Author : Kevin J. White
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 670 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (756 download)
Book Synopsis Haudenosaunee Worldviews Through Iroquoian Cosmologies: The Published Narratives in Historical Context by : Kevin J. White
Download or read book Haudenosaunee Worldviews Through Iroquoian Cosmologies: The Published Narratives in Historical Context written by Kevin J. White and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 670 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Returning to the original published Iroquois (or Haudenosaunee) cosmologies, I shed new light on the development of interpretation and revelation as it pertains to the Haudenosaunee. I analyze and edit J. N. B. Hewitt's "Iroquois Cosmology Part I" to reveal the scholar, the informant, and a unique clash of their worldviews. Hewitt was a baseline for comparison to other published narratives that I have assembled here in contrast to William N. Fenton's analysis in his 1962 article "This Island, the World on Turtle's Back". I examine in detail translations of the cosmologies, including some by modern Native scholars presented on the World Wide Web. My examination of these works reveals transitions in both Native and non-native thinking over the centuries of contact. Patterns of change show an indigenous culture struggling to balance ancient traditions, sacred beliefs, and obligations to generations yet unborn against the assimilationist tide of the larger Western culture. I attempt to excite a discussion about the theology, philosophy and cosmology grounded in more subtle understandings of Haudenosaunee cultures. Finally, I use the examination of outside/inside views of cosmologies to suggest further fertile study of the other major ethnographic works conventionally used to construct and interpret worldview, theology and understandings of Indigenous groups.