Indians and Anthropologists

Indians and Anthropologists
Author: Thomas Biolsi
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1997-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780816516070

In 1969 Vine Deloria, Jr., in his controversial book Custer Died for Your Sins, criticized the anthropological community for its impersonal dissection of living Native American cultures. Twenty-five years later, anthropologists have become more sensitive to Native American concerns, and Indian people have become more active in fighting for accurate representations of their cultures. In this collection of essays, Indian and non-Indian scholars examine how the relationship between anthropology and Indians has changed over that quarter-century and show how controversial this issue remains. Practitioners of cultural anthropology, archaeology, education, and history provide multiple lenses through which to view how Deloria's message has been interpreted or misinterpreted. Among the contributions are comments on Deloria's criticisms, thoughts on the reburial issue, and views on the ethnographic study of specific peoples. A final contribution by Deloria himself puts the issue of anthropologist/Indian interaction in the context of the century's end. CONTENTS Introduction: What's Changed, What Hasn't, Thomas Biolsi & Larry J. Zimmerman Part One--Deloria Writes Back Vine Deloria, Jr., in American Historiography, Herbert T. Hoover Growing Up on Deloria: The Impact of His Work on a New Generation of Anthropologists, Elizabeth S. Grobsmith Educating an Anthro: The Influence of Vine Deloria, Jr., Murray L. Wax Part Two--Archaeology and American Indians Why Have Archaeologists Thought That the Real Indians Were Dead and What Can We Do about It?, Randall H. McGuire Anthropology and Responses to the Reburial Issue, Larry J. Zimmerman Part Three-Ethnography and Colonialism Here Come the Anthros, Cecil King Beyond Ethics: Science, Friendship and Privacy, Marilyn Bentz The Anthropological Construction of Indians: Haviland Scudder Mekeel and the Search for the Primitive in Lakota Country, Thomas Biolsi Informant as Critic: Conducting Research on a Dispute between Iroquoianist Scholars and Traditional Iroquois, Gail Landsman The End of Anthropology (at Hopi)?, Peter Whiteley Conclusion: Anthros, Indians and Planetary Reality, Vine Deloria, Jr.

Southern Indians and Anthropologists

Southern Indians and Anthropologists
Author: Lisa J. Lefler
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2002
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780820323558

Ranging in setting from a children's summer school program to a museum of history and culture to a fatherhood project, these eleven papers document some of the many ways in which anthropologists and Native Americans are striving to work together at higher levels of accountability, reciprocity, and mutual enrichment. The Native American groups discussed in the volume include the Yuchi of Oklahoma, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in western North Carolina, the Powhatans of Virginia, the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Waccamaw Siouan community of coastal North Carolina. The volume's contributors consider such issues as education, community development, funding, and the preservation of languages, sacred texts, oral traditions, and artifacts. At the same time, they offer personal insights into the pressures that can bear on working relationships between anthropologists and Native Americans. Not only must all concerned find a balance between their official and informal, individual and group selves, but Native Americans, especially, often feel caught between history and the present. One contributor, for instance, discusses the problems that arose from the discovery of Native American graves on land owned by the Cherokees--on the site of a planned casino parking lot. The anthropological work discussed here suggests strong potential for continuing research partnerships. It also illustrates the potential benefits of such partnerships, for anthropologists and for Native Americans.

A Companion to the Anthropology of American Indians

A Companion to the Anthropology of American Indians
Author: Thomas Biolsi
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 594
Release: 2008-03-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1405182881

This Companion is comprised of 27 original contributions by leading scholars in the field and summarizes the state of anthropological knowledge of Indian peoples, as well as the history that got us to this point. Surveys the full range of American Indian anthropology: from ecological and political-economic questions to topics concerning religion, language, and expressive culture Each chapter provides definitive coverage of its topic, as well as situating ethnographic and ethnohistorical data into larger frameworks Explores anthropology’s contribution to knowledge, its historic and ongoing complicities with colonialism, and its political and ethical obligations toward the people 'studied'

Savage Kin

Savage Kin
Author: Margaret M. Bruchac
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2018-04-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0816537062

"Illuminating the complex relationships between tribal informants and twentieth-century anthropologists such as Boas, Parker, and Fenton, who came to their communities to collect stories and artifacts"--Provided by publisher.

Custer Died For Your Sins

Custer Died For Your Sins
Author: Vine Deloria
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2018-02-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501188232

Standing Rock Sioux activist, professor, and attorney Vine Deloria, Jr., shares his thoughts about U.S. race relations, federal bureaucracies, Christian churches, and social scientists in a collection of eleven eye-opening essays infused with humor. This “manifesto” provides valuable insights on American Indian history, Native American culture, and context for minority protest movements mobilizing across the country throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Originally published in 1969, this book remains a timeless classic and is one of the most significant nonfiction works written by a Native American.

Indians and Anthropologists

Indians and Anthropologists
Author: Thomas Biolsi
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 237
Release: 1997-02-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816544476

In 1969 Vine Deloria, Jr., in his controversial book Custer Died for Your Sins, criticized the anthropological community for its impersonal dissection of living Native American cultures. Twenty-five years later, anthropologists have become more sensitive to Native American concerns, and Indian people have become more active in fighting for accurate representations of their cultures. In this collection of essays, Indian and non-Indian scholars examine how the relationship between anthropology and Indians has changed over that quarter-century and show how controversial this issue remains. Practitioners of cultural anthropology, archaeology, education, and history provide multiple lenses through which to view how Deloria's message has been interpreted or misinterpreted. Among the contributions are comments on Deloria's criticisms, thoughts on the reburial issue, and views on the ethnographic study of specific peoples. A final contribution by Deloria himself puts the issue of anthropologist/Indian interaction in the context of the century's end. CONTENTS Introduction: What's Changed, What Hasn't, Thomas Biolsi & Larry J. Zimmerman Part One--Deloria Writes Back Vine Deloria, Jr., in American Historiography, Herbert T. Hoover Growing Up on Deloria: The Impact of His Work on a New Generation of Anthropologists, Elizabeth S. Grobsmith Educating an Anthro: The Influence of Vine Deloria, Jr., Murray L. Wax Part Two--Archaeology and American Indians Why Have Archaeologists Thought That the Real Indians Were Dead and What Can We Do about It?, Randall H. McGuire Anthropology and Responses to the Reburial Issue, Larry J. Zimmerman Part Three-Ethnography and Colonialism Here Come the Anthros, Cecil King Beyond Ethics: Science, Friendship and Privacy, Marilyn Bentz The Anthropological Construction of Indians: Haviland Scudder Mekeel and the Search for the Primitive in Lakota Country, Thomas Biolsi Informant as Critic: Conducting Research on a Dispute between Iroquoianist Scholars and Traditional Iroquois, Gail Landsman The End of Anthropology (at Hopi)?, Peter Whiteley Conclusion: Anthros, Indians and Planetary Reality, Vine Deloria, Jr.

The Neo-Indians

The Neo-Indians
Author: Jacques Galinier
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2013-10-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1607322749

The Neo-Indians is a rich ethnographic study of the emergence of the neo-Indian movement—a new form of Indian identity based on largely reinvented pre-colonial cultures and comprising a diverse group of people attempting to re-create purified pre-colonial indigenous beliefs and ritual practices without the contaminating influences of modern society. There is no full-time neo-Indian. Both indigenous and non-indigenous practitioners assume Indian identities only when deemed spiritually significant. In their daily lives, they are average members of modern society, dressing in Western clothing, working at middle-class jobs, and retaining their traditional religious identities. As a result of this part-time status the neo-Indians are often overlooked as a subject of study, making this book the first anthropological analysis of the movement. Galinier and Molinié present and analyze four decades of ethnographic research focusing on Mexico and Peru, the two major areas of the movement’s genesis. They examine the use of public space, describe the neo-Indian ceremonies, provide analysis of the ceremonies’ symbolism, and explore the close relationship between the neo-Indian religion and tourism. The Neo-Indians will be of great interest to ethnographers, anthropologists, and scholars of Latin American history, religion, and cultural studies.

Learning to be an Anthropologist and Remaining "Native"

Learning to be an Anthropologist and Remaining
Author: Beatrice Medicine
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2001
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780252069796

Included in this collection are Medicine's clear-eyed views of assimilation, bilingual education, and the adaptive strategies by which Native Americans have conserved and preserved their ancestral languages.

Life Among the Indians

Life Among the Indians
Author: Alice C. Fletcher
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2013-12-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0803241151

Alice C. Fletcher (1838–1923), one of the few women who became anthropologists in the United States during the nineteenth century, was a pioneer in the practice of participant-observation ethnography. She focused her studies over many years among the Native tribes in Nebraska and South Dakota. Life among the Indians, Fletcher’s popularized autobiographical memoir written in 1886–87 about her first fieldwork among the Sioux and the Omahas during 1881–82, remained unpublished in Fletcher’s archives at the Smithsonian Institution for more than one hundred years. In it Fletcher depicts the humor and hardships of her field experiences as a middle-aged woman undertaking anthropological fieldwork alone, while showing genuine respect and compassion for Native ways and beliefs that was far ahead of her time. What emerges is a complex and fascinating picture of a woman questioning the cultural and gender expectations of nineteenth-century America while insightfully portraying rapidly changing reservation life. Fletcher’s account of her early fieldwork is available here for the first time, accompanied by an essay by the editors that sheds light on Fletcher’s place in the development of anthropology and the role of women in the discipline.