One
of the topics I am most interested in with the study of Native American culture
is that of communication. I would like
to not only analyze the direct communication with Natives (as in the reading
“Asking Why”), but the issues of how well information about history is
communicated to us.
As an anthropologist, focusing
on North American prehistory, I will be spending a lot of time interviewing and
learning from present day Native Americans. I spent a few weeks this past
summer, at a field school focusing on the Anasazi (or “ancient pueblos”)
culture. We were fortunate that our stay happened to overlap perfectly for us
to take a drive into Arizona, to observe the Hopi Angak'china (“Long Hair”)
dance. Our instructor, Daniel Cutrone, warned us before about not recording,
and to remember that we were the “white” guests. We did not ask questions and
stood quietly and observed. Questions flood into your head during such an
experience: Why are the dancers dressed in such a way? Why do they repeat their
dance in four directions? Why were they blessed with corn powder during their
performance? There are answers to some of these why questions (the long-hair
dance was to bring rain to help the crops (corn) grow). However, the underlying
questions such as why they believe the dance will in fact bring rain are not as
easily answered.
The information we have received
on our history for most of our lives has been filtered. The school system tends
to water down or cover up the real story; however it is not just the school
systems that are bias. History itself may be the very source of this bias.
Whoever was documenting events as our past progressed may not have had a very
open point of view. Records that may have been accurate have been destroyed. It
is because of our own choices within our history that we have such a skewed
perception as to what has really happened.
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