The concepts of human dignity in moral philosophies of indigenous peoples of the Americas

Abstract

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) of 1948 is perceived by many cultures, in particular Western (European and American) ones, as the fundamental point of reference in interpreting and understanding the principles of inalienable universal human rights as based on the inherent dignity of all human beings. Equivalent moral decrees and ideas existed, however, in the intellectual systems of the indigenous peoples of the Americas long before the arrival of the European invaders. A concept of universal human dignity remains avant la lettre in the thinking and practices of American indigenous peoples. Even if a notion is lacking in a language of a particular culture, the matter might be present. Various European nations – the English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Russian and Portuguese being the foremost representatives – invaded the vast continent to be known as the Americas from the beginning of the sixteenth century onwards. Despite the destructive impact the European and the later post-colonial nation-states had on the Americas, there exist different religious, philosophical, linguistic and cultural systems of the indigenous peoples. The philosophical thought of the many Native American nations is a rather poorly studied subject in Western scholarship, where many scholars have not taken the intellectual wisdom of indigenous peoples seriously. To my knowledge, no comparative and systematic research has been conducted about how the concept of human dignity is conceived among Native Americans. Because of the great variety of numerous indigenous nations of an extensive cultural-geographic region, the present chapter will mainly concentrate upon ‘the Great Binding Law of Peace’ (GBLP) – or ‘the Great Law’ ( Kayȧnenhs ˀ na in the Onondaga language) – of the Haudenosaunee (known by outsiders as the Iroquois) confederacy of the northeastern part of the North American continent. However, as will be indicated, this should not be taken to suggest that only the Haudenosaunee had a moral concept of human dignity.