CRITICAL ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGIONS, F09

Transcription

1 1 CRITICAL ISSUES IN THE STUDY OF NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGIONS, F09 REL 642 (31079); ANT 691 (31094), sec. M001 F 9:30 AM to 12:15 PM, 504 Hall of Languages Instructor: Professor Philip P. Arnold Office: Department of Religion, 508 Hall of Languages Off hours: W 9:30-11:30 and by appointment phone: ** pparnold@syr.edu Papers posted on Blackboard ( Introduction: Studying Native American religions is a complicated affair. So contentious is this area of religious studies that most departments of Religion do not deal directly with this area of study. But, as with the topic of Indigenous Religions, classroom curricula all over the world deal with the primitive as site for the origins of religion. How can something so essential as the native in the academic study of religion be so completely avoided? A big part of this dilemma has to do with the fact that Native American and Indigenous communities continue to exist, despite the odds, with whom the scholar has to work. Being able to work with Native American communities/nations requires that the scholar have a well developed methodology what I will call a Collaborative Methodology in order work with Native Americans rather than study them. This is not a new practice. It has probably been going on since early contact between native and non-native people. In this class we will 1) read various controversies in the fields of History of Religions, Anthropology of Religion, and Cultural Studies in order to 2) develop our own, unique, individual styles of working with Native American people. In the end my hope is that the techniques developed in this class will be applicable to other areas of Native American Studies and Comparative Religion. Required Texts: Philip P. Arnold, Eating Landscape Ward Churchill, Fantasies of the Master Race Winona LaDuke, Recovering the Sacred Bruce Johansen, Debating Democracy Ganath Obeyesekere, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook Marshall Sahlins, Islands of History, How 'Natives' Think Sally Roesch Wagner, Sisters in Spirit

2 2 For 11 September Additional Readings In PDF format on the Documents section of Blackboard Teaching Native American Religions, by Ronald Grimes For 18 September Reviews of Eating Landscape By Weiland, Henderson, Graulich, Schwaller, Townsend, Pilcher, Sullivan, and Sandstrom Gill, Sam, Mother Earth: An American Story, (University of Chicago Press, 1993) For 25 September "Teaching Native American Religions," by Ronald Grimes "The Academic Study of Religion," by Sam Gill "Responses and Rejoiners," by Christopher Jocks and Sam Gill For 9 October "Black Elk and Book Culture." Journal of the American Academy of Religion (67/1). "Paper ties to land: Indigenous and colonial material orientations to the Valley of Mexico." History of Religions (Chicago, 1995).

3 3 Date Topics Assignments September 4 Introductions and definitions Deloria (pdf) 11 Can whites teach Native American Religion? Grimes (pdf); Arnold 18 Teaching Mother Earth Arnold; EL reviews (pdf); Gill (pdf) 25 Teaching Native American Religion Gill and Jocks (pdf) October 2 Fantasies versus myths Churchill 3 Roots of Peacemaking event at Onondaga Lake Park 9 Problems with texts Arnold: Black Elk; Paper; NYC (pdf) Outline of Final project-presentation due 16 Reclaiming sacred places LaDuke 23 Anthropology and history Sahlins, Islands 30 Divine conquerors Obeyesekere November 6 Native worldviews Sahlins, How Natives Think 13 Consequences of contact I Johansen 20 Consequences of contact II Roesch Wagner 22 Thanksgiving Break no classes December 18 Presentations

4 4 Grading Your grades will be based on two types of writing assignments posted on the Blackboard site. They are: a weekly journals, which are your notes and comments about the reading; and your own research project and presentation. Weekly journal: Each week you will post a public comment that raises questions, concerns, or observations about the reading, an experience, or something else. This will be posted on the Blackboard site under the appropriate discussion board for that week. You will also read the journal entries of the other members of the class and respond to them. Make your entries brief ( words) and in simple, understandable language that doesn t have too much religious studies jargon. You will receive up to 4 points for your comments and 2 additional points for having responded to, at least, two other comments. There are 10 weekly journals for a possible total of 60 points. Weekly journal entries are due by Thursday at noon before the Friday seminar. Responses to other student s journals is due a week later. Research Project; Outline and Presentation: By the end of this class I would like all of you to have made significant progress toward a research project. This will be a final research paper. The length is negotiable but it should be at least 8 to 10 pages long. Some of you come in with research projects in mind; others of you are just starting out in this area or maybe want to explore its applicability to other areas of study. In all cases, however, I would like for you to do additional research in these areas. My idea is that this project can assist you in creating your future work at the level of comprehensive exams or dissertations. I also hope that some of these projects can eventually become publications (either articles or books) and can be used to ground aspects of course curriculum in your future jobs. Below are the criteria by which I will be evaluating your written work: 1) Clarity. The viewpoints you present in your writing must be clearly conceived and well argued. Your writing style should be straight-forward, easy to read and should be clearly related to the issues you wish to address. Topic sentences at the beginning of each paragraph are helpful in establishing the issue and argument for the reader at the outset. (40%) 2) Engagement with the material. Entries are to be related to the reading )material. They are not reviews of what has been stated in the book but are your critical analysis of the reading. Avoid direct quotes. Instead seriously take-up what you consider to be the key issues for the study of religion in the reading. An analysis of the issues discussed in the course become clearer the closer your writing is to the texts used in class. (40%)

5 5 3) Creativity. The work of Religious Studies, and perhaps the Humanities in general, is essentially creative. Interpretation of religious phenomena requires that you come to some meaningful relationship with your object of study. This is one of the defining characteristics of creativity. You have a unique and important contribution to make to our collective understandings. There are no predetermined experts in the area of interpretation, only well refined and well argued positions. Your interpretations will be dealt with as importantly as you regard them yourself. (20%) Points scale: Weekly Journal Outline Research project Presentation 60 points 10 points 20 points 10 points Total 100 points