people who eat maize

Today I was hunched over my desk (I have very bad posture) reading about the morphology of Algonquian languages in The Routledge Handbook of North American Languages when my professor asked me if I have any personal connection to the topic I am studying. I guess he was basically asking me if I am Indigenous, so I said no. Then he asked me why I am interested in Indigenous cultures. He was just curious. I don't think it's that deep honestly, I just do. But I wanted to give him a satisfactory answer, so I had to self-reflect. 

To be honest I don't really like talking about myself because I am not interesting. And I don't like talking about how I got interested in a certain thing, I just like talking about the thing I am interested in. But I think it's important to do introspection to try to understand why you like something and critically examine yourself. Plus in Indigenous studies classes in university, they do make you try to be aware of your positionality and where you stand in relation to the group you are studying. Something that Indigenous scholars seem to understand better than European ones is that you can only try to be objective, you can't ever be 100% objective because your views will always be influenced by the culture you live in. I do believe there is a such thing as the objective truth, but that it is ultimately unknowable by humans, not just because of the limitations of our senses but also because of whatever culture we are influenced by. This can influence our thought process not only in the humanities, but in the sciences. 

Anyways, I think the question is quite vague. Because if he named a specific culture, I could have said what I liked about it (probably something to do with the traditional art, language, or unique way it resisted colonialism). And to be honest, I do like every culture, including both historical and modern ones. I'm only xenophobic to British people ironically, I literally studied English literature in university so I simp for my boys Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser, Chaucer, whoever wrote Sir Gawain and the Green Knight etc. 

But I guess the reason why I like learning about the cultures of North America in particular is because I like the intellectual challenge that comes with understanding with diverse groups of people that don't agree with each other. It's honestly the same reason why I like hearing people from the Indian subcontinent argue about politics (as long as they are being civil... which they aren't a lot of the times yikes) and wondering if India is going to balkanize because of all the different religions and ethnicities. 

It's very satisfying to try understanding different religions, languages, and systems of government. And of course pre-1492 North America was a lot more diverse than Europe at the same time. 

And it also keeps your biases in check if you read about other cultures. There are certain things you assume to be universally done in a certain way until you find out about how another culture does things. Reading about the maize-eating people or other people prevents me from becoming an ethnonationalist and believing in South Asian r@cial svpremacy :)  

Also, my culture is even more patriarchal than yuropians but I was shocked that not all cultures are patriarchal when I found about Haudenosaunee clan mothers. 

So TLDR, I like learning about Native Americans because I like diversity and having my mind blown and having my ethnocentrist worldview destroyed. 

Here is a drawing I made of a female mansplainer "studying" a nagin (snek goddess in Hindu mythology).  This is actually a metaphor for white anthropologists who arrogantly impose their views on the people they study. The title is "I have read all your lore." I hope you like it :) thanks for reading, frens.