Boundary Dissolution and Revitalization Movements: The Case of the Nineteenth-Century Cherokees

Abstract

Scholars have long debated the conditions under which revitalization movements arose among historic North American Indian peoples. McLoughlin recently argued such efforts may be inappropriate ; instead, scholarship should focus on unique circumstances of individual tribes producing revitalizations. Despite his argument, McLoughlin's own analysis of 19th century Cherokee history documents a series of Cherokee revitalization movements associated with the disruptions of social and cultural changes ; this, linked with earlier research, suggests a general hypothesis explaining revitalization movements.