tentative, subject to change - updated 12 Sept '16
Go to Topics:
1. Introduction: The Framework of Method, Ethics, Interpretation, Text Construction
2. Evolution and the Scientific Method: A Question of Origin and Place
4. Creation and Aesthetic, Mythic and Religious Expressions: A Question of Origin and Place
6. The Life Cycle and Rites of Passage: A Question of Identity
7. The Ecological Fabric: Landscape, Subsistence, Domestication, and Economics
9. The Social Fabric: Kinship, Marriage, Gender, Status and Power
10. The Dynamic Fabric: Individual Creativity and Culture Contact
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Introduction and "Huckleberrying" - Entering the Tin Shed/Sweat House
As discussed in class and in the readings, what is the Tin Shed/Sweat House protocol, and what are its key components? What are some of the important ethical issues associated with conducting ethnographic research?
As discussed in class and in the readings, what is an ethnographer, and what are his or her key component skills? How does he or she conduct ethnographic research, i.e., what are some key field techniques used by an ethnographer to gather information?
As discussed in class and in the readings, what is the "huckleberry" (or "eye juggling") method of interpreting the meaning of stories and cultures of other people? How is an interpretation made of the information gathered from doing ethnographic research? How do you go about writing up your interpretation; how is a text constructed? How is a text to be evaluated, based upon what criteria (reliability and validity vs. authenticity, trustworthiness, and appropriateness)? What is "reflexivity" and its implications in doing ethnographic research?
What is "ethnocentrism" and "cultural relativity"?
What are the distinguishing characteristics of the humanities and the sciences? What are the advantages of each approach?
What are among the key "purposes" that ethnography strives to achieve?
A Question of Origin and Place: Evolution and the Scientific Method
Who was Pythagoras, and what did he help bring forth, and what are cultural values upon which his theorem is based? What does it mean when it is said, "the language of nature is mathematics." What was Aristotle and what did he help bring forth, and what are cultural values upon which material reductionism is based? Who was Descartes, and what did he help bring forth, and what is Cartesian Dualism and its implacitions? What does it mean when it is said the human mind is tabula rasa? What is "the scientific method"? What are the cultural values upon which it is based?
How do scientists in particular come to know their world, i.e., how would you define their "Head Knowledge," ways of knowing, their epistemology?
Re-tell the story of the "Dream Animal." What is the mechanism, describing its key processes, that facilitated human evolution. How does "lactase" exemplify this process? Outline the evolutionary record, identifying the primary pre-hominids and hominids as well as their defining characteristics. What are some of the underlying "bone" upon which the "Dream Animal" story is based?
What was the role of "persistent hunting" in the evolution of hominids?
What is the relationship between story/culture and biology? Give three examples of how our biological and behavioral characteristics have co-evolved. What is the interplay between "nature" and "nurture?"
Are humans still evolving? What role does our cultural stories play in the future course of human evolution?
A Question of Origin and Place: Creation, Aesthetics, Myth and Religion
Who is Sedna and what does it mean to "live by endangering the souls of others"? Based upon this oral tradition and class discussion, offer an interpretation of Inuit teachings and ontology.
How do indigenous people come to know their world, i.e., how would you define their epistemology?
Based upon the ethnographic materials presented during class (e.g., Crow, Inuit, and Dine), what are the defining qualities and key teachings and ontological principles upon which indigenous culture is based, and how are they similar to and different from the Euro-American story? What is the significance of Plato's "Cave"?
How are the oral traditions and creation stories, and act of storytelling itself, understood and used by indigenous peoples? Be able to retell the story of Salmon.
As discussed in class and from the perspective of the participants, what are the primary significances and functions of religion, ritual, dance, and art in indigenous societies? What can be in a stone?
What is the ritual process of the Crow Sundance, and why are the Crow dancing? What is the meaning and significance of the "wagon wheel"?
What is the main purposes of the Navajo "dry painting" ceremony?
What are the principles upon which a Navajo healing ceremony is based? How and why does it work? What is the meaning of chanting the world into existence?
Compare and contrast the role and meaning of the "arts" and "literature" in indigenous and Euro-American cultures.
Compare and contrast the role and meaning of "religious ceremonialism" in indigenous and Euro-American cultures.
Reconciling the Mutually Exclusive: Traveling the Spokes of the Wheel and Speaking the Languages of the Hub
How are we to address and reconcile the mutually exclusive in our lives? What are some examples in your own life? How is the metaphor of the Wheel: Hub and Spokes, applied to a healing journey and beyond, to address the mutually exclusive?
The Life Cycle and Rites of Passage
What are the primary structural stages to a "rite of passage" and of a "pilgrimage"? How are the two process alike? Provide an example from your own experiences that illustrate each stage and both types of processes.
What are the primary purposes of rites of passage and pilgrimages? What are among the significances of symbolic "death" in a rite of passage?
Describe are the pilgrimage stages of the Islamic Hajj to Mecca.
How are our identities formed and how are we integrated into the larger social community?
What is the role and significance of "rites of passage" in indigenous cultures?
Compare and contrast the role and meaning of "rites of passage" in indigenous and Euro-American cultures.
Why are "rites of passage" understood so differently and are less emphasized in Euro-American culture?
The Ecological Fabric: Landscape, Subsistence and Economics
What are the defining characteristics of a "gatherer-hunter" ecology? From a Coeur d'Alene Indian perspective, how is a deer or a field of camas viewed?
What is the "quality of life" among "gatherer-hunters" and nature of the "original affluent society"?
Describe the characteristics of Coeur d'Alene Indian "hunting and gathering" and its implications on the "quality of life" of the people.
Why did certain societies "domesticate" plants and animals? How did the process of domestication take place?
How did the relationship between humanity and the landscape change following the domestication of plants and animals?
What are the characteristics of an agricultural society?
Why do contemporary Americans generally view "gatherer-hunters" as "backward?
What is the meaning of "living by consent of everything else" (from the Makuna)? Given this orientation, how must "nature" be viewed? What sort of economic and ecological system is compatible with and an extension of this view? What are the implications of "living by consent" for a "healthy" ecology?
The Social Fabric: Kinship, Marriage, Gender, Status and Power
How is the social construct - "individual" - expressed and understood in American society, and what are its implications?
How is a "rich man" defined in American society and in indigenous society? What are the implication of those contrasting definition on how people relate to each other?
What is a matrilineal descent system and what are the principles upon which it is based? Define the Crow "biilapxe" relationship and its functions. What is the particular structural challenge men face in a matrilineal kinship system? How is it resolved? What are the functions of the clan? Why in a matrilineal system is the breakup of the marriage bond not synonymous with the breakup of the family?
How are women characterized in indigenous society? Why have women become subordinated to men in some societies?
Compare and contrast the role and meaning of the "family" and "kinship" in indigenous and Euro-American cultures. Why are "marriage" and "kinship" patterns structured and why do they function so differently in Euro-American culture?
The Dynamic Fabric: Creativity and Culture Contact
What is the interplay and influence of the "individual" and the "culture" on the expression of "creativity" and "innovation"? Is "history" made by "great men," or are "great men" made by "history"? What is the influence of "innovation" and of the "superorganic" on domestication?
What are the theories addressing the causes of warfare?
What are the implications of how and why "domestication" came about on contemporary and future technological developments?
What has been the effects of outside, European contact and modernization on the indigenous societies? What are the various ways culture change can unfold when one society is overwhelmed by another society?
What is "traditionalism" and its implications?
What type of culture change can occur when two autonomous, sovereign cultures come into contact? Offer examples from Euro-American history.
What are the processes of a successful "revitalization movement"? Identify a revitalization unfolding in your community?
What is schismogenesis and provide an example different from that discussed in class?
Are we the stories we tell?
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