Here is a revealing fact about the process of “westernization:”
Both the word and the concept of poverty itself arrived in North America at the exact same time. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, most Indigenous communities did not possess a word for anything even resembling poverty.
The reason is quite simple:
Poverty, as a concept, did not [yet] exist to the Indigenous Americans until they were faced with colonization. Poverty is not a symptom of colonization; It is a cornerstone of its success.
The introduction of the word “poverty” into most Indigenous American languages coincided directly with the arrival of poverty itself, brought upon them by colonization. Up until that point, most Indigenous tribes had thrived for millennia; The concept of being “poor” or “financially destitute” did not, and could not exist.
In other words, wherever colonization spreads, poverty also spreads.
Poverty is not a symptom of colonization, it is a cornerstone of its success.
Perhaps even more telling about western culture is that the closest approximation for both the word and concept of poverty that some of these tribes could come up with was “to be without family.” The idea of someone being so devoid of a safety net, family, or kinship, that they would experience something like abject poverty was literally inconceivable to them.
Yet many communities quickly came to understand its meaning, as well as its brutal impact. So it should also come as no surprise that ever since Europeans first arrived, Native Americans have had one of the highest rates of poverty of any group in America.
The biggest irony to all this is that many contemporary discussions concerning Native American communities revolve around solving the issue of poverty. But perhaps the real issue at hand is that we are trying to “fix”communities, rather than addressing those who brought poverty to Indigenous communities in the first place – not to mention those who still benefit from its existence.
This ultimately begs the question: What other words and concepts did westernization spread to the rest of the world?
