Land and Spirit in Native America

Joy Porter

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780313356063
• eBook ISBN: 9780313356070
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Social Sciences

This book accurately depicts Native American approaches to land and spirituality through an interdisciplinary examination of Indian philosophy, history, and literature. Indian approaches to land and spirituality are neither simple nor monolithic, making them hard to grasp for outsiders. A fuller, more accurate understanding of these concepts enables comprehension of the unique ways land and spirit have interlinked Native American communities across centuries of civilization, and reveals insights about our current pressing environmental concerns and American history. In Land and Spirit in Native America, author Joy Porter argues that American colonization has been a determining factor in how we perceive Indian spirituality and Indian relationships to nature. Having an appreciation for these traditional values regarding ritual, memory, time, kinship, and the essential reciprocity between all things allows us to rethink aspects of history and culture. This understanding also makes Indian film, philosophy, literature, and art accessible.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Land and Spirit in Native America
• Recent titles in Native America: Yesterday and Today
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Series Editor’s Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Approaches to Spirituality, Tradition, Land, Wilderness, Nature, Landscape, and Place
• 2 On Middle Way Thinking, Gardening, Parks, and Aspects of Indian Thinking about Land
• 3 Spiritual Approaches to Life in America
• 4 Literature, Land, and Spirit
• 5 Art, Land, and Spirit
• 6 Environmental Justice, Place, and Indian “Sacrifice”
• 7 Vanishing, Reappearing, and Disappearing Indians on American Soil
• 8 Future Directions Into and Out of the Wild
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author