Tag Archives: science

Home is Where the Heart is

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

Responses to my conversations about place yielded comments from friends about home being where you find your heart. When I read Native scholars like Vine Deloria Jr. I am struck by his thoughts that culture—“behavior, beliefs, values and symbols” quite … Continue reading →

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Pack my Suitcase with Rocks

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

Know how sometimes you can hear something a million times but it doesn’t resonate until, one day, it connects? As an academic I’ve been studying the meaning of “place” in American Indian ways-of-knowing from a distant, theoretical perspective. Trying to … Continue reading →

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Skunk Cabbage

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

We discovered a break in the rain this week and drove to the coast to explore the greenery and found the skunk cabbage in full regalia. You first catch a sniff of mild skunk in the wind and then see, … Continue reading →

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How do Indians Reclaim Science?

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

A handful of scholars—many of them American Indians—have been writing about science from an indigenous perspective, offering ammunition to counter the charge that Indians are anti-science. It comes as no surprise that some American Indians distrust approaches endorsed by science. … Continue reading →

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Understanding Macro-effects in Health

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

We had a rousing discussion about what determines health—and illness—at a gathering this week, and we talked about Indian health issues. The buzz phrase today: Social Determinants of Health. That refers to the panoply of items, issues, attributes, variables or … Continue reading →

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We love Familiarity

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

A mild tempest sizzled recently over the Muppets. Seems that Courtney Love objected to the Muppets’ rendition of a Nirvana song. The teapot tempest brewed in the circles of MTV and social media attenders: but you have to look hard … Continue reading →

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We are a University, not a Bathhouse

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

Her genius made Albert Einstein sit up and take notice, and he called her approach creative and significant. Amalie Noether’s theorem revolutionized mathematics, according to a story by Natalie Angier this week in The New York Times. Angier writes that … Continue reading →

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Branding those Genes

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

I recently read an article that folks are sending off swabs filled with saliva to check for Indian DNA. The latest fashion is to find evidence of Indian heritage in your blood. One way to add some caché to your … Continue reading →

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Indians in Zoos

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

Been trying to channel the mindset of the scientists of the 19th century as they struggled over the concept of race. American Indians—like Asians and Africans—were seen as separate races for decades.

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Neuroscience: Looking Beyond the Obvious

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Cynthia (Istá Thó Thó) Coleman Emery

I’m not the only critic warning about the dangers of finding the results you want in your research. Anthony Gottlieb, writing for The Economist this week, notes that the young field of neuroscience may be leading us astray. Loads of … Continue reading →

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