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Learning to be an Anthropologist and Remaining "Native": Selected Writings
Beatrice Medicine with Sue-Ellen Jacobs
Urbana and Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2001, 371 pages.
Bea Medicine is an old friend of mine. She and I have exchanged ideas and gossip over the years, and Bea's ideas and advice have been valuable to me. So this is not going to be an "objective" or "critical" review. But Bea wouldn't like it if I were not straight with her or the readers. So I will begin with a cavil. The editing of the book is not very good. Bea would be embarrassed to see Louise Spindler called "Louis," and that's just an obvious mistake.
The volume has six sections, which include 32 papers and a curriculum vitae. The sections are of different size and scope; the larger are "Education," and "Gender and Cultural Identities." They and "Beliefs and Well-Being" and "An-- thropology" seem the most important. There are forewords by Bea's son Ted Garner and Faye V. Harrison. All the papers are informative. And several of them contain important ideas or revealing insights into Bea's career and contribution to the discipline. I left contribution singular on purpose. Bea's career has been a major contribution to the discipline of anthropology, and all...