Sovereign Wisdom
Generating Native American Philosophy from Indigenous Cultures
Summary
"Dr. Vest has written a perceptive understandable study about the challenge to accept Native American philosophy and she explains thoroughly what it is. Written from the heart, she shares her insightful understandings of Native life and the complexities of tribal worldviews. If you want to know about Indians, this is a must read."
–Donald L. Fixico, Muscogee, Seminole, Shawnee, and Sac and Fox, and author of The American Indian Mind in a Linear World
"Jennifer Vest has produced the most comprehensive, compelling, and elegant treatise of Native American Philosophy that I have seen to date. Her treatise elevates the stature of Native American to its rightful place among world Philosophies. Her writing is full of the life and spirit of Indigenous thought. As such, it is a must read for all those interested in Philosophy, Native American, Ecological and Contemplative Studies."
–Gregory Cajete, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor, Native Studies and American Indian Education University of New Mexico
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Contents
- Preface: Some Stories
- Introduction
- Goals
- Definition of Terms
- Charting Possible Paths
- Outline of Chapters
- The Problem of Tradition
- The Problem of Land
- Chapter 1 Making It a Good Idea: Difficult but Necessary Problems in Generating Academic Native American Philosophy
- Three Sets of Problems
- Problems of Conquest
- Problems of Identity
- Problems of Translation
- Conclusion
- Chapter 2 Generating Academic Native American Philosophy: A Method
- Intellectual Sovereignty
- Possible Methods
- Question of Sources
- The Method of Recurrent Themes
- Generative Statements, Questions, and Herds
- Addressing the Problems
- Chapter 3 Is Questioning Everything Questionable?
- Introduction
- Philosophy as the Asking of Questions
- Native Intellectuals and Leaders Critique Questions
- Analysis, Like Questions, Is Nontraditional
- Contradiction: Indian Questioning
- Alternate Explanations
- The Question of Wisdom
- Chapter 4 When God Was a Woman: Centering Women in Academic Native American Philosophy
- Introduction
- Centering Women
- The Rationale
- Traditional Centering of Women
- When God Was a Woman …
- Balance
- The Problem of Violence
- Whose Violent Tradition?
- Indigenous Feminisms
- Conclusion: The Creation of a Truly Critical Indigenous Philosophy
- Chapter 5 Sovereign Thought: Generating Academic Native American Philosophy from Recurrent Themes: Land, Words, Interconnectedness
- Introduction
- RT1: The Importance of Land, Place and Space
- Land Is Important Because It Is a Source of Indian Identity
- Land Is Important Because It Is Sacred and Is the Source of Ceremony
- Land Is Important Because It Is the Source of Origin Stories
- Land and Responsibility
- Land as Source of Philosophy
- Land Is Important Because She Is Our Mother
- RT2: Importance of Words and Stories
- Stories and Storytelling Are Central to Native American Culture
- Stories Are Sources of Knowledge
- Stories Are Linked to Identity
- Stories Are Important Because They Are Linked to Land and Place
- Stories and Spoken Words Have Power
- Spoken Oaths, Treaties, and Sovereignty
- Superiority of the Oral Tradition
- RT3: Interconnectedness
- Interconnectedness Is Important Because We Are All Related
- Interconnectedness Is Important Because We Are All Interdependent
- Interconnectedness and Animals
- Interconnected Knowledges
- Ontological Intimacy
- Individuals and Responsibility
- Interrelatedness and Sovereignty
- Chapter 6 Recurrent Themes: Aliveness, Balance, Respect, and Purpose
- RT4: The Aliveness of all Beings
- Energy, Spirit, Aliveness
- Aliveness, Choice, Agency, Wisdom
- Aliveness and Purpose
- Aliveness and Hierarchies of Being
- Aliveness and Co-creation
- RT5: The Importance of Respecting All Life
- Respecting the Earth
- Humans Respecting Animals and Plants
- Humans Respecting One Another
- RT6: The Importance of Balance and Reciprocity
- Balance and Harmony
- Balance and Reciprocity
- Ecologic Balance
- Balance Is Important for Health and Healing
- Balance between the Sexes
- Justice as Balance
- Modern Manifestations of Imbalance
- RT7: Purpose
- Knowing One’s Purpose Is Important for Living One’s Life
- Animals and Plants and Purpose
- Purpose Is Important for Ceremonies
- Purpose and Leadership Choices
- Purpose and Individual Responsibility
- Chapter 7 Recurrent Themes: Knowledge, Responsibility, Humility, Mystery
- Introduction
- RT8: The Importance of Humility
- Humility Is Essential to Gaining Knowledge
- Humility Is Essential to Leadership
- Humility Is Important for Insuring Equality
- Humility Important for Ceremonies
- Humility and Interconnectedness
- RT9: The Importance of Mystery
- The Great Mystery and the Sacred
- Mystery, Humility, and Respect
- Mystery and Knowledge
- Women and Mystery
- RT10: Knowledge and Responsibility
- Knowledge Is Dangerous
- Knowledge Is Contextual
- Knowledge Is a Gift
- Knowledge and Relationships
- Knowledge and Animals
- Knowledge and Identity
- Conclusion
- Part II: Categories of Thought
- Philosophy of Balance
- Philosophy of Story
- Philosophy of the Spoken Word (Orality?)
- Philosophy of Land
- Wisdom Studies
- Holistic Categories of Knowledge
- Acknowledgements
- Bibliography
- Index
- Series index
Jennifer Lisa Vest
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Vest, Jennifer Lisa, author.
Title: Sovereign wisdom : generating Native American philosophy from
indigenous cultures / Jennifer Lisa Vest.
Other titles: Generating Native American philosophy from indigenous
cultures
Description: New York : Peter Lang, [2024] | Series: Critical indigenous
and American Indian studies, 2376-547X ; vol. 7 | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023033660 (print) | LCCN 2023033661 (ebook) | ISBN
9781433199554 (hardback) | ISBN 9781636671130 (paperback) | ISBN
9781636671116 (ebook) | ISBN 9781636671123 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Indian philosophy—Study and teaching (Higher) | Indian
Philosophy—North America. | Indians of North America—Intellectual
life.
Classification: LCC E98.P5 V47 2024 (print) | LCC E98.P5 (ebook) | DDC
108.997—dc23/eng/20230912
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023033660
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023033661
DOI 10.3726/b20572
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
The German National Library lists this publication in the German
National Bibliography; detailed bibliographic data is available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Cover design by Peter Lang Group AG
ISSN 2376-547X (print)
ISBN 9781636671130 (paperback)
ISBN 9781433199554 (hardback)
ISBN 9781636671116 (ebook)
ISBN 9781636671123 (epub)
DOI 10.3726/b20572
© 2024 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne
Published by Peter Lang Publishing Inc., New York, USA
info@peterlang.com - www.peterlang.com
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright.
Any utilization outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution.
This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
About the author
JENNIFER LISA VEST, Ph.D. (Mikasuki Seminole mixedblood) is a retired Associate Professor of Philosophy. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Physics from Hampshire College, her Masters in History from Howard University, and her PhD in Ethnic Studies and Philosophy at University of California, Berkeley. She introduced Native American philosophy into the philosophy curriculum at two universities and has devoted decades to fighting for the inclusion of Native American and African philosophy in the canon. She has published articles and poetry in numerous journals and served on the Committee for the Status of American Indians in Philosophy for the American Philosphical Association for many years. She was also the Treasurer for the International Association for African Philosophy and Studies. She was an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Seattle University and earned tenure in the Philosophy Department at the University of Central Florida before leaving Academia.
About the book
This book proposes a methodology for formulating a sovereign field of Academic Native American Philosophy. In this groundbreaking metaphilosophical work, the author identifies several recurrent themes in Indigenous North American cultures and argues that such themes can form the foundation of a unique field of philosophy. Creatively drawing on a diverse collection of Native voices from a wide variety of disciplines such as philosophy, religion, literature and oratory, this innovative book promises to be a resource for philosophers and other scholars seeking to engage in discourses centering Native conceptual analyses.
“Dr. Vest has written a perceptive understandable study about the challenge to accept Native American philosophy and she explains thoroughly what it is. Written from the heart, she shares her insightful understandings of Native life and the complexities of tribal worldviews. If you want to know about Indians, this is a must read.”
–Donald L. Fixico, Muscogee, Seminole, Shawnee, and Sac and Fox, and author of The American Indian Mind in a Linear World
“Jennifer Vest has produced the most comprehensive, compelling, and elegant treatise of Native American Philosophy that I have seen to date. Her treatise elevates the stature of Native American to its rightful place among world Philosophies. Her writing is full of the life and spirit of Indigenous thought. As such, it is a must read for all those interested in Philosophy, Native American, Ecological and Contemplative Studies.”
–Gregory Cajete, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor, Native Studies and American Indian Education University of New Mexico
This eBook can be cited
This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.
Preface: Some Stories
This book owes its origin to a dissatisfaction of sorts. I fell in love with philosophy at the tender age of 12, but I was disappointed. I had begun asking fundamental questions about the meaning and purpose of my life at 9 when I found myself on a mountaintop in the south of France being visited by spirits. Back in the States, after a tour of religions, I was happy to find Socrates on the shelf of my parent’s library in middle school. I went on to form a philosophy club in my high school so that I could sit around with like-minded students and discuss the really important subjects—none of which were being discussed in our college prep curriculum. There were no philosophy classes.
Later, I pursued concentrations in Physics and Philosophy at the college level. While I thoroughly loved reading McTaggart’s theory of time as an illusion and was enthralled by the works of philosophers like Cartwright and Feyerabend, I longed to read something that was not dead, something that had echoes of some of the ceremonies and wisdom traditions I had been exposed to in other contexts, something not confined to the written musings of European men.
Details
- Pages
- XXIV, 326
- Year
- 2024
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781636671116
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781636671123
- ISBN (Softcover)
- 9781636671130
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781433199554
- DOI
- 10.3726/b20572
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2024 (July)
- Keywords
- Philosophy Jennifer Lisa Vest Sovereign Wisdom Indigenous Native First Nations American Indian culture metaphilosophy intellectual sovereignty
- Published
- New York, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, Oxford, 2024. XXIV, 326 pp.
