Readings in Indigenous Religions

Brief Description: Readings in Indigenous Religions brings together classic and recent writings concerned with contemporary indigenous religions. These significant and important works contribute both to expert discussion of important religious and cultural issues and also to ongoing debates about improved methods of research. The inclusion of examples of indigenous ideological, legal and fiction writing further enhances the volume's engagement with indigenous and scholarly perspectives, experiences and interests. Readings is divided into four Parts: Ontology, Performance, Knowledge and Land. Editorial introductions make explicit the links, common themes and further ramifications of the seventeen chapters. The four chapters in 'Ontology' argue that relationships are definitive in the formation and maintenance of identities, and that the notion of 'the supernatural' is misleading. 'Performance' contains five chapters that discuss various rituals and their participants, including healing, world-making, magic and shamanising. Six chapters in 'Knowledge' demonstrate the critical importance of attending to indigenous modes of discourse about knowledges. Finally, 'Land' contains two chapters that exemplify the richness of indigenous relationships and engagements with, and knowledges of, particular places. In addition to expert descriptions of aspects of particular indigenous religious lifeways and worldviews, the readings also encourage a reconsideration of academic approaches to the study of indigenous religions. The realisation that researchers and writers are engaged in relationships with indigenous hosts proffers a challenge to academic methodologies that assert objectivity and distance. New dialogical andconversational methods of engagement promise to reconnect academia in building more equitable relationships and a healthier world. Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Biographical Note: Graham Harvey is Reader in Religious Studies at the Open University, UK. Table of Contents: IntroductionOntology1. Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior and World View A. Irving Hallowell2. Partners and Consumers: Making Relations Visible Marilyn Strathern3. 'Animism' Revisited: Personhood, Environment and Relational Epistomology Nurit Bird-David4. Sharing the Flower: A Non-Supernaturalistic Theory of Grace Kenneth MorrisonPerformance5. The Ontological Journey Margaret T. Drewal6. A Visible Spirit Form in Zambia Edith Turner7. Postcolonial Sun Dancing at Wakpamni Lake Dale Stover8. Divine Connections: The Mansin and Her Clients L. Kendall9. Understanding a (Secular) Primitive Society Berel D. LernerKnowledge10. Maori Religion T. P. Tawhai11. He Taonga Tuku Iho, Hei Ara: A Gift Handed Down as a Pathway Emma Webber-Dreadon12. 'Sun's Marbles' and 'Roimata' Patricia Grace13. A Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand and the Treaty of Waitangi14. I am an Indigenist Ward Churchill15. Australian Icons: Notes on Perception Gordon BennettLand16. Sacred Site, Ancestral Clearing and Environmental Ethics Deborah Bird Rose17. The Watching World R. K. NelsonPublisher Marketing: This title contributes both to expert discussion of important religious and cultural issues and to on-going debates about improved methods of research. The inclusion of examples of indigenous ideological, legal and fiction writing further enhances the volume's engagement with indigenous and scholarly perspectives, experiences and interests.

Contributor Bio:  Harvey, Graham Graham Harvey is a scriptwriter and the Agricultural Story Editor of "The Archers." His first book, "The Killing of the Countryside," has become a classic.