Indigenous Communalism: Belonging, Healthy Communities, and Decolonizing the Collective
From a grandmother’s inter-generational care to the strategic and slow consensus work of elected tribal leaders, Indigenous community builders perform the daily work of culture and communalism. Indigenous Communalism conveys age-old lessons about culture, communalism, and the universal tension between the individual and the collective. It is also a critical ethnography challenging the moral and cultural assumptions of a hyper-individualist, twenty-first century global society.
 
Told in vibrant detail, the narrative of the book conveys the importance of communalism as a value system present in all human groups and one at the center of Indigenous survival. Carolyn Smith-Morris draws on her work among the Akimel O'odham and the Wiradjuri to show how communal work and culture help these communities form distinctive Indigenous bonds. The results are not only a rich study of Indigenous relational lifeways, but a serious inquiry to the continuing acculturative atmosphere that Indigenous communities struggle to resist. Recognizing both positive and negative sides to the issue, she asks whether there is a global Indigenous communalism. And if so, what lessons does it teach about healthy communities, the universal human need for belonging, and the potential for the collective to do good?
1130971927
Indigenous Communalism: Belonging, Healthy Communities, and Decolonizing the Collective
From a grandmother’s inter-generational care to the strategic and slow consensus work of elected tribal leaders, Indigenous community builders perform the daily work of culture and communalism. Indigenous Communalism conveys age-old lessons about culture, communalism, and the universal tension between the individual and the collective. It is also a critical ethnography challenging the moral and cultural assumptions of a hyper-individualist, twenty-first century global society.
 
Told in vibrant detail, the narrative of the book conveys the importance of communalism as a value system present in all human groups and one at the center of Indigenous survival. Carolyn Smith-Morris draws on her work among the Akimel O'odham and the Wiradjuri to show how communal work and culture help these communities form distinctive Indigenous bonds. The results are not only a rich study of Indigenous relational lifeways, but a serious inquiry to the continuing acculturative atmosphere that Indigenous communities struggle to resist. Recognizing both positive and negative sides to the issue, she asks whether there is a global Indigenous communalism. And if so, what lessons does it teach about healthy communities, the universal human need for belonging, and the potential for the collective to do good?
36.95 In Stock
Indigenous Communalism: Belonging, Healthy Communities, and Decolonizing the Collective

Indigenous Communalism: Belonging, Healthy Communities, and Decolonizing the Collective

by Carolyn Smith-Morris
Indigenous Communalism: Belonging, Healthy Communities, and Decolonizing the Collective

Indigenous Communalism: Belonging, Healthy Communities, and Decolonizing the Collective

by Carolyn Smith-Morris

eBook

$36.95 

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

From a grandmother’s inter-generational care to the strategic and slow consensus work of elected tribal leaders, Indigenous community builders perform the daily work of culture and communalism. Indigenous Communalism conveys age-old lessons about culture, communalism, and the universal tension between the individual and the collective. It is also a critical ethnography challenging the moral and cultural assumptions of a hyper-individualist, twenty-first century global society.
 
Told in vibrant detail, the narrative of the book conveys the importance of communalism as a value system present in all human groups and one at the center of Indigenous survival. Carolyn Smith-Morris draws on her work among the Akimel O'odham and the Wiradjuri to show how communal work and culture help these communities form distinctive Indigenous bonds. The results are not only a rich study of Indigenous relational lifeways, but a serious inquiry to the continuing acculturative atmosphere that Indigenous communities struggle to resist. Recognizing both positive and negative sides to the issue, she asks whether there is a global Indigenous communalism. And if so, what lessons does it teach about healthy communities, the universal human need for belonging, and the potential for the collective to do good?

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781978805453
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Publication date: 10/18/2019
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 191
File size: 6 MB

About the Author

Carolyn Smith-Morris is an associate professor of anthropology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She is the author of Diabetes among the Pima, editor of Diagnostic Controversy: Cultural Perspectives on Competing Knowledge in Healthcare, and co-editor of Chronic Conditions, Fluid States: Chronicity and the Anthropology of Illness

Table of Contents

Preface

            Positioning                                                                                                     

            Acknowledgements                                                                                       

 

Introduction                                                                                                              

            To Begin, What is Communalism?                                                                

            Politics of Indigeneity - What is Indigenous?

            or

            Terms, Frames, and Representations                                                             

            Why is Communalism Missing                                                                      

            The Dangers of Communalism

            Communalism and Health                                                                             

            Community with the Name ‘Gila River’                                                       

            Committing to Communal Rights of Indigenous Peoples                             

            Outline of the Book                                                                                       

 

Chapter 1 - Belonging                                                                                              

            Introductions                                                                                                 

            Relationships and Being Present                                                                   

            Building Consensus                                                                                       

            An Introduction to Communalism                                                                 

            The Dangers of Communalism

            The Touchstones of Belonging                                                                      

            Conclusion - More than Membership                                                            

 

Chapter 2 - Generation                                                                                           

            Individuals in a Communal Context                                                             

            Western Individualism                                                                                   

            Pima Individualism(s)                                                                                    

            Generating Community Out of Individuals                                                   

 

Chapter 3 - Representation                                                                                     

            Authority and Representation

            Representing Communal Knowledge                                                           

            Representation & Race - Communal Genetics                                              

            Representing Indigenous Diversity                                                               

 

Chapter 4 - Hybridity                                                                                              

            Hybridity and Human Community                                                                

            Extremes of Communalism                                                                            

            Individual/Communal Conflict at Gila River                                                

            Theories of Hybridity and Divisibility                                                           

The Communal Individual                                                                            

            Protecting the Communal Individual                                                            

 

Chapter 5 - Asserting Communalism                                                                     

            Case 1 - Communalism in Research                                                              

Case 2 - Communalism and the Body                                                           

Case 3 - Communalism in Healing                                                                

Fostering Communalism                                                                                

 

Chapter 6 - Indigenous Communalism - Global Implications                             

            Is There a Global Indigenous Communalism?                                               

            Place                                                                                                               

            Global Indigenous Communalism

            Foundations in Place

            Communalism and Rights

            Conclusion - Representing Communalism                                                    

 

Acknowledgments

 

Bibliography                                                                                                              

 

Index

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews