Full Description
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?
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
