Indigenous Philosophies Research Articles

‘Rock-art’, ‘Animism’ and Two-way Thinking: Towards a Complementary Epistemology in the Understanding of Material Culture and ‘Rock-art’ of Hunting and Gathering People

In recent years, the concept of ‘animism’ has gained considerable popularity among archaeologists in exploring non-Western expressions of material culture. This development has also influenced recent academic approaches towards the study of ‘rock-art’ of people living as hunter and gatherers or in a hunting and gathering tradition. We argue here that attempts in this direction so far are generally compromised, because they fail to take Indigenous philosophies and intellectual contributions seriously. Any concern with Indigenous material expressions, including so-called rock-art, has to involve a critical re-assessment of academic discourse itself and a challenge to the primacy of Western scientific and literary, academic methodologies. With reference to the ‘rock-art’ and the world-view of the Ngarinyin (Kimberley, Northwest Australia), we present some preliminary thoughts for the development of an alternative interpretative framework, while offering a (much needed) legitimacy to another more balanced epistemology.

What Is a Just Society? Native American Philosophies and the Limits of Capitalism's Imagination: A Brief Manifesto

This essay asks a question: what can't capitalism imagine in confronting the major social problem, poverty, facing the world today? The answer to that question is: the communal. To define the limits of capitalism's imagination, this essay begins by analyzing U.S. constitutional theory as represented in Federalist 10, where “the first object of government” is stated to be the “the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property” (my emphasis). Thus, economic democracy, which, this essay asserts, is the only answer to the question of poverty, is beyond the limits of capitalism's imagination. The essay then turns to Indigenous philosophies and practices of the communal to propose an answer to the question of poverty. Examples of the former are found in such thinkers as Taiaiake Alfred (Mohawk) and Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna). Examples of the latter are found in the ongoing revolutions in Bolivia and Chiapas. The essay is grounded in the observation of Frantz Fanon that “what matters today, the issue which blocks the horizon, is the necessity for a redistribution of wealth. Humanity must respond to this question, or be shaken to pieces by it.”

Exploratory Analysis of the Traditional Philosophy Underpinned Urban Sustainability Model for Chinese Cities

The Holistic Sustainability Evaluation Framework for Chinese Cities discusses the overlapping worldviews of the east and west to provide better understanding on how systems theory could be applied on sustainability evaluation methods, based on the indigenous philosophies of China. After collecting the qualitative data of thirteen large urban design projects in four distinct Chinese cities, this paper tries to find out how the traditional philosophy and western models were underpinning the urban practices in Chinese cities, and to further establish the sustainability evaluation model. The future work is to validate this framework by testing an external case in China.

The Role of Okonko Society in Preserving Igbo Environment

The issue of protecting the environment through indigenous framework or philosophies is the thrust of this study. The paper discusses the increased rate at which the environment is being destroyed ...

Xoa:dau to Maunkaui: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge into an Undergraduate Earth Systems Science Course

Very few Native American students pursue careers in the geosciences. To address this national problem, several units at the University of Oklahoma are implementing a geoscience “pipeline” program that is designed to increase the number of Native American students entering geoscience disciplines. One of the program's strategies includes the development of an undergraduate course called ‘Earth Systems of the Southern Great Plains.’ The course focuses on geoscience topics that relate to the southern plains (particularly Oklahoma), emphasizes “sense of place,” integrates indigenous knowledge and geoscience content, makes use of Kiowa stories and metaphors, and uses Native American Art as a vehicle of learning. Students in the course are required to put living indigenous philosophies into practice through teaching activities and the construction of geoscience models using everyday materials. The course is designed to highlight the integrated nature of Earth processes, elicit students' experiences through exploration of case studies illustrating links between indigenous knowledge and Earth processes, and demonstrate the process of practicing science. Formative student evaluations are providing useful information and the course is evolving. Preliminary assessment results suggest that integrating Native American culture, art, and geoscience content is a successful approach.

Cultural Landscape and Ecotourism in Bali Island, Indonesia

This paper describes the role of ethnoecology in supporting tourism. We conducted a case study on the island of Bali (Indonesia), the famous tourism destination. We review the culture, nature and ecotourism prospects of Bali and then extend our discussion to examine the role of indigenous philosophies in building the destination’s image. Bali has a rich culture and natural resources that have been utilized and managed through an indigenous philosophy called Tri Hita Karana. Ethnoecology is widely applied and appreciated in the society and has produced Balinese cultural landscapes that have become significant tourism attractions. There has been a recent increase in tourist desire to explore genuine Balinese culture, so ethnoecology has a significant role in the quest to preserve and conserve such indigenous cultural landscapes. Ethnoecology is a key to ensuring and sustaining the images and authenticity of Bali Island. In this paper, we considered the landscape of rice paddies as a cultural landscape and resource for tourism. The structure and function of paddy terrace landscapes is based on the ethnoecology of Tri Hita Karana; therefore, in order to understand nature and ecotourism in Bali Island, knowledge of indigenous philosophy is indispensable. Cultural landscapes that link human and natural systems are not only places of natural beauty but also provide background information about the history of human adaptations to nature.

Leisure and Tourism in the Changing China

Recognizing the need of more research on the meanings of leisure and tourism in diverse social and cultural contexts, this paper aims to situate the concepts of leisure and tourism in the specific social, cultural, and historical conditions of mainland China. Drawing insights from existing literature, the paper first discusses the impacts of two indigenous philosophies, Confucianism and Taoism, on Chinese approaches to leisure and travel. It appears that under the influence of Confucianism, leisure is undervalued due to the general orientation toward work, learning, and family in society. Another indigenous philosophy, Taoism, considers leisure'as a state of mind and encourages individuals to cultivate a love for nature and a longing for a peaceful leisure life. As a consequence of the tremendous social and economic transformations the country has undergone in recent years, a new leisure culture appears to be burgeoning in contemporary Chinese society. The leisure culture is grounded in people's everyday life with mixed and complex realities. It involves a dynamic exchanging process between the global and the local, and promises exciting new life experiences with much wider assortments of leisure and recreation opportunities. At the same time however, the society experiences new pressures of the global market economy and global popular culture, and leisure is used to mitigate the negatives effects of lingering anxiety and uncertainty about the radical social transformations. It can be argued that cultural patterns and social structures have greatly influenced the development of Chinese leisure and tourism—how they have been lived, felt, and made sense of by Chinese people.

Barquinha

The purpose of the article is to introduce the symbolic repertoire of the Centro Espírita e Culto de Oração—‘Casa de Jesus, Fonte de Luz’, popularly known as the Barquinha. The Barquinha was created in 1945 in Rio Branco (Acre) by Daniel Pereira de Mattos, a native of Maranhão. The ritual ceremonies, which include the consumption of Daime, imply a relation of European, Afro- Brazilian, and indigenous religious practices and philosophies. The concept of cosmology in construction is used to understand the constant and dynamic process of creation and resignification of religious symbols of this group unto itself.

Against Separatism: Jace Weaver and the Call for Community

When I began graduate school, I was a bit of a scourge at graduate student parties, because I was perennially asking others what exactly the utility of their research interests was to their larger community outside of academia. In a way this question could be construed as naive, as a misapplication of one discursive space upon another, or as just plain rude. Certainly in a room full of graduate students, not always the most self-assured people in the world, the question was considered hostile, so I began to keep it to myself, although it is a natural curiosity for Native American scholars, and indeed animates most of our work, despite heavy resistance from scholars based more in literary studies than in American Indian studies. Jace Weaver writes for most of us in noting that “when it comes to scholarship on indigenous cultures, there is no such thing ultimately as ‘knowledge for knowledge’s sake’” (“Indigenousness” 230). In reviewing Weaver’s work, I wish not only to articulate why that is very much the case, but also to exhort my colleagues in the broader American studies to take up this question when bringing in indigenous materials, as well as to propagate attention toward the truly interdisciplinary work that Weaver has generated thus far. Instead of asking what a text does within its particular language game, Native scholars such as Jace Weaver, Craig Womack, and Robert Warrior are deploying methods from broader cultural studies and indigenous philosophies to place American Indian literary texts

Indigeneity's Challenges to the White Settler-State: Creating a Thirdspace for Dynamic Citizenship

Multiculturalism has been offered as an answer to the civil rights claims of a wide variety of ethnic and national minorities within liberal democratic settler-states. This article adds to the critiques of the appropriateness of multiculturalism in answering the self-determination claims of indigenous populations by investigating biculturalism in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Indigenous groups continue to demand greater recognition not only of sui generis claims to land and resources but also to the acceptance of indigenous philosophies and perspectives in the management of land and resources. As indigenous populations have been forced toward the edge of the state, they have been forced to reassert their cultural values in order to fundamentally reinvent the relationship between colonizer and colonized. This “reinvention” of society, coming from the edges, propelled by indigeneity, is beginning to challenge the construction of the white settler-state. These challenges occur in places, not within arbitrary, theoretical space. They also vary in scale, from the single individual acting on behalf of her community to vast land claims by indigenous peoples. This article discusses how the exercise of indigenous self-determination, observed in specific places, is beginning to transform Aotearoa/New Zealand society into a bicultural and binational partnership, altering the meaning of citizenship for both Māori and whites.

Indigenous Moral Philosophies and Ontologies and their Implications for Sustainable Development

This paper draws on the theoretical reflections of two well-known ethnologists on indigenous Amazonian ontologies and moral philosophies, as well as my own field experience among an Amazonian native people, the Baniwa, in order to pose critical questions regarding the process of implementing ‘sustainable development’ projects. New ethnological perspectives challenge modernist thinking to de-colonize the ways in which scholars conceive of indigenous Amazonian cosmologies particularly with regard to such notions as ‘spirit’, ‘egalitarianism’, and ‘power’. The dramatic case of a Baniwa leader illustrates the heuristic value of taking Baniwa moral philosophy and cosmological framework seriously prior to and during the implementation of a recent artwork development project. The reflections of a Baniwa intellectual reinforce the pressing need to rethink current developmentalist thinking that ignores these frameworks.

Psychology Brewed in an African Pot: Indigenous Philosophies and the Quest for Relevance

Higher education has often been targeted for criticism with regard to its lack of relevance when seeking to address the harsh realities of poor health, poverty and conflict in African countries. African universities have been seen as producing Western-influenced graduates who become an elite out of touch with their own indigenous worldview. In order to maintain the connection between higher education in Africa and the African worldview and philosophy, thus enhancing the relevance of university education, this paper argues that there is a need to promote the revisiting of our African identities in the courses on offer. By way of illustration, the paper examines an aspect of medical tertiary education at the University of Malawi, College of Medicine: in particular, how the course entitled ‘Social and Behavioral Dynamics’ has evolved over the past 10 years in an effort to embrace an African worldview and philosophy in the undergraduate medical program, with the goal of producing graduates sensitized to the worldviews of the indigenous populations they will serve, and able to enrich the global context by bringing to it uniquely African perspectives.

Reaching out: Mental Health Delivery Outside the Box

Mental health does not exist in a vacuum. Indeed, a person's mental health can be influenced by sociocultural, political, and economic forces (Blustein, McWhirter, & Perry, 2005). For this reason, scholars in the mental health field have been increasingly calling for more systematic social justice work and for mental health professionals to identify and operate as social change agents (e.g., Blustein, Elman, & Gerstein, 2002; Fouad et al., 2004; Herr & Niles, 1998; Ivey & Collins, 2003; Kiselica & Robinson, 2001; Speight & Vera, 2004; Toporek, Gerstein, Fouad, Roysircar-Sodowsky, & Israel, in press; Vera & Speight, 2004). When discussing such social change agents, Goodman, Liang, Helms, Latta, Sparks and Weintraub (2004) conceptualized mental health delivery as occurring at three levels: micro, meso, and macro. At the macro level, individuals and families are the target and the mental health practitioners derive their work from traditional counseling theories where the main focus is on promoting the self. Changing individual and family functioning for better mental health is the focus. At the meso level, communities and organizations are the target. Here, the emphasis is on programs in the community geared at improving the mental health and quality of life of citizens. Finally, at the macro level, social structures, ideologies and policies are the target. Here, mental health practitioners' work involves educating policy makers about psychological principles and the importance of incorporating such knowledge into organizational and societal policies (e.g., Goodman et al.). The April 2005 special issue of the Journal of Mental Health Counseling (JMHC) entitled, Counseling Around the World (Gerstein & AEgisdottir, 2005a), was designed to share information with mental health counselors, researchers, and educators about counseling outside of the United States, and in so doing, potentially influence various meso and macro levels of the delivery of mental health services. In this JMHC issue, international scholars discussed the application and unique characteristics of counseling in their home country (Auxier, Forster, & Kuruleca, 2005; Gemignani & Giliberto, 2005; Chang, Tong, Shi, & Zeng, 2005; Iwasaki, 2005; Lo & Dzokoto, 2005; Raney & Cinarbas, 2005; Yakushko, 2005). The countries represented in these articles were Ukraine, Fiji, Italy, The Peoples Republic of China, Taiwan, Ghana, Turkey, India, and Japan. A common theme among these publications was a need for the counseling profession in these countries to incorporate indigenous philosophies into the delivery of mental health services to successfully address the unique concerns of the particular country's population (Gerstein & AEgisdottir, 2005b). A number of these articles also discussed the role and impact of changes in the society of interest and the importance of understanding the effect of political and sociopolitical forces on mental health. The articles in this special section of the JMHC entitled, Counseling Outside of the United States: Looking in and Reaching out!, provide further elaboration on the themes just mentioned, namely the importance of reaching out of the box and intervening at the community level when addressing societal challenges faced in countries outside of the United States. In the first article, Soresi, Nota, and Ferrari discuss the difficulties experienced by Italian adolescents in today's Italy, and they describe a preventative program to assist with these difficulties. More specifically, Soresi et al. introduce a training program aimed at improving the adjustment and mental health of Italian at-risk youth, while at the same time reducing their dependence on outside experts. This social justice intervention also focuses on the role of the mental health counselor as a social change agent by training teachers and parents to intervene at the community level. …

The Struggle for Environmental Philosophy in Australia

AbstractAustralian settler philosophy needs to create the basis for two important cultural dialogues, with the philosophy of Aboriginal people on the one hand, and with the land the settler way of life is destroying on the other. Through these interconnected dialogues we might begin the process of resolving in a positive way the unhappy anxieties surrounding Australian identity. Mainstream Australian academic philosophy has certainly not provided fertile ground for such dialogues, and its dominant forms could hardly be further away from Australian indigenous philosophies or from land-sensitive forms of environmental philosophy. It is a paradox that in a continent where Australian Aboriginal people have given land spirituality what is perhaps the world's most powerful and integrated development, settler philosophy contrives to provide what is probably the world's strongest dismissal of other ways to think about the land than those legitimated by western reductionism and rationalism. This paradox, I suggest, can be explained through understanding the ascendancy of ex-colonial masculinity in Australian culture and academic philosophy.

Social Responsibility and Manain International Business Education

SummaryExposure to indigenous philosophies and values such as those of the Maori of New Zealand can contribute to the education of International Business graduates. The Maori link social responsibility with mana: those who claim manaor standing must practice associated social responsibilities while those who want more manacan gain it by taking on new responsibilities. These interrelated connections are described in some detail and applied to International Business.

Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner and Other Essays: A Tribal Voice

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner and Other Essays: A Tribal Voice, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996, xiv + 158 pages, $45.00 (cloth), $12.95 (paper).Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, a Crow Creek Sioux Tribal member and Professor Emeritus of English and Native American Studies at Eastern Washington University, is well-known in academic and Native American circles as a forthright literary critic and proactive political commentator. Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner is an anthology of her more provocative and insightful critical essays from past three decades.Cook-Lynn's essays address a range of Native American Studies concerns -- from Indigenous philosophies, historical and contemporary realities, to literature, theory, criticism and appropriation. In addition to challenging Western paradigms and constructs of Native American experiences, she challenges Indigenous scholars to push beyond existing academic confines. Native American Studies reaches its 30th anniversary in 1998, and Cook-Lynn's work provides an overview of criticisms, pitfalls and challenges facing it. Most importantly, she forcefully distinguishes Native American Studies from conventional disciplines by reminding us why it emerged 29 years ago -- why our subjects, objectives, methods and theoretical developments make us different.One essential and distinct element in Native American Studies derived from Indigenous intellectual knowledge is the reality of race memory connection to land (p. 82). Since relationship between Indigenous peoples and land is inherently spiritual, it is imperative that Native American scholars maintain spiritual and ideological groundings in their own intellectual traditions. Further, since Indigenous intellectual traditions inform discourse, Native American scholars are most valuable and inspirational when proactively engaged in partisan struggles (p. 39).These essential criteria, often called grass-roots intellectualism, are evident in each essay. Cook-Lynn intimately places herself in her texts and grounds her work in best of both worlds -- her tribal tiospaye and her transdisciplinary academic background which is predominantly informed by postcolonial critical thinking of Said, Deloria Jr., Medicine, D'Souza, Momaday, Otriz and others. Politics also informs core of her work, a point criticized by mainstream scholars who perceive it as a lack of objectivity. Native American scholars agree that Eurocentric standards of objectivity serve as rationales which often undermine, minimize and negate our scholarship.Cook-Lynn's field is Native American literatures and she challenges Native American writers to engage their own and each others' work more critically. …

Women at the centre of social change — an Egyptian case

Living in contemporary Egypt, especially in urban areas and most particularly in Cairo, is at once stimulating and frustrating, dramatic and exasperating. There is obvious crowding with vehicles, people, and animals jostling each other on highways, in streets and alleys, and children are everywhere. Moving about can be both adventure and nightmare and all takes place amongst a seemingly chaotic intermingling of ancient, medieval, and modern methods and artifacts, of indigenous and alien structures and philosophies. It is little wonder that no-one, either native or foreign, has yet been able to make overall sense of the kaleidoscopic social transformations currently taking place. Perhaps the task is impossible. Yet it presents a formidable challenge.