Ways of Knowing: Experience, Knowledge, and Power among the Dene Tha / Edition 1

by Jean-Guy A. Goulet

Overview

The creative world of a northern Native community is revealed in this innovative book. Once semi-nomadic hunters and gatherers, the Dene Tha of northern Canada today live in government-built homes in the settlement of Chateh. Their lives are a distinct blend of old and new, in which more traditional forms of social control, healing, and praying entwine with services supplied by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a nursing station, and a Roman Catholic church. Many older cultural beliefs and practices remain: ghosts still linger, reincarnating and sometimes stealing children’s souls; dreams and visions are powerful shapers of actions; and personal visions and experiences are considered the sources of true knowledge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803270749
Publisher:	Nebraska Paperback
Publication date:	12/01/1998
Series:	Linguistics, and Culture
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	334
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jean-Guy A. Goulet is the director of the Research Centre at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Ontario. He is coeditor of Being Changed by Cross-Cultural Encounters: The Anthropology of Extraordinary Experience.

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Tables

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 Stories from the field

2 True knowledge and true responsibility

3 Powerful beings and being powerful

4 Powers to heal and to respect

5 Visions of conflict, conflicts of vision

6 Journeys of the soul

7 Searching for a womb

8 When the drum and the rosary meet

9 Dancing your way to heaven

10 An experiential approach to knowledge

Notes

References

Index

Editorial Reviews

Once seminomadic hunters and gathers, the Dene Tha of northern Canada now live in government-built homes in the settlement of Chateh. Drawing on fieldwork at Chateh, anthropologist Goulet describes how traditional forms of social control, healing, and praying entwine with services supplied by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a nursing station, and a Roman Catholic church. Among the topics are the vision quest, the Dene way of learning through observation rather than instruction, animal helpers (and harmers), and reincarnation. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

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