Native American spirituality : a critical reader /

These essays offer a range of personal and scholarly reflections on often-beset Native American spiritual beliefs and practices. Studies and pronouncements on Indian traditions have historically come from non-Indian anthropologists, historians, and students of religion. In this collection, both Native and non-Native scholars have joined these provocative, cross-disciplinary, longitudinal discussions of critical themes in indigenous spiritual identity and practice, and broach the issue of misrepresentation of Native beliefs. They also address the history of Indian resistance to the suppression of religious practices, the appropriation of Native beliefs by "new age" ideologues, and the challenges faced by those who specialize in the study of American Indian traditions in academe. Some writers chosen by editor Irwin (religious studies, College of Charleston) present their concerns in an epistemological framework. Can Indian spirituality be taught or translated out of a Native context? Others place their remarks within a political-moral arena. Academic collections. L. De Danaan Evergreen State College