Excerpt - Reading Response 4 (with bonus baby goat!)

Religion, in my experience, can sometimes make a big, hypocritical mess of things, and from the USLA reading this week, it appears that its role in the colonization of North and Latin America was no different. It’s interesting that Americans treated “Indian faith…in the ability to reach beyond or behind the corporeal world” with disdain partially because their spiritual customs were so rooted in nature and maintaining a connection to the environment (Pike 98). The idea that they frowned on Latin American beliefs, with their mystic tendencies, is also bizarre. The interactions between Americans, Latin Americans, and Native Americans are certainly not the first time religious beliefs have been used to justify oppression, but this example is striking nonetheless because of the role these beliefs play in the treatment of nature.


And, on a lighter note, here's me with a baby goat.