ANTH 436 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Utilitarianism, Iroquois, Justin Trudeau
23 May 2018
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2/15/2018
Metallic, Fred (Gopit). “Strengthening our Relations in Gespe’gewa’gi, the Seventh District of
Mi’gma’gi.” Chapter 3, in Simpson (2008).
● comparing this reading to the Coleen et al reading that was assigned on January 25th
○ this week’s reading is more sentimental
○ different audiences
○ frequent use of “us” and “our” and Metallic’s work
■ more internally focused, use of Mi’gmaq language
■ but in doing so, settler audiences and better understand Mi’gmaq worldviews
■ a book more likely to be picked up by indigenous audiences
● How does ceremony play into resurgence
○ rivers as lifelines
○ salmon
○ sharing
■ sharing within Mi’gmaq community, with settler populations
● territorial self governance
● “Hunting” as a broad spectrum of procuring from the lands and waters
○ Includes fishing, harvesting
○ When you take life, you use it as fully as you can
○ Fostering the increase of the things we procure from the land
○ Primary meaning of hunting is not going and getting something, but the relationships that you
cultivate so that the flow of gifts from the lands/water will continue
○ Tip of the evergreen tree = the emergence of life —> need to respect those points of emergence
of new life
● Ceremony as a vehicle for certain activities
● Notion of protocol
● Land acknowledgement
○ Extending indigenous relationalities into a wider public/political sphere
○ Reminding people that there is a relationship to be worked on (not the words so much as it is
the message)
● Are there alternatives to the state when it comes to governance
○ Governance in the form of salmon ceremonies
○ Relativize systems like the too the salmon
■ Radically different cultural systems
● Relationship with the land (not ownership of the land)
○ Another problem of translation — the English word of “property” to describe relationships to land
○ Not who the land belongs to but who belongs to the land (in Colin’s anecdote about Torres Strait
Islanders)
Asch Chapter 3
● Even when there is material evidence of something, that doesn’t mean it will be taken as fact
● Archaeology
○ Of course archaeological evidence would support that indigenous people were here before
Europeans (Indigenous peoples have known that all along)
○ using archaeology as a claim to land —> contributing to nationalist histories
■ A political process
○ Archaeology as a western science
■ as opposed to oral histories
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Strengthening our relations in gespe"gewa"gi, the seventh district of. Comparing this reading to the coleen et al reading that was assigned on january 25th this week"s reading is more sentimental. Different audiences frequent use of us and our and metallic"s work. More internally focused, use of mi"gmaq language. But in doing so, settler audiences and better understand mi"gmaq worldviews. A book more likely to be picked up by indigenous audiences. How does ceremony play into resurgence rivers as lifelines. Sharing within mi"gmaq community, with settler populations territorial self governance. Hunting as a broad spectrum of procuring from the lands and waters. When you take life, you use it as fully as you can. Fostering the increase of the things we procure from the land. Primary meaning of hunting is not going and getting something, but the relationships that you cultivate so that the flow of gifts from the lands/water will continue.
