24 Feb 2005
Amos Expresses Herself With New Album

This kind of crap really sets me off:

Born in North Carolina and raised in Maryland, Amos is the daughter of a Methodist minister raised in the strict Christian sense that entails. Along with a voracious literary appetite, from her mother she inherited a Cherokee bloodline that connects her to spirituality deeper than any church can provide.

<RANT>

While this statement is undoubtedly literally true, the implication is that only "native" blood can provide this kind of spiritual connection. I got some news for the writer here. All of us, regardless of the color of our skin or the exact content of our DNA, can use our ancestry to connect to a spirituality deeper than that offered by any "universal" religion. For, truth be told, ancestry is the universal religion, and it's recognition is what sets mankind apart from the rest of the animal kingdom.

Perhaps this is a bit of "angry middle aged white guy" backlash here, but I get so sick and tired of hearing about the spiritual "superiority" of various and sundry "native" groups. I don't hold it against the natives, however, as usually it's not them claiming it, it's white, distraught, post-Christian yuppies looking for a new age religion fix. It really pisses off some native American groups when they feel that their religious heritage is being stolen - as much as it pisses me off that mine is being ignored. For the life of me I can't understand what folks mean by "native" in this context - do they think white Europeans have always been Christians, and that Jesus was a blond Scandinavian? White folks was wild once, too!

What really gets me going, however, is the typical reaction of Wiccans and other neo-pagans when a white folkish Heathen expresses the notion that maybe people should follow their own ancestral paths. Instantly, the charge of "racism" or "fascist" is leveled at the poor fellow - but when the Lakota or Australian aborigines make the same claim, they're applauded as defending their native culture from corrupting foreign influences.

Such hypocrisy drives me absolutely crazy.

The Indo-European peoples have a rich, deep and spiritually satisfying path all our own: why we simply refuse to explore it, and insist on attempting to steal others cultures is beyond me. Is it just guilt over our treatment of native peoples? Is it some repressed knowledge that we are responsible for the near loss of our own ancestral heritage?

</RANT>

Amos is an artist driven solely by the creative process, following the music wherever it goes to harness its essence.

(link) [Billboard]

via The Wildhunt Blog

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link