./ ISLE66W s smP ~i .-tE Ht~~ e 64at asE MAI t4NocgN": QED WIS U JJVIARV /COMMI'1ME: M R 6HSALLOCEY OURcJo Am wi5A4r. w,-*w A mo w o P~:FoR -6PIAL3. No13-re 'f4EL4r or DAY'....v Onward Wyc liffe so ldiers .. . ,.4"1 pAR.'I. y 9 4, 7>\ t f ti r. a ," ., 4 Ar, 17ays d" ;c ~ 0 , ;:L , 5 By DAVID STOLL I TNDER THE DIRECTION of Uni- versity Professor K e n n e t h Pike, the Summer Institute of Lin- guistics (SIL) has achieved a re- putation for excellent descriptive work among primitive tribal peo- ples around the world. Like the Roman god Janus, how- ever, the Summer Institute has a second face. More than a scientific corporation, the SIL's alter iden- tity is Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc. (WBT), a non-denominational Protestant missionary organization to which it is closely linked. Both linquistics and missionaries, SIL workers go into the field to intro- duce the Bible to the societies whose languages they learn. Probably out of respect for Prof. Pike, who is spoken of highly by those who know him, the Summer Institute's operations are not much discussed around the University. But the subject is more than em- barrassing, because in practice the Summer Institute has combined linguistic techniques with religion to destroy the cultures of the peo- ple among whom it works. THE DAMAGE has been more than spiritual. In Latin America, the Wycliffe translators have worked closely with the military to extend the control of national governments over Indians and their lands. And in one celebrated case in Ecuador, WBT/SIL actually cleared the way, with air and radio support, f o r U.S. oil companies moving in to dispossess Indians of their terri- tory. The Summer Institute was foud- ed in the mid-1930s to Christianize by means of science. A school and a field organization, it holds training sessions every summer at the 'Universities of Oklahoma, North Dakota, Washington and Tex- as. The institutes are attended by 500 people a year, many of whom go overseas to join the 3000 work- ers which the organization main- tains in 25 countries around t h e world. Some SIL translators con- tinue their training in graduate schools, including the linguistics department at this University. PIKE FIRST came to the SIL as a student in 1935. A pioneer in the descriptive method and win- ner last week of the University's Distinguished Professorship award, he has been the organization's pre- sident since 1942. The Summer Institute and i t s affiliate are governed by overlap- ping boards of directors, adopting whichever identity is required to further their purpose. At the Uni- versity we know the organization as the SIL. The Summer Institute makes contracts with host govern- ments, organizes the field work and takes charge of the training ses- sions. The Wycliffe corporation, which was started by the SIL in 1942, recruits field volunteers and represents the organization to the churches. ..r*.L s v vv.. .ro:""." :r r." .'ev. ...:VS....... . . . . ...{i. r>:.., V. . . . . . "The Summer Institute has combined linguistic technique with religion to destroy the cultures of the people among whom it works.. . In Ecuador the Summer Institute has cleared the way, with air and radio support, for U.S. oil companies moving in to dis posses Indians of their land." .......... . n....v.,......r r....4.... . ....nsr...si ,r .. ........... is..;............v:::. ...... r.::."a.......4.........:,.".:.......*. . . . . . . . . . .v :. :r: s:".v"fir:;:..£p:2:rr,.::"rr: " .. ........ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..o,...,..r..,. .........,~h .. .' .: ...... .... . patterns of thought an i speech, substituting tradition il parables and vocabulary for literal biblical images. In Latin American count:ies the Summer Institute's operations are coordinated from base camps in the hinterlands. Bustling outposts of North American civilization, they feature airstrips, tidy codnnounds of suburban-style housing, and in- digenous servants. The bases are staffed with support personnel of various kinds, including linguistic specialists to analyze Jata brought back from the field. About hale the SIL workers are linguists, the rest working in education, medicine, or technical capacities. The October-December 1969 is- sue of Wycliff's Translation maga- zine explains the technology of the operation in greater detail. "A TECHNIQUE has beern devel- oped which allows us to carry on a two-way conversation while fly- ing overhead . . . An expandable radio transmitter built in,- a bas- ket is dropped. A wing-mounted speaker carries voices of Aucas in the plane to those on the ground, while a receiver in the plane picks up ground conversatio i. This is tape recorded and studied after each flight. Certain key names have been learned. Cailing peopae by name has done mucn to win the the powers-that-be and the argu- ment of the lesser evil comes strangely from these o 'ierwie fer- vent idealists, wio by their actions encourage exploitative and ruinous development. FIVE HUNDRED years ago the surface of the globe was co !ered with thousands of set s-iffi :ient human societies, as rich and mul- ti-colored in their diversit" as the plumage of tropical birds. Now, after an unprecedented expansion originating in Western Europe, nearly all have been wiped away by the advance of a pitiloss world market. The Summer Institute missionary effort is only part of the last cam- paign against traditional societies. It is only a new tactic in a cen- turies-long collusion between ytate, commercial and religious interests to pacify and destroy ,he last bar- riers to the world-wide worship of Mammon. What makes it espec- ially perverted is the use of ling- uistics and the university as ac- complices to ethnocide. Substantial portions of the pre- ceding article were drawn from a paper by Laurie Hart which ap- peared in the Dec. 1973 issue of the NACLA Latin American and Em- pire Report. NACLA is the North A m e r i c a n Congress on Latin A merica Eighty-Four Years of Editorial Freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 News Phone: 764-0552 THE LINGUISTIC. ;i ,OX es as a convenient rationalization of the WBT/SIL's activities, n o t only for the organization itself but also for host governments. This is particularly true in Latin Amer- ican countries, whose governing re- gimes could not otherwise cooper- ate with Protestant missionaries from the United States. Extending its services to host governments whenever possible, the SIL's ling- uistic investigations and mission- izing are valuable because they extend the state's control into frontier areas. The Summer Institute is pecul- iarly attractive to Latin American regimes because of its subsidiary Jungle Aviation and Radio Serv- ice (JAARS). Ranging through re- mote jungle areas, JAARS main- tains a fleet of 30 aircraft in Latin America. It has provided trans- port and communication services for army units moving against In- dians. GUESTS AT WBT/SIL bases in Pere have included the Ministers of Education, War, Health a n d Government, as well as the com- manding generals of the Peruvian Army and Air Force. Besides pro- viding support for remote military outposts, JAARS trains mechanics and pilots for the Peruvian armyv. In Columbia during 1970 the Summer Institute provided air and radio support, as well as interpret- ers, to police and army u n -ts supressing an armedresur:ection by Guahibo Indians. The Guahibo had taken up arms against na- tionals who were settling on their lands in a U.S-. supported land re- form program. The government's military operation was direrted from the WBT SIL base at Loma- linda, originally donated to the -nissionaries by a Columbian ar-nv general. In Ecuador the Summer Insatute has worked closely with Gulf and Texaco to open up Indian lands to exploitation. The most well-known Savages? In Latin America these Christian missionaries hound peo- ple off their land with airplanes so that their fellow countrymen can invade to drill for oil. In S o u t h Vietnam the Summer Inati ute has worked closely with the U.S. 'Sai- gon government. In an article in the Oct.-Dec. 1971 issue of Trans- lation entitled "Hope for Vietnam-- Right Now," a Wycliffe writer of- fers the following hope: "GOD USES military troips, but He has other methods also. "God turned the tables in Indo- nesia on the eve of a Marxist re- volution, and the spiritual response of thousands turning to Christ has been tremendous. Cambodia put all missionaries out of their coun- try in 1965, and it seemed t h a t God's work there was finished Suddenly - a coup d'etat and a new responsiveness to missionary work." The Wycliffe writer apparently doesn't think it relevant that the turning of the tables in indonesia involved the slaughter; of half a million people. According to Wycliffe s State- ment of Doctrine, its volunteers must believe in, a'ioo-ther things, the fall of man, his con- sequent moral depravity: the eter- nal life of the saved and the eter- nal punishment of the >i ; and the divine inspiration and authority of S.ripture. Wycliffe translators teacn indig- enous peoples, for the first time, that they are in a state of moral depravity and must bear whatever oppressions are visited upon them, in the image of the suffering Jesus. The translators teach them to despise their own culture, which has damned them to eternaJl pun- ishment, and to adulate that of the' TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1974 It's time to stop sports sexism THE BATTLE AGAINST sexism has fin- ally invaded the realm of collegiate sports. Recent regulations put out by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare require that publicly-supported institutions (such as The University) must provide equal athletic facilities and opportunities for both sexes in order to be eligible for further public assistance. Predictably, there has been an outcry from athletic administrators - an outcry which is dangerous precisely because it is based on an important truth. College sports are in deep financial trouble. More than 500 out of the 700 NCAA institutions are dropping money on their sports pro- grams. Competitive and intramural fa- cilities and activities are being shredded nationwide. It sounds incredible when the word comes from someone like pros- perous Don Canham, but it's true. NEVERTHELESS, FINANCES are an in- sufficient excuse for athletic depart- TODAY'S STAFF: News: Dan Bugerman, Jack Krost, Mike Pennanen, Jeff Rivkin, Judy Ruskin, James Schuster, Sue Stephenson, Becky Warner ments to continue to operate overwhelm- ingly in favor of the male sex: insuffici- ent because it's an excuse which will continue for the rest of the century, and, prevent progress in the meantime. With a fixed resource base, any increase in the allocation for women's sports will necessarily (and unfortunately) have to come out of the remaining sports activi- ties. If woman are to receive scholarships for their athletic talents - as men have for 40 years - the number of male schol- arships is going to have to fall. If wom- en are to have decent locker room facili- ties, the football team might have to do . without a few of its amenities. Some women's sports can be self-sus- taining. Women's basketball consistently outdraws the male variety in Iowa, main- ly because it's a different type of game which more people enjoy watching. BUT THE ISSUE runs deeper than this. In the competitive sports world, no institution is going to unilaterally cut its men's athletic program in order to serve a sense of equity. College athletic directors should unite, and map out a co- ordinated set of actions aimed at elimi- nating sexual discrimination in athletics. The HEW regulations just might prove to be the necessary goad for this to hap- pen. Professor Pike replies' Editorial Page: Heyn Brian Colgan, Arts Page: Ken Fink, Jeff Sorensen Photo Technician: Ken Fink --CLARKE COGSDILL AM VERY grateful to the stu- dents of this country, including those of this university, for taking leadership in insisting that there should be a moral component in international, university, and per sonal affairs. They hay often been ahead of many of us on the faculty in this respect. (This I feel, even thoughI have disapproved of their methods, on occasion.) But it seems to me that they sometimes need to do more thinking as to the alternative bases upon which they can build such a moral Position, and sustain it philosophically. The options are limited. My choice is Judeo-Christian theism. Students are changing daily as they are exposed to expanding al- ternatives. I do not consider, per- sonally, that this has 'destroyed' their culture. Similarly, change fol- lowing upon education within an in- ,diginous culture does not seem to me to be equivalent to detroymg that culture. Change is inevitble, and we do not have as an option the stopping of change. Popula- tion pressure and the need for en- ergy (or other) resources will uro- bably lead some nations,. via emi- nent domain, into actions or areas where I, as a foreigner, have nei- ther right nor might to interfere. When invited or permitted by such a government to do so, however, I would be grateful for the opportun- ity to help such a government les- sen the damage, if I am competent to do so. FOR CENTURIES it has b e e n known to governments and to scholars that language is one of the deepest and most culturally bind- ing factors of a group. In this sense the work of the Summer In- stitute of Linguistics Inc., ini giv- ing alphabets and language' dignity to indigeneous peoples, is strength- ening cultural roots in one of the deepest senses known to man. Sim- ilarly, there is no channel, known to me, which givestmuch hope of making known to them through. written sources of bilingual school- ing the help actually or potentially available to them from government officials interested in their welfare. It can open to these indigenous peoples some degree of option in cultural continuity, and simultan- eous integration into the national culture as well, both to help build the nation as a whole and to build their own community. Our own country has not necessarily been the best model in phis respect. It is interesting to read, for example, the book by W. Cameron Town- send, founder of the Summer In- stitute of Linguistics Inc., They Found a Common Language: Com- munity through Bilingual Educa- tion (Harper and Row, 1972), dis- cussing the successful work of bi- lingual education in the USSR, in contrast to that of our own coun- try. MY THEISTIC presuppositions, in a Biblical context, reinforce my empirical observation that each of us (whether faculty member, stu- dent, government official, or in- digenous person, shares a cultur- al-moral-trait - a character twist -e.g. a tendency to wish to dom- inate others. This does not give me hope that all things will be all right if we just leave them alone. I would prefer to take the risk of trying to be hepful, while praying that God will make more good come from my good intentions and positive efforts than damage from my cultural insensitivities and ig- norance. -KENNETH L. PIKE Although the goals of SIL/WB r are supposed to be religious and scientific, most of its support comes from churches and SIL workers are recruited for their religious motivation. The $8.7 million WBT/ SIL budget is supplemented by grants from U.S. governmentai agencies, chiefly the Age-icy for In- ternational Development (AID), and assistance from host govern- ments. THE LINGUISTIC orientation is the key to the conversion strategy, which is more sophisticated than that of most Protestant ramissions. Concentrating on small, rcmote peoples beyond state cont:ol, the translators often succeoa in es- tablishing themselves among groups which have resisted the case is that of the Auca, a war like group of several hundred nomadic hunters and gatherers. Extreme iv dispersed and accustomed to kll- ing intruders, the Auca managed to stay in control of their territory un- til very recently. A 1971 WYCLIFFE publicity flier describes how WBT/SIL helped change that, however. "Twenty-five years ago, the Shell Oil C o m- pany lost many workers to Auca spears. For several reasons, Shell decided to leave Ecuador. Sud- denly, with the discovery of a vast reserve of oil under the eastern jungle, 21 companies are wcrbing 1500 men there." "As they (the oil comoanies) ad- vance, we fly ahead of them and explain to Aucas living in thir missionaries, which nas saved them. ALTHOUGH Summer Institute translators perceive themselves as extenders of the helping hand, they actually serve as cultural penetra- tion teams, clearing the way for the military, for corporate enter- prise, and for settlers. The trans- lators eagerly help to bring Ind- ians into national societies racistly predisposed against them, disin- tegrating their traditional econom- ic and social life. In the process of turning proad, self-sufficient po- ple into human refuse, many of them inevitable die - whether from bullets, starvation or disease. Transformed into a marginal and oppressed surplus labor pool, those who are left face futures as semi- Contact your reps- Sen. Phillip Hart (Dem), Rm 253, Old Senate Bldg., Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. 20515. 15 5 . ~ NG-.W I *T T",ET" I