[MD] The Brujo

[MarshaV]

At 10:28 AM 3/21/2009, you wrote:
>Ron and Marsha,
>I am not sure why Ron's irritation should surprise Marsha. Or why it has
>never occurred to her that the brujo was not some shaman knight tilting at
>established religious hierarchy.

My, my Krimel, it is you I see as Don Quixote, not the poor brujo, 
with your worship of scientific windmills.  I would never consider a 
poor soul who needs to peep into windows a shaman, yes an oddball, 
yes a misfit, but I had never considered the brujo the "most static 
of the tribe" either.

>Pirsig clearly got a great insight from
>Benedict's tale but that insight blinded him to the underlying story. If he
>had done his homework a little better he would have checked the reference
>Benedict cites. It is a bit of early ethnography by Ruth Bunzel. In it she
>tells the tale that Benedict used in "Patterns of Culture," which Pirsig
>uses without much editing.
>
>Bunzel's work is long out of print and a couple of years ago I talked a
>friend of mine in Boston into getting it copied for me. One of the few
>places on the planet that has the original article is Harvard University.
>
>There has been a link to it posted on Case's website for a long time now.
>
>http://ispots.com/media/BunzelsZuniBrujo.pdf

I did read this before, and I think it is great that you make it available.



>I don't think you can read Bunzel's tale and see in it a story of dynamic
>quality overcoming static quality. Even as Pirsig tells the tale, the true
>dynamic quality is the US military, hell bent on destroying native cultures
>from one end of the continent to the other. It would not have mattered one
>whit whether the quisling brujo advocated peace, war or sacrificing all of
>the Zuni first born. I have been to Zuni and it has not prospered under the
>white dominance appreciably more than any of the other native peoples.

Okay.



>This MoQ Myth is just a product of Pirsig Valuing his personal revelation
>over simple fact checking. I too bristle every time the word "brujo" finds
>its way into a post here.

RMP values what he values, you value what you value, and since this 
is not a life-or-death evaluation, so be it.  I'd still like to know 
why Ron thinks the brujo was so static.  I think he was pretty dynamic.


Marsha


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Shoot for the moon.  Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.........
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