As cities around the country debate whether the second Monday of October should be Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day, Syracuse University Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion Phil Arnold offers expert commentary on the issue.
“We know that our national holidays are full of symbolism. The question about Columbus Day for the academic study of religion is, what does he symbolize? Why Columbus? He was never in the US, probably did not understand that he was in a territory previously unknown to Europe,” said Arnold who specializes in the study of Native American culture and religion. “According to Bartolome de las Casas (who preserved his diary from the first voyage), he committed atrocious acts of cruelty such as kidnapping, rape, and torture. Not a nice guy.”
“What does he symbolize? Conquest and destruction of Indigenous traditions and their lands. The Doctrine of Christian Discovery was the mandate under which he was sailing. This was enacted by a series of Popes in the 15th century for Christian explorers to seize lands, property and bodies of non-Christians in African and the Americas. This was the origin of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and destruction of Native American peoples,” said Arnold.
“The move away from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day is a symbolic shift in our National memory. It is much more than political correctness. It moves away from the values of colonialism and conquest toward the values and legacy of about 100 million Indigenous Peoples in North, Central and South American, who had lived here in harmony with the natural world for millennia before Europeans.”
Prof. Arnold is available to speak to speak to media. Please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, director of news and PR at Syracuse University, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 315.443.1897 or Keith Kobland, media manager at Syracuse University, at kkobland@syr.edu or 315.443.9038.
On Wednesday, Oct. 20, the University will again celebrate International Pronouns Day (IPD), a global initiative established in 2018 that seeks to make respecting, sharing and educating about personal pronouns a common occurrence. Referring to people by the pronouns they…
The 2021-22 Convocation for Remembrance Scholars, honoring 35 outstanding students from this year’s senior class, will be held Friday, Oct. 22, at 3 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel. The convocation will be preceded by the annual Rose-Laying Ceremony at 2:03 p.m….
Say “university,” and what often comes to mind are sprawling campuses, vast libraries and jam-packed sports stadiums. Yet in recent times, a rapidly increasing number of post-secondary students have been moving to a new landscape of online learning. The College…
Food Services has hired a new executive chef with deep roots in the Central New York region. Chef Eamon Lee brings over three decades of experience in the food services industry to the University. In the near term, Eamon will…
John Burse ’94 first stepped foot on the Syracuse University campus as a high school senior in the late 1980s with dreams of becoming an architect. He recalls stepping onto the Quad for the first time and knowing in that…
If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.
