal ideas because the social sciences are not sufficiently advanced; the concept of what is most conducive to the integral well-being and happiness of man - the goal of the social sciences - varies with time and space and cannot yet be evaluated scientifically. Therefore the conventional criteria of the Indian must be combined with the scientific in this regard. It is not just to impose European political and legal concepts on Indians, nor is i-t practical for them to revive their old isolated political sovereignty. They must be governed according to national law but at the same time their democratic ideas and practices stemming from internal social conventional criteria should be combined also in dealing with native medicine men. Dr. Gamio states that the Indian conventional criteria should be applied alone with respect to their artistic cultural characteristics. These have flourished for thousands of years in America and should continue to manifest themselves spontaneously without being corrupted by influences from their European counterparts. In this respect, the Inter-American Indians Institute is organizing a series of radio programs in which orchestral adaptations of Indian music developed by noted composers will be presented with the basic music recorded by ethnologists in Indian regions; although persons of occidental culture may derive more pleasure from the symphonic adaptations, Dr. Gamio states that the Indians themselves will probably enjoy more hearing their own music. 1943 Hostos, Adolfo de (Puerto Rico), "Valor Dela Cultura Indigena," America Indigena, III, No. 1 (January, 1943), Mexico, D.F., pp. 49-54. English summary: The author refers to an article published in the April issue of this magazine in which Dr. Gamio discusses the disaster which would result if the Indian culture of America were completely supplanted by the European, or in the other extreme, were the European culture completely removed. As the former danger seems to be the more imminent, Sr. Hostos proposes an analysis of the basic justifications of a program for preservation and stimulation of the Indo- American culture. He points out that the serious and progressive legislator realizes that the autochthonous society of this hemisphere merits respect equal to that given to any other group of human beings since, like other cultures, the Indo-American is a collective bio-psychological response to the stimulus of the surrounding elements. Therefore to defend the aboriginal culture is to defend human dignity. To do this, the author first uses history. If age merits respect, he says, we have much reason to respect the old and steadily evolving culture of America which adjusted itself spiritually, economically and politically to the variations of the entire continent. |