Learning to Be an Anthropologist & Remaining Native: Selected Writings

by Beatrice Medicine, Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Faye V. Harrison (Foreword by)

This prodigious volume represents a landmark assemblage of the significant work of the legendary anthropologist and Native American intellectual Beatrice Medicine.
 
For half a century, Dr. Medicine has defied stereotypes, racism, and sexism in her life and work while combating the reductive, patronizing views of Native Americans perpetuated by mainstream anthropologists. This retrospective collection reflects her unswerving commitment to furthering Native Americans' ability to speak for themselves and deal with the problems of contemporary life.
 
Learning to Be an Anthropologist and Remaining "Native" includes Medicine's clear-eyed views of assimilation, bilingual education, and the adaptive strategies by which Native Americans have conserved and preserved their ancestral languages. Her discussions of sex roles in contemporary Native American societies encompass homosexual orientation among males and females and the "warrior woman" role among Plains Indians as one of several culturally accepted positions according power and prestige to women. The volume also includes Medicine's thoughtful assessments of kinship and family structures, alcoholism and sobriety, the activism implicit in the religious ritual of the Lakota Sioux Sun Dance, and the ceremonial uses of Lakota star quilts.
 
"The Native American is possibly the least understood ethnic minority in contemporary American society," Medicine observes. Her decades of deliberate, generous, dedicated work have done much to reveal the workings of Native culture while illuminating the effects of racism and oppression on Indian families, kinship units, and social and cultural practices.


 

Genres: Anthropology, Indigenous, Nonfiction

371 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 2001

About the author

Lakota name: Hinsha Waste Agli Win ("Returns Victorious with a Red Horse Woman").

Reviews

[E. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of the books for a class.

[bibliotekker Holman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bea gave me a copy of this book over a decade ago when she used to call me up from her home in Wakpala looking for articles and books that I would sometimes deliver to her house when she was unable to drive. I've been revisiting this in a search for what might be in the 21 boxes of her papers at the Smithsonian in preparation for a potential project to bring copies of some of it home.

This is a book of separate parts easily digested in chunks, so again, I've taken a few more chunks in search of what might be in the papers. Although there are some biographical and autobiographical bits in this book, a good comprehensive biography of the erudite and path breaking Dr. Medicine is really something that needs to be written.

[Frances Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew Dr. Bea during the last years of her life. We spent time on the reservation together. She was an iconic hero, and I have great gratitude for our many dinners and conversations. When I asked her to autograph this book, she wrote, "To Frances Harris Best wishes for further journeys. Bea Medicine." Her wisdom continues to fortify me and serve me well.