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

by Fixico; *

• ISBN13: 9780415944571
• ISBN10: 0415944570
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-06-18
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Currently, there are three approaches to studying American Indians: from how white Americans approach Indian studies, from the dynamics or exchange of Indian-white relations and from the Indian point of view. Donald Fixico, an American Indian, has been teaching and writing history for a quarter of a century. This book is the direct result of his experience as a scholar who 'thinks like an Indian' in an academic environment created predominantly by non-Indian thinkers. This book addresses current approaches to studying Native American traditional knowledge and acknowledges an Indian intellectualism that has up until now been ignored in studying Native American history. Written primarily from inside the Native world, but fully cognizant of the American cultures outside of that world, his unique voice speaks to a need for understanding the interior Native world: a world in which linear thinking is atypical and circularity is preferable.

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