Anthropological perspectives on Indian tribes provides a lucid yet critical reading on the Indian tribes in their historical and political contexts. It attempts to introduce the young reader to a view of tribes that goes beyond many of the commonly understood concepts and prejudices that are set deep in the popular idea of tribe . through ethnographic examples and engagement with theoretical works, knowledge and theories about tribes are explored within the broad categories of kinship, religion, subsistence, law and politics. This comprehensive work on Indian tribes provides a theoretical understanding of the diverse world views that govern the functioning of tribal societies. Providing insights into ground-level situations that may contribute to a better governance of tribal populations, it will encourage students of sociology and social anthropology to develop a critical and analytical attitude towards the discipline.
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.
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In We Were Adivasis, anthropologist Megan Moodie examines the Indian state’s relationship to “Scheduled Tribes,” or adivasis—historically oppressed groups that are now entitled to affirmative action quotas in educational and political institutions. Through a deep ethnography of the Dhanka in Jaipur, Moodie brings readers inside the creative imaginative work of these long-marginalized tribal communities. She shows how they must simultaneously affirm and refute their tribal status on a range of levels, from domestic interactions to historical representation, by relegating their status to the past: we were adivasis. Moodie takes readers to a diversity of settings, including households, tribal council meetings, and wedding festivals, to reveal the aspirations that are expressed in each. Crucially, she demonstrates how such aspiration and identity-building are strongly gendered, requiring different dispositions required of men and women in the pursuit of collective social uplift. The Dhanka strategy for occupying the role of adivasi in urban India comes at a cost: young women must relinquish dreams of education and employment in favor of community-sanctioned marriage and domestic life. Ultimately, We Were Adivasis explores how such groups negotiate their pasts to articulate different visions of a yet uncertain future in the increasingly liberalized world.
Between Ethnography and Fiction brings together essays by sixteen scholars of various disciplines to re-examine the work of Verrier Elwin in the fields of tribal literature, tribe and non-tribe relationship, tribal development policies, missionaries and conversion, myths and legends, art and craft, etc. Elwin is undoubtedly one of the most controversial as well as influential anthropologists of the twentieth century. The essays included here are therefore both appreciative and critical.
The tribals contribute a share of about eight per cent population of the country s population and spread over about 1/5 part of the country s land with 500 different tribal groups having special cultural traits and identity. Keeping in view the importance of ethnography of every tribal group, there is a gap in literature. This was a voluminous work, so I have decided to work on major tribal groups residing in different parts of the country.
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.
Choctaw Nation is a story of tribal nation building in the modern era. Valerie Lambert treats nation-building projects as nothing new to the Choctaws of southeastern Oklahoma, who have responded to a number of hard-hitting assaults on Choctaw sovereignty and nationhood by rebuilding their tribal nation.
Particularly valuable for Ronda's inclusion of pertinent background information about the various tribes and for his ethnological analysis. An appendix also places the Sacagawea myth in its proper perspective. Gracefully written, the book bridges the gap between academic and general audiences.OCo"Choice""
