The American Indian Mind in a Linear World: American Indian Studies and Traditional Knowledge

by Fixico,Donald

• ISBN13: 9780415944564
• ISBN10: 0415944562
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-18
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

As an American Indian youth growing up in Oklahoma, Donald L. Fixico noticed early on that his white classmates had a different way of thinking than he did. He realized that the mainstream linear approach to learning was unlike the ways of his tribal elders, who studied the cycles of seasons, the environment, and established relationships with all things in what he calls a "Natural Democracy" based on respect. In The American Indian Mind in a Linear World, Fixico tells us about "balance" and how this native intellect functions in a modern world created predominantly by non-American Indian thinkers. In doing so, Fixico provides a unique explanation of American Indian intellectualism that has up until now been generally ignored by the mainstream. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Donald L. Fixico is the Thomas Bowlus Distinguished Professor of American Indian History at the University of Kansas. He is an American Indian (Shawnee, Sac and Fox, Muscogee Creek, Seminole)

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface	xi
1 "Indian Thinking" and a Linear World	1	(20)
2 Oral Tradition and Traditional Knowledge	21	(20)
3 American Indian Circular Philosophy	41	(22)
4 Native American Genius and Indian Intellectualism	63	(20)
5 Indian Minds and White Teachers	83	(22)
6 Rise of American Indian Studies	105	(20)
7 Cultural Patrimony and Native Scholars in Academia	125	(16)
8 Institutionalizing Traditional Knowledge	141	(32)
9 The Full Circle and Its Center	173	(6)
Bibliography	179	(16)
Index	195