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Knowing Our Peoples Through Our Stories
FNAT 102 – Arts One
Lecture
Spring/2010
A Book with Three Nested Lessons
• Origin Stories as the basis for life, knowledge and values
• Transmitted history and lived experience as a lens into community life
• Critique and questioning of the scientific worldview
Origin Stories( Remembering home and reality)
• How Son of Raven captured the Day
• Aint-tin-mit ( Son of Mucus) and Aulth-ma-quus
• Aint-tin-mit returns home (getting married)
• Aint-tin-mit and Biodiversity
Storied Reality
• Whole of life is characterized by relationships that are inherent and demand beneficial reciprocity
• The physical and spiritual world are one (heshook-ish tsawalk)
• Encouraged to depend on neighbours (aphey)• Respect (isaak)• Family & community maintenance vital in the
face of he-xwa
An Insider’s View(base on ‘lived experience’)
• Oosumich– The protocol of spiritual
transaction– Testing the continued
validity of origin stories• Hahuulthi
– Governance– Decision making– Resource responsibilities &
ownership• Tloo-qua-nah
– Putting the Pachitle in Potlatch
– Remembering REALITY as remedy
Learning to be Quus
• Living in the house of Keesta
• Being taught to tupsweese
• Aware of protocols• Living amongst
extended family• Preparing to perform• Witnessing at feasts
Pachitle • Rooted in origin stories• Remembrance• Feasts take care of every
human need, politically, socially, economically and spiritually
• Spiritual preparation necessary for host & family
• Food prepared in the homes of host relatives (abundance is a spiritual blessing)
• Spiritual witnessing to spiritual activity
• Gifts a legal seal of that witness• Esteem and spiritual power
results from providing for ones community
• Note contrast to purposes and competitive interpretations outlined by anthropologists
A Critical Tone
• Reflective reaction to his own experiences and the position to these views from the social science communities
• Counters the assumptions behind the methodologies used by scientists who studied us
• Richard’s sharpness/tone as a reflection of the same criticism of orthodoxy that Harris identifies
• Remember Kulchyski (2000) speaks of…– Focusing on knowledge that comes from within– Questioning the dominant standards of inquiry– Legitimization & exploration of traditional knowledge– Turning to the qualitative
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