Persian art
We moved to Iran when I was 10.
One evening the six of us sat around the dinner table and peppered by mom and stepdad with questions about life in the Middle East. Mother had bought tubs of plain yogurt at Safeway and insisted that we eat it. “Yogurt,” she said, “is what they eat there.” Continue reading
Osage Warrior
Daughter number two (Wee-Hay in Osage) has urged me to take whichever road I wish in the blog, including more personal insights. And I demure because I’ve made a pledge to wax on about Native Science. Continue reading
Bring on the Campaign
For many Indian tribes tobacco is sacred, so when anti-smoking campaigns hit Indian Country, strategists wisely invoked Native value systems to appeal to smoking cessation. Campaign strategists figured out many years ago that appealing to audiences with scientific evidence and cold facts did little to change behavior, even though smoking—which is preventable—is the leading cause of death once you account for other diseases and accidents. Continue reading
Moon as Metaphor
Yesterday’s blog about bloodletting got me to thinking about how the Western scientific paradigm clings mightily to belief systems, making it no less ideological than any other Weltanschauung (worldview). Continue reading
Bloodletting
As a sophomore in college I was introduced to George Herbert Mead and felt inspired by the notion that we create a social self that we present to the social world, and that the social self is created through the intersection of internal, biological and psychological forces that meet with nature, others, and externalities beyond our control. Continue reading
The Social Community
Today’s blog is a departure from science and an extension of my discussions about film. Continue reading
The Liminal Space Continued
As Rachel and I deconstructed the film Reel Injun and liminal space I thought about the films that avoid the tropes of old, as noted in yesterday’s blog post. Continue reading
The Liminal Space
My daughter Rachel and I went to see the new documentary Reel Injun last evening, a film about Indians in cinema. It’s an ideal entree for an introduction for anyone unfamiliar with the boatload of books on natives in cinema. Here’s the website: http://www.reelinjunthemovie.com/site/ Continue reading
Tobacco plant
Philosophers have long struggled with the intersection of their belief systems that embrace religion and their attachments to science. Not surprisingly most Americans say they are religious: only about 15% consider themselves atheists or agnostic, according to Gallup polls. Continue reading
Is science naked?
Western science is framed as being devoid of cultural values and is, in fact, perceived as “naked.” Anthropologist Laura Nader writes that naked science is “stripped of its ideologized vestments” and I argue that Western science is fully loaded–ideologically, politically and morally. Continue reading
Cynthia (Ištá Tȟó Tȟó) Coleman Emery's Blog 