Overview
"In contemporary Indian Country, many of the people who identify as ""American Indian"" fall into the ""urban Indian"" category: away from traditional lands and communities, in cities and towns wherein the opportunities to live one's identity as Native can be restricted, and even more so for American Indian religious practice and activity. Tradition, Performance, and Religion in Native America: Ancestral Ways, Modern Selves explores a possible theoretical model for discussing the religious nature of urbanized Indians. It uses aspects of contemporary pantribal practices such as the inter-tribal pow wow, substance abuse recovery programs such as the Wellbriety Movement, and political involvement to provide insights into contemporary Native religious identity. Simply put, this book addresses the question what does it mean to be an Indigenous American in the 21st century, and how does one express that indigeneity religiously? It proposes that practices and ideologies appropriate to the pan-Indian context provide much of the foundation for maintaining a sense of aboriginal spiritual identity within modernity. Individuals and families who identify themselves as Native American can participate in activities associated with a broad network of other Native people, in effect performing their Indian identity and enacting the values that are connected to that identity."
Full Product Details
Author: Dennis Kelley (University of Missouri, USA)
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint: Routledge
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.50cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.317kg
ISBN: 9780415823623
ISBN 10: 0415823625
Pages: 132
Publication Date: 24 March 2015
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
This erudite study is a cultural bridge of sophisticated analysis in demonstrating how modern Indians invent new traditions to connect their identities to the past for spiritual balance. Surprisingly this is not new, for Indians have acculturated to live according to nature's cycles and the circle of life, and Dennis Kelley brilliantly shows how this was done in the twentieth century and now. - Donald L. Fixico (Shawnee, Sac and Fox, Muscogee Creek and Seminole), Distinguished Foundation Professor of History, Arizona State University, USA By drawing on his personal experience with Chumash canoe culture revitalization and his many visits to urban Native American centers and powwows Kelley convincingly demonstrates the value of a practice approach to the study of religious identity. - Michelene Pesantubbee, University of Iowa, USA Kelley (a specialist in religious identity) examines manifestations of religion among contemporary American Indians. Employing a functionalist model- religiousness is whatever promotes social action, group belonging, system maintenance -the author scans phenomena such as powwows, protests, rites of passage, alcohol recovery sessions, and funerals to evaluate processes often depicted in studies of Native American persistence and change... Summing Up: Recommended. - C. T. Vecsey, Colgate University, USA, in CHOICE
This erudite study is a cultural bridge of sophisticated analysis in demonstrating how modern Indians invent new traditions to connect their identities to the past for spiritual balance. Surprisingly this is not new, for Indians have acculturated to live according to nature's cycles and the circle of life, and Dennis Kelley brilliantly shows how this was done in the twentieth century and now. - Donald L. Fixico (Shawnee, Sac and Fox, Muscogee Creek and Seminole), Distinguished Foundation Professor of History, Arizona State University, USA By drawing on his personal experience with Chumash canoe culture revitalization and his many visits to urban Native American centers and powwows Kelley convincingly demonstrates the value of a practice approach to the study of religious identity. - Michelene Pesantubbee, University of Iowa, USA Kelley (a specialist in religious identity) examines manifestations of religion among contemporary American Indians. Employing a functionalist model- religiousness is whatever promotes social action, group belonging, system maintenance -the author scans phenomena such as powwows, protests, rites of passage, alcohol recovery sessions, and funerals to evaluate processes often depicted in studies of Native American persistence and change... Summing Up: Recommended. - C. T. Vecsey, Colgate University, USA, in CHOICE
This erudite study is a cultural bridge of sophisticated analysis in demonstrating how modern Indians invent new traditions to connect their identities to the past for spiritual balance. Surprisingly this is not new, for Indians have acculturated to live according to nature's cycles and the circle of life, and Dennis Kelley brilliantly shows how this was done in the twentieth century and now. Donald L. Fixico (Shawnee, Sac and Fox, Muscogee Creek and Seminole), Distinguished Foundation Professor of History, Arizona State University
This erudite study is a cultural bridge of sophisticated analysis in demonstrating how modern Indians invent new traditions to connect their identities to the past for spiritual balance. Surprisingly this is not new, for Indians have acculturated to live according to nature's cycles and the circle of life, and Dennis Kelley brilliantly shows how this was done in the twentieth century and now. Donald L. Fixico (Shawnee, Sauk and Fox, Muscogee Creek and Seminole), Distinguished Foundation Professor of History, Arizona State University
Author Information
Dennis Kelley was awarded his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in September of 2007. His work primarily interrogates concepts of religious identity, especially as it affects and is affected by ritual practice and sacred narratives. This work is explored through the lens of American Indian religious history, with an emphasis on contemporary Native communities. He lives in Columbia, Missouri, with his wife Kate and their two children, Bear and Nola.
