A Hermeneutical Critique on the Conquest and Occupation of the Land Belonging to Others from the Perspective of the Indigenous Peoples Essay Example

A Hermeneutical Critique on the Conquest and Occupation of the Land Belonging to Others: from the Perspective of the Indigenous Peoples Essay From the perspective of the indigenous peoples. Prepared by: Kyrshanborlang Mawlong, Lamjingshai and Friends Introduction: This study is an attempt to dwell upon the historical event in the ancient world of the Hebrew Bible. A familiar narration about the Israelite, taken into exile in Egypt, later, the episode from Moses up to the entry into Canaan under the terrific leadership of Joshua.This is a turning point for the history of the Israelites; this Meta happening have been usually considered as an important dates in records, conventionally it was interpreted as an act of victory. The main objective of this study is therefore to revisit the event from the other aspect. The Canaanites as indigenous indwellers of this captivated region. They were defeated under the influential forces which are foreign originated in nature. The paper starts with a brief biblical survey about the time when the Israelites, reached the promise land.A clear cut understanding about the term indigenous peop le is the next steps that follow. Salient features of the indigenous people were selectively highlighted. Categorizing the Canaanite as indigenous people is a careful consideration done here. Nearer to the end there is an application of hermeneutical critique on the settlement, but before that, since this is no longer a conventional interpretation, a brief preference for methods and approach were inserted. The discourse will be put in empty space without contemporary challenges, for this reason it occupy certain part before reaching the reflection.An attempt has been made to simplify all these in a comprehendible manner, though there are some unavoidable portions. 1. Summary of Israelite’s Conquest and Occupation of the Promise Land: Biblical Perspective: Some scholars they marked the events during the 13th century BCE; while N. Lemche, dates it to the 14th century BCE. This is a hint that the event occured somewhere around this period. The biblical accounts of the conquest c over four main areas: Transjordania, the Central Hill country, the Southern region, and the North. A summary of Israel’s conquest is made in the book of Joshua.Encamped at Gilgal, Israel was realistically prepared for Canaan as God’s chosen nation. Circumcision is a rite for the new covenant and of the promise God had made to bring them into the land. Entrance into the land was also marked by the Passover observance and cessation of the provision of manna. The people would henceforth eat of the fruits of the land. Joshua himself was prepared for conquest. By a theophany God imparted to Joshua the consciousness that the conquest of the land was not dependent solely upon him but that he was divinely commissioned and empowered.The conquest of Jericho was a sample victory. Israel simply followed the instructions of the Lord. The Israelites marched around the city seven times, the walls of the city fell and they could enter to take possession. Ai was the next objective for conquest. Assured of success, Joshua renewed his plans to conquer Ai. The enemy forces were lured into the open so that the thirty thousand men who had stationed beyond the city by night were able to attack Ai from the near and set it afire. The defenders were annihilated, their king was hanged and the site was reduced to rubble.When Israel makes its second attack, the people of Ai as well as the inhabitants of Bethel vacate their cities to pursue the enemy (Josh. 8: 17). Gibeon was one of the great cities of Palestine. When it capitulated to Israel, the king of Jerusalem was greatly alarmed. In response to his appeal other Amorite kings from Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon formed a coalition with him to attack the city of Gibeon. Having made an alliance with Israel, the beleaguered city immediately dispatched messengers to appeal for aid from that quarter.By an all night march from Gilgal, Joshua unexpectedly appeared at Gibeon, where he defeated and routed the enemy through th e Beth-horon pass (also known as the valley of Ajalon) as far as Azekah and Makkedah. At Makkedah the five kings of the Amorite league were trapped in a cave and were subsequently dispatched by Joshua. Joshua then assaulted the well fortified city of Lachish and on the second day of siege overthrew this stronghold. Next Israel moved on in victory to take Eglon, from there the troops struck eastward into the hill country and beset Hebron, which was not easily defended.Then moving southwest they stormed and took Debir or Kirjath-Sepher. The conquest and occupation of Northern Canaan is very briefly described. The opposition was organised and led by Jabin, king of Hazor who had at his command a great force of chariot. A great battle took place near the water of Merom with the result that the Canaanite coalition was utterly defeated by Joshua. The horses and chariots were destroyed and the city of Hazor was burned to the ground. In summary the territory covered by the occupation forces extended from Kadesh-Barnea, or the extremities of the Negeb as far north as the valley of Lebanon, below Mount Hermon.On the east side of the Jordan rift the area which previously had been conquered under Moses extended from Mount Hermon in the north to the valley of the Arnon, east of the Dead Sea. Thirty-one kings are listed as having been defeated by Joshua, with so many city-states, each having its own king in such a small country. Through this conquest Joshua subdued the inhabitants to the extent that during the subsequent period of peace the Israelites were able to settle in the Promised Land. 2.Indigenous People; Understanding the meaning of the term: The term â€Å"indigenous† means natives, autochthonous people (Sons [Sic] of the soil), primitives, minorities, first nation or Fourth World, or Adivasis. Roy Burman quotes a U. N. working definition, â€Å"Indigenous populations are composed of the existing descendants of the people who inhabited the present territory of a country, wholly or partially, at the time when persons of a different cultures or ethnic origin arrived there from other parts of the world, overcame them, and by conquest, settlement or other means, reduced them to a non-dominant situation. Indigenous peoples, men and women, are the voice of the land, the voice of the water, the voice of the air. The indigenous peoples’ struggles for land and identity, farmers’ engagement for sustainable agriculture, action to curb climate change, and people’s initiatives to defend their rights, are just a few key examples for relevant and vital engagement. The Indian indigenous people includes: Adivasis (tribal), Dalits, Manipuris, Jarowa tribes of Andaman Island, Naga natives of Nagaland, Tharus of India and several others. Adivasis literally means original inhabitants.The indigenous people of India amount to about 63 million, they are overwhelmingly the largest group for any single country in the world, constituting 30 percent of the total indigenous population of the whole world. 3. Salient Features of the Indigenous People: Indigenous people in India or in any parts of the world are distinctive in their own way of life, their food habits, customs, traditional practices etc. However, in spite of several differences and uniqueness, following are only few of their salient features which can be taken for the discussion: . 1. Relationship to the Land: For indigenous people, the land is source of life a gift from the Creator that nourishes supports and teaches. They consider the Earth like a parent and revere it accordingly. â€Å"Mother Earth† is the centre of the universe, the core of their culture, the origin of their identity as a people. At the heart of this deep bond is a perception, awareness, an innate wisdom that all of life’s mountains, rivers, skies, animals, plants, insects, rocks, and people are inseparably interconnected.According to indigenous law, humankind can never be more than a trustee of the land, with a collective responsibility to preserve it. Indigenous people do not consider the land as merely an economic resource. Their ancestral lands are literally the source of life, and their distinct ways of life are developed and defined in relationship to the environment around them. Indigenous people know the extent of their lands, and they know how the land, water, and other resources need to be shared. They understand only too well that to harm the land is to destroy ourselves, since they are part of the same organism. . 2. Culturally and Religiously Uprooted: Indigenous cultures which are also known as tribal or primal cultures are generally marked by a transmission of rituals and practices, not by books, but through tradition, stories, proverbs, customs, rites and celebrations handed down orally and codes of behaviour. They are often customs and beliefs rooted in the family, tribe or clan, and aligned with a particular place, without any major central or national organization. They offer their followers a holistic approach to religion and life and pay much attention to the family and to parentage in all its stages.Above all, they inculcate a strong sense of the sacred and are normally so permeated with religious from the cultural elements in them. People belonging to indigenous cultures believe in a Supreme Being and give it different names: e. g. Creator, Unique and Supreme Spirit, Omnipotent, Uncreated King, Omniscient, Omnipresent, One who is above all visible things, the Heaven, the Sun, the Incomparable, Life, Being par excellence, the Transcendent, etc. There is also among them a belief in spirits who are inferior to God.These spirits are thought to vary in their attitudes to human beings: they may be terrible, wicked or vindictive; they may be capricious, or they may be merciful and protective. Ancestors are revered in indigenous cultures. Life has no end. There is no death in the sense of a separation from the clo se family members of the tribal community. Life is eternal. At death, a person joins the ancestors, undergoing a transition from the state of mortality to that of ancestral immorality. The family is highly treasured among the indigenous cultures.This sense of community is gained through the family, the lineage, the clan, the tribe. There is almost a feeling of a divine imperative that life must be given, life must be lived; life is to be long and peaceful: For this reason, many tribal societies have taboos and rituals to protect the divine gift of life. Old people are held in esteem. The community regards their wisdom as prophetic, i. e. as able to give direction for living in the present day circumstances. Religious beliefs and practices enfold the whole of life. There is no dichotomy between social or political or economic engagement and religion.Faith, morality and worship are there in indigenous cultures. Great value is attributed to the word which is uttered. The moral code is regarded as that which has been handed down by past generations and sanctioned by God through the spirits. 3. 3. Injustices: A Common Experience of the Indigenous People: Indigenous communities throughout the world are the extensive diversity as peoples and communities, but there is one thing which is in common they all share a history of injustice. Indigenous peoples have been exploited, tortured, enslaved and killed.Conquest and colonization have attempted to steal their dignity and identity, as well as the fundamental right of self-determination. Indigenous peoples rank highest on underdevelopment; they face discrimination in schools and are exploited in the workplace. In many countries, they are not even allowed to study their own languages in school. Sacred lands and objects are plundered from them through unjust treaties. National governments continue to deny indigenous peoples the right to live in and manage their traditional lands; often implementing policies to exploit the lands that sustained them for centuries.Over and over, governments around the world have displayed an utter lack of respect for indigenous values, traditions, cultures and human rights. 4. Canaanites as Indigenous People: Israel’s task in conquest Canaan, across the Jordan was a land of city states. There was no central government, but there were many cities, each with its own king. The cities were built to withstand siege for months at a time. These cities, too, could band together against a common enemy, as they did later against Joshua, in both a southern and northern confederacy.Besides this, the land was mountainous. Once past Jericho, Israel would be in rugged country most of the time, difficult in which to travel and manoeuvre for war. They didn’t worshipped only one God, but they worshipped many, whom they called Baalim. The Canaanites were mostly farmers, settled lives in villages and towns. They were cultivating wheat, olives and grapes. One festival was held in the early spring when the first of the new season’s crops was reaped, and this was called the Feast of First fruits. At this feast the people ate unleavened bread for a week.It took about seven weeks to get in the harvest and, when all the crops had been harvested, another feast was held. Moses and his followers left Egypt, and Joshua with a second generation entered Canaan. They were not alone. It was a time of change, of migration, of destruction and turmoil a dark age that ended 200 years later with the emergence of nation-states like Israel. It marked the effective end of the history of the Canaanites. The Israelites themselves are portrayed as aliens both in Canaan and Egypt in the so called historical credo.Houten observes that the perception of aliens among the Israelites changes. She said, â€Å"One may belong to a tribe or a city or district or a country and through history the primary group to which an Israelite belonged changed. † Hence, after all these one may observe from their cultural, agricultural, especially their closeness to the land and their manner of life, it may be right to state that the Canaanite by virtue are very much the indigenous people of that era in that area. 5.Biblical Interpretation from the Indigenous Perspective: In Search of Methods and Approaches: The Bible has been interpreted from various perspectives with the new form of reading and interpreting. The book of Joshua which is the selected text for this study cannot escape from this scholarship attempt. In this regard, the indigenous people are also having their own lens to look at, when Limatula Longkumer therefore said, â€Å"Employing western tools and its framework of interpretation without relating properly to the social location of the people (present context) does not help us much.Western methods of reading the Bible are too academic oriented and theoretical which the general reader finds difficult to understand. There is a need to formulate her meneutical tools from tribal perspectives-from the social location of the people. † In this connection, B. J. Syiemlieh proposition though explicitly for the North Eastern part of India, but this is very much applicable to the indigenous people elsewhere, he indicated that, there â€Å"†¦are problems of contextual interpretation in the context of Northeast India, the problem now shifts to the search for avenues and openings towards a meaningful interpretation.In this search, it may be prudent to go back to the process of identifying and describing the determinants in the process of interpretation of a text which are the text, the context and the reader or the interpreter†¦ Hence, the implied reader of the new literary criticism and social sciences can be taken as the principles and methods of contextual interpretation of the New Testament in the Northeast India. † 6. The Conquest and Occupation of Canaan by the Israelites: An Indigenous Interpretation: Histori cally, during the Pre-Critical criticism Joshua is read in the light of theology.In the Reformation reading it was read with the perspective that God’s historically dealings and covenant with Israel were both preparatory for and analogous to this dealing with Christians. Critical interpretations were no longer looking for Christian doctrines saw in the book rather as evidence of the historical emergence of Israel. Modern literary approaches draw attention into the discrepancy as having as function in the meaning of the book. Finally, Sociological reading understand Joshua, not as the history of an actual conquest, but as the delineation of cultural, ethnic and religious boundaries.Applying along with the indigenous methodologies mentioned above, it is necessary to focus on the biblical event, and in the mean time to re-read it. As indicated earlier, aiming at analyzing the conquest of Canaan critically from the hermeneutical point of view, applying the indigenous methodologic al propose ahead, it is an insightful excavation. At the same time, keeping in mind the entire salient features, and experiences of the indigenous people in general, the encounter of the Canaanites, following are few of the comparative results: 6. 1.Canaan: An Indigenous Land that Oozed Milk and Honey: Milk and honey were regarded as necessary and choice foods in ancient Israel. They were offered to guests and given as gifts. One wonders, do the soils of Canaan really qualify as â€Å"oozing milk and honey†? Archaeological evidence has indicated that Syro Palestine was in fact a fertile land. â€Å"Oozing milk and honey† is thus a favourite phrase or cliche for describing the fertility of the land. Egyptian texts described the abundance of the region as: â€Å"It was a good land Figs were in it, and grapes. It had more than water. Plentiful was its trees.Barley was there, and emmer. There was no limit to any (kind of) cattle Bread was made as daily fare, wine as dai ly provision, cooked meat and roast fowl, beside the wild beats of the desert and milk was used in all cooking†. For those who were landless slaves, being freed to a land that oozes milk and honey, was a life- long yearning. The emphasis might not be necessarily on fertility alone. It could also well be an emphasis on an ordered and stable normal life. So â€Å"oozing milk and honey† could be a traditional and proverbial phrase to describe the normal life of the chaotic life in Egypt and Babylon.Life in the Promised Land would be a life of, for, and with the land and with Yahweh. There would be land, there would be work, there be food, and there would be rest as well, and they would run their own course. Everything would be normal. This would be even more desirable and attractive than a mere fertile land. This is also a common hallmark of indigenous land in terms of soil fertility, which attracts foreigners to occupy their land. 6. 2. Land Displacement: The Israelite oc cupation of Canaan led to intermittent fighting over a long period as the quest for new territory xtended into the period of the settlement proper. According to Martin Noth, this process took almost two hundred years, from the second half of the fourteenth century B. C. This verifies the fact that when Israelite’s get inside the promise land, surely there prevails the displacement of the original inhabitants. They were divorced from their own land. Similarly, in different parts of India, the tribal’s have become the victims of big reservoirs, mega projects, wild life sanctuaries, mines, industries, etc.They are forcefully evicted from their ancestral land and often without proper compensation. They are simply ignored, silence and despised. For example, one lakh people are going to be displaced by the Sardar Savovar Project in Gujarat, 60-70% of whom are tribal’s. And around 1, 30,000 are expected to be displaced by the Narmada Sagar Project in Madhya Pradesh of whom 65-70% are tribal’s. Being improvised and disposed, people flee in large numbers to the cities and the towns to eke out their existence around slums and shanties in abject poverty and misery. 6. Resettlement: Consequently, when there is displacement and departure, the problem awaiting the indigenous Canaanite is that they have to relocate themselves by any means. This reinstallation will aggravate the chaotic circumstances lying ahead of them. Searching for a new settlement is not an overnight play. But it is a process that requires several probabilities and also time consuming. 6. 4. Occupational Alterations: Among these ‘indigenous Canaanites’ there were formed pastoral nomads from Transjordan. But, envisages a gradual settlement of various nomadic groups in the course of an occupational shift i. . transition to agrarian way of life. This is an open impact of the Israelites claimed for the land belonging not to them, but to others. As a matter of fact, the re appear occupational alterations during that time. They can hardly adopt the livelihood of the indigenous people in that region which they newly settled. So, there provoke an alterations from agrarian to pastoral, and reciprocally the same from pastoral to agrarian. 6. 5. Religious Assimilation: Religious opposition belonged to that context. The God of the Hebrews was very different from the Canaanite deities.The religion of the Canaanite peoples was a crude and debased form of ritual polytheism. It was associated with sensuous fertility-cult worship of a particularly lewd and orgiastic kind, which proved to be more influential than any other nature religion in the Near East. The principal deity acknowledged by the Canaanites was known as El, who was credited with leadership of the pantheon. The identification of this God with El of Israel must probably also be understood as taking place only gradually during the military stage.The Canaanites they didn’t worshipped only one God, but they worshipped many, whom they called Baalim (a Plural word), and they believed that each piece of land had its own baal who helped it to produce good crops. The baal could be worshipped only on his own plot of land, and if a person moved to another district he/she was compelled to offer worship and gifts to the baal of the district to which he had moved. But with the arrival of the Israelites, it was found that the Canaanites on the west bank were capture with a belief in a new God, Yahweh.This continue to spread to the other parts as well, it was interesting to see that the Hebrew slaves fought not only for their existence or for their â€Å"religion† but for their identity. While achieving this, the victims were the native people of the land whose religion will surely be assimilated under this brand new religious practises and ideas. 6. 6. Infiltration which leads to Imperialism: There is a pattern of peaceful infiltration which is confirmed by the biblical stor y of the Gibeonites and the absence of any battles in the central part of Canaan in the Joshua stories. As propounded by The German school of Albright Alt and Martin Noth.Unfortunately this placed the opponent of infiltration at risk; usually this is not the end in itself, because in most of the cases, learning from the indigenous people experiences, wherever there is an influx it mainly leads to imperialism. There may be numerous factors which contribute to the increase of migration from one place to another. It may be political, economical, sociological, and even religious for that matter. In India for that matter, for a contextual introspection, As S. P. Sinha comments that, â€Å"In fact Christian missionaries are there not for advocating a faith but for keeping imperialism alive. Therefore, it is important to remember that where there is infiltration, migration, influx the end point is imperialism, colonialism and other form of means in replacing those who settle in that place . 6. 7. Cultural Confrontation: In the words of A. R. Ceresko, concerning the biblical event of the conquest, it is visible that there is cultural confrontation during the conquest, when he said, â€Å"The opposition of Israel to Canaan was no mere ‘war of religion’ It was not simply one religion facing another. The conflict was cultural; it implied all the economic, social, political, and religious dimensions of culture.Another civilization faced the city-states. That political conflict implied a clash of totally opposite conceptions of society, of clan egalitarianism versus a hierarchical establishment, of mutual justice against royal absolutism, of concern for the poor rather than the imperatives of production and the preservation of social stability. † Incidentally, there is an alarming cultural confrontation, which ignites during the entrance of the Israelites. This is also very common for the indigenous people as pointed out before, when religion can never be separated from their culture or vice versa.Therefore, if there is any transformation in religion, their culture cannot remain untouched. Interestingly, in the same manner it happens for the Canaanites, their occupations have been shifted, their religion was under attacked these evidently signify that there can be demolition of existing cultural norms and practises. 7. Contemporary Challenges: The experience story of Indigenous/tribal is colonialism and post –colonialism, alienation, discrimination, uprooted from their own land, prejudice, and stereotyping.There were destruction of Indigenous culture and social system by powerful and elite people with no exception to the white missionaries. Globalization is a threat to the indigenous/tribal people. In the name of development government machineries took indigenous people’s land and resources away. Today there are numerous challenges. A journey to build the nation on secular ideal and it is our endeavour to provide a j ust and adequate society for all. But the situation in the realm of economic change and social life has brought attention to some crucial problems and difficulties.In spite of signal changes in certain sectors in our society, poverty and misery is the lot of a large number of people in slums and villages. A majority of them are Dalits, the victims of caste system. It is incumbent on the Church to involve in this struggle, especially since the Christian Church has begun a process of liberation of the Dalit. The Church should own it and declare unequivocally its commitment to the struggle of the Dalits. Suppression is the main problem facing the indigenous people till today.In the search for a fuller life, justice and equality and to project our identity and land, people are involved in various uprising movements. Since the dominant societies do not listen to the cries and do not recognize tribal’s with human rights and dignity, some people have gone up to the extent of armed s truggle, as a result of which many innocent people have been killed and properties have been lost. In a context where people are systematically oppressed people seem to see no alternative, except to involve in an armed struggle.The Policy Makers, instead of recognizing the movement as justice issue, try to suppress the movement by army rule. In the process, many tribal dominated places have been brought under many laws. Being empowered to shoot and kill; to enter and search and arrest any suspected person without warrant, many tribal leaders have been shot dead, while many fled to the forest for safety. Many villages were burnt down to ashes, not only once, but three to four times. Such human right violations go on and on. Many continue to live in tears, pain, fair and suffering.Silent tears of the heart crying for a just existence have become the air that people breaths in and out each day. Reflection: After all these, we find that this account of the Israelites taking over of Cana an, throughout decades, it has been classically interpreted only as the fulfilment of God’s promises towards his people. This may be well accepted before, but the experiences and development of biblical scholarship leads to the profound biblical evidences. Perceiving things in a different way is the outcome of such research data. We can see that it was an august time for the Israelite after a very long journey.The leadership of Joshua is an incredible achievement. When they reached this land, they try to figure out a place for permanent settlement. They started finding their own way of earning and living. This event is a dawn for the complete capture of this foreign land. They were supposed to be strangers and aliens in this place, but it is only a matter of time that they can fully remove and replace the native of this place. There is always a tendency to reject the picture and suffering of the people of this land, who had occupied this land for centuries.The Canaanite was d ismantled from their land; it is really a difficult time for them to be alienated from their very own land. The land which they spend most of their living, their resources have been abducted. They were scattered for the cause of others. Their rights upon their own land and properties have been subjugated. It is beyond imagination where, the people of the land were deducted of their ownership and close relationship to the land. Exactly, the same way they fall under the umbrella of indigenous people. Bombarded with the same hardships and struggling against the same hurdles.This infected even their faith, worship and thoughts. Ironically, there was religious controversy when these foreigners enter their land. Together with this their culture and indigenous practices were drifted and get carried, by something which they may never embrace before. It is not an easy time for them, to control massive infiltration and the agony is that they were suppress and unjustly treated. Conclusion: It is very important to find out related knowledge about the journey of the Israelite. This paper has no intention of justifying any side of the coin.But the only aimed is to revisit and portray some realities, which were hardly emphasized. As a matter of learning, this study opens the space for an in-depth research in this single field. Which may serve as tool to draw the scripture closer to those people, specifically those who were neglected, ignored and hardly visible in this circle like the indigenous people. This may bring the relevancy of the text to the context of the reader. Bibliography: Abraham, K. C. â€Å"Towards An Indian Christian Identity. † In Christian Identity and Cultural Nationalism: Challenges and Opportunities. Edited by E. C.John amp; Samson Prabhakar. Bangalore: BTESSC/ SATHRI, 2008. Anderson, G. W. The History and Religion of Israel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Broadie, Elsie. The Chosen Nation; Book one; Founders and Leaders. Headington Hil l Hall: The Religious Education Press, 1968. Ceresko, A. R. â€Å"Potsherds and Pioneers: Recent Research on the Origin of Israel. † Indian Theological Studies, vol. 34 (1997): 11-20. Convillle, J. G. 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Longkumer, Awala. â€Å"Experience of the Context: Socio-Political, Historical and Cultural Context of the Tribal. † In Critical Issues in Mission Among Tribals. Edited by Awala Longkumer. Nagpur: NCCI, 2011. L