Note: Digital Read

URL: http://www.mediafire.com/?d98s24jd2t09b2y

Quotes from book:

“The Indian Wars have never ended in the Americas.” -Leslie Marmon Siko, Almanac of the Dead

“Indians, the original possessors of the land, seem to haunt the collective unconscious of the white man and to the degree that one can identify the conflicting images of the Indian which stalk the white man’s walking perceptions of the world one can outline the deeper problems of identity and alienation that trouble him… Underneath all the conflicting images of the Indian one fundamental truth emerges- the white man knows that he is an alien and he knows that North America is Indian- and he will never let go of the Indian image because he thinks that by some clever manipulation he can achieve an authenticity that cannot ever be his.” - Vine Deloria, Jr., “American Fantasy”

“While those who go native frequently claim benevolence toward Native peoples, they reaffirm white dominance by making some (usually distorted) vision of Native life subservient to the needs of the colonizing culture.” -pg. 5

This book is a highly recommended read for anyone wishing to learn about the origins of cultural appropriation of Native American culture, spiritualities’, and identities. It traces back the history of ‘Going Native’ and the stereotyping of Native peoples here in North America. It also aids in the understanding of America’s imperialistic tendencies, both at home and abroad, and the evolution of patriarchy. “Going Native is a major contribution to the debate surrounding authenticity, identity, and cultural exchange. Shari Huhndorf’s approaches to these now-familiar topics are distinctly original, courageous, and solidly grounded in her work in film, literature, and culture more generally.”- Timothy Jr. Reiss, New York University.

I encourage everyone to download and read this book (buy it if you’re able to as well).   

Note: Digital Read

URL: http://www.mediafire.com/?tddfk14el90xve2

Description:

A dictionary of terms which occur in the discourse of cultural studies as well as in the literature of radical and academic reading. This is particularly handy to have in case you run across terms which you might know the meanings/definitions of. These terms occur often enough in the discourse here on tumblr as well. It’s just something good to have. 

Note: 1) Digital Read 2) If you are experiencing difficulty understanding concepts and discourse  which are often enough brought up in radical literature and on the multitudes of radical tumblrs, this is a good book to read to further your understanding.

URL:

Chapters 1-6: http://www.mediafire.com/?uhsvtquo8beaqkh

Chapters: 7-11: http://www.mediafire.com/?a54yskrzuu7zv3o

Description:

This text involves students in understanding and using the tools of critical social and literary theory from the first day of class. It is an ideal first introduction before students encounter more difficult readings from critical and postmodern perspectives. Nealon and Giroux describe key concepts and illuminate each with an engaging inquiry that asks students to consider deeper and deeper questions. Written in students’ own idiom, and drawing its examples from the social world, literature, popular culture, and advertising, The Theory Toolbox offers students the language and opportunity to theorize rather than positioning them to respond to theory as a reified history of various schools of thought. Clear and engaging, it avoids facile description, inviting students to struggle with ideas and the world by virtue of the book’s relentless challenge to common assumptions and its appeal to common sense

note: 1) digital read 2) this is in comic book style (pretty awesome) 3) those new to reading radical literature, who are confused with some of the terms should check out this book, i think this and an other I’m going to up load The Theory Toolbox will help you out. 

Pt 1: http://www.mediafire.com/?0ztin00wjw2

Pt 2: http://www.mediafire.com/?nje0jhzlibw

About the book:

Cultural Studies signals a major academic revolution as we begin the new millennium. But what exactly is it, and how is it applied? it is a discipline that claims not to be discipline- a radical critical approach for understanding racial, national, social, and gender identities.

Introducing Cultural Studies provides an incisive tour through the minefield of this complex subject, charting its origins in Britain and its migration to the USA, Canada, France, Australia and South Asia, examining the ideas of its leading exponents and providing a flavor of its use around the world. Covering the ground from Gramsci to Raymond Williams, postcolonial discourse to politics of diaspora, feminism to queer theory, technoculture and the media to globalization, it serves as an insightful guide to the essential concepts of this fascinating area of study. It is essential reading for all those concerned with the quickening pulse of old, new and emerging cultures. 

By Martha Harroun Foster

Note: Digital and Printed Read

URL: http://www.mediafire.com/?fadm3v3gqey

Opening:

The historical portrayal of Iroquois woman is of importance to all women’s history but especially to the history of Indian women. If historians have “lost” Iroquois women, widely recognized to hold positions of power in their society how can we hope to find other Indian women, with less obviously powerful roles, in the histories of their people?

We find two important questions here. The first concerns the extent to which historians have actually ignored, misrepresented, or marginalized Iroquois women. The second question pertains to the methods and basis of such misrepresentation and neglect. In this paper I cannot possibly examine all the literature or explore these questions in depth. It is, rather, my intention to present certain aspects of the problem of the Indian women’s invisibility that the study of Iroquois women illuminates. Ethnologists have long recognized the relatively powerful position held by women in Iroquois society. With the possible exception of the Pueblo people and the Mandan, no other Indian women are so widely recognized as enjoying a comparably influential role within their society. If the Iroquois women are lost from the historical record, the methods, and circumstances by which this loss was possible should be easier to discover in their case than in histories of people for whom women played a less prominent role for which the documentation of women’s roles and position is absent. 

by Nancy Bonillain

Note: Digital and Printed Read

URL: http://www.mediafire.com/?dnnhiq4y0jo

Open:

Analyses of gender roles in societies throughout the world have raised questions about the causes of equality or inequality in status and inter-gender relations. Much of the recent research contradicts the often-stated claim that some degree of male dominance exists in all societies. The notion of reputed universal male dominance has been challenged on several fronts. First, most anthropologists have been male and have dealt with male informants in their fieldwork, and ethnographic material has been framed by the gender perspective of observer and participant. Second, historical accounts of earlier cultures are like-wise tainted by the attitudes of explorers, missionaries and government officials, all of whom were men. It is well to be reminded of Lafitau’s admonition in 1724 that “… authors who have written on the customs of the [Native] Americans” concerning the rights and status of women “… have formed their conceptions, in this as in everything else, on European ideas and practices.” Finally, by the time colonial agents, and later anthropologists, interacted with indigenous peoples, traditional gender relations were already distorted by rapid sociocultural and political changes resulting from colonial processes. Therefore, even the earliest post-contact data are not truly representative of aboriginal society.

This paper will examine gender differences in five Native American societies: The Naskapi, Navajo, Eskimo, Iroquois, and Plains peoples. We will see the extent to which ecological and social conditions have molded gender roles in Amerindian cultures and the extent to which they have been re-shaped by post colonial historical forces. We begin with the discussion of societal features bearing on gender relations and then proceed to the analysis of each of the five societies, which were chosen to demonstrate the impact of various factors in different ecological contexts.