downthefallfullpassagain

Any time I mention Indigenous communities, either those near where I lived in Maine or others across the continent, to my (white) Italian friends, they'll be curious. But how many recognized groups are there? But they still exist in the United States? Meanwhile, often we're talking in my environmental anthropology classes about Indigenous realities, mostly from the Amazon region. Starting from the "ontological turn" of Vivieros de Castros and others in the 1990s, a more radical branch of academia admits to equally valid forms of living, being, and knowing as practiced among people with longstanding working relationships to everything around them. But I note two things: first, that these are still mediated relationships, for the most part. The anthropologist has learned how to be fairly non-extractive (at least in my classroom) and dedicated to collaboration, healing, and trust. This is, however, far from 'self-translation,' where Indigenous folks choose when a...