The Way of the Human Being

by Calvin Luther Martin

From Native Americans, Europeans learned about corn and beans, toboggans and canoes, and finding their way around an unfamiliar landscape. Yet the Europeans learned what they wished to learn―not necessarily what the natives actually meant by their stories and their lives―says Calvin Luther Martin in this unique and powerfully insightful book. By focusing on their own questions, Martin observes, those arriving in the New World have failed to grasp the deepest meaning of Native America.

Drawing on his own experiences with native people and on their stories, Martin brings us to a new conceptual landscape―the mythworld that seems unfamiliar and strange to those accustomed to western ways of thinking. He shows how native people understand the world and how human beings can and should conduct themselves within it. Taking up the profound philosophical challenge of the Native American “way of the human being,”

Martin leads us to rethink our entire sense of what is real and how we know the real.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, History, Spirituality, Religion, Indigenous, Cultural

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 1999

Reviews

[Ed Slack · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Way of the Human Being – Calvin Luther Martin – Yale University Press

This deeply thoughtful book brings us closer to understanding the human condition and our connection to the natural world. Through his study of and interactions with the native peoples of North America, Calvin Martin illustrates the disconnectedness of our times both factually and poetically. Rich with personal anecdote and academic acumen, this is an essential masterwork for anyone who wishes to know what it means to be a fully alive human being.

Dr. Ed Slack - Author – Two Legged Snakes: Understanding and Handling Manipulative People

[Draco3seven Crawdady · Rating 5 out of 5]

jabs at letting you try and think outside of that Western box.

[Aidan Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and devastating love letter to the world we have destroyed and lost. This book is as philosophically and theologically rich as anything you could dig up in an academic library; and in the same way, anecdotally and narratively as heart-wrenching as any tragedy you could read. The depth of this book lives up to the ambitious title. A breathtaking exposition of Native America and its haunting scars.

[Lisa K · Rating 5 out of 5]

not me crying about frogs again

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading it now. It's great - recommended by a friend.

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

story of modern day native americans.

[Nu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance for the history student.

[D]

The first chapter was sublime and I would highly recommend finding a copy just for that. i think the second chapter was also very good, if not just as good. By the 3rd chapter, things had settled down into stories that some might enjoy or find interesting, but I started to lose interest. There's another chapter later in the book called Oscar (or a similar O name) that pulled back from the stories and was also trippy. I decided not to finish the book though, so I won't offer a rating. 5 stars for the first chapter or so, maybe 3.5 stars for the rest.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful non-scholarly book by a Native Lit scholar--ethereal really; a lovely book to teach with Leslie Marmon Silko's STORYTELLER.