Content area
Full text
Studying Native America: Problems and Prospects.
Russell Thornton, ed. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press., 1998, xvii+443 pp. Things "native" quite obviously present special interpretive challenges for a society founded on a fusion of colonialism and anti-colonialism, the latter in the form of a natural rights doctrine. Indeed, in the United States, since many of our powerful and revered institutions seem to have been built in pairs to counterbalance and in a certain sense abet these respective operative principles, albeit in ever more "naturalized" forms, the interpretation of things "native" finds no firm ground. At one level Studying Native America, edited by Russell Thornton, addresses the formidable challenges to "studying" those peoples who have long been imagined by Westerners to epitomize "natural man," within what some describe as a turbulent post-colonial context. At this level, the book represents an impressive and unprecedented overview of current and historical scholarship on Native North America.
At another level, the book is an attempt to elevate the status of the relatively new discipline of Native American Studies within the academic setting. The book is meant to demonstrate that recent work has overcome the limitations imposed by the essentially political character of the discipline at its inception. Certainly this much is achieved.
Both attempts are legitimate and the book offers much to each. However, the attempt to address two such closely interrelated themes suffers from the fact that the two themes are neither carefully delineated nor differentiated. At times they are confused with each other, leaving the reader uncertain as to the overall purpose of the book.
The book consists of fourteen articles arranged in four sections. The first section, entitled "Native Americans Today," includes Russell Thornton's "The Demography of Colonialism and 'old' and 'New' Native Americans," Raymond D. Fogelson's "Perspectives on Native American Identity," and Bonnie Duran, Eduardo Duran, and Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart's "Native Americans and the Trauma of History." Thornton presents an overview of the issues in Native American demography, touching on the question...