The Differences Between Indigenous And Eurocentric, Western Worldviews

The concept of knowledge in many ways has opposing forms within the Native American context in comparison to the western context. The mutual area of which these two branches of philosophy meet is in respect to phenomenology. Phenomenology relates to science and truth prior to modern science and therefore has more of a connection natural existence of the world. The ideology of knowledge natural existence is key to Native American philosophy of knowledge

For many Indigenous people, spirituality is more than simply a belief in a higher being. Spirituality is the holistic belief that all living and nonliving things are interconnected and deserving of the highest respect.  In accordance with Medicine Wheel teachings, the East portion of the medicine wheel is synonymous with spirituality. By recognizing the importance of spirituality and how it helps shape cultural identity, one has the potential to be able to better understand how

Indigenous peoples are undeniably some of the toughest and most courageous peoples that have ever walked the Earth. The horrific events that have shaped their past could have easily been enough to wipe out their race as a whole, but instead of allowing it to beat them down they remained resilient and are even pushing back in order to change the way the public views them. Eve Tuck and an author from Pine Ridge have spoken out in hopes to gain a consensus about viewing indigenous peoples in a different light - one that identifies their strength instead of their pain. Before delving into the main context of the paper, I want to first summarize the arguments of Eve Tuck and the author from Pine Ridge in order to assure the rest of the paper is

Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian tells the story of Indigenous people in Canada and the United States, it challenges the narrative on how Indigenous history is taught and explains why Indigenous people continue to feel frustrated. King’s seeks to educate the reader as he provides a detailed accounts of the horrific massacres Indigenous people endured, yet he simultaneously inserts humorous moments which balances out the depressing content and enhances his story. The books highlights the neglect and assimilation that Indigenous were subjected to and how their survival was seen as an inconvenience to western culture. King directs his message at a Euro-centric audience to offer an accurate explanation of Indigenous culture and

When it comes to Indigenous ways of knowing it can come from underlying values, beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions of the group. These can most often be traced back to the culture’s guiding story. The guiding story is essential to the knowledge of what is around us such as understanding human development and culture, and the pattern of meaning embedded in the culture. The inclusion of indigenous ways of knowing in schools would allow us to be knowledgeable about more than one form of thinking/knowledge, instead of the general idea of knowledge that is taught in schools today.

Aboriginal Spirituality Spirituality is defined as the essence of our being. It is an acknowledgement of a Sacred Source that is bigger than us. It informs our way of living and how we connect with ourselves, those people around us, and nature. It is a profound and mysterious aspect of life which is often expressed in various ways- through symbols, metaphor, and story. As health care providers, we often link our patients’ spirituality with their affiliations or religious practices and taboos.

When in reality there is a rich diversity involved in the Native American cultures. Only an insider is more adept to reflect the beliefs and values of the culture with the most accuracy (Stewart, 2002, p.

Environmental degradation has become a social and cultural norm both within and supported by Westernized North American life, and the average Canadian and American citizen will likely suffer an estrangement from our natural world. This separation, backed by centuries of social constructions, has done much more than alienate us from our original physicality: it has enforced a culturally justified set of values rationalizing and permitting the devastation of wilderness. A cultural mindset extending centuries into the past is difficult for the individual to identify and even more challenging for a society to overcome; however, another culture exists, namely that of the North American indigenous peoples, who have developed and experienced, through a history of living at peace with the land, what is known as traditional knowledge. This unique relationship to the land encompasses a truth that colonial and subsequent Western rule both overlooked and stigmatized in the face of economic and social “progress”. While Western North American culture is beginning to acknowledge and explore the worldview and methods accrued through traditional knowledge and employ consultation with the indigenous peoples as a vehicle of sustainability, serious damage has already been committed and could have been lessened had our past entailed an adoption of Aboriginal worldviews. The benefits of traditional knowledge can particularly be seen through analysis of Aboriginal relationships to forestry, which

Throughout this weeks reading, a strong understanding of Aboriginal connection and understanding of the land is highlighted. The reading is givin in first person from the perspective of Laklak Burarrwanga a Datiwuy Elder. In this reading Burarrwanga states that Aboriginal communities connect with Bawaka (meaning country) and everything living within the environment this includes other individuals, animals, plants and non-living objects for example wind and rain. Through this strong Aboriginal inextricable connection, the land provides Aboriginal communities with food, shelter, culture, beliefs and protection. Aboriginal’s have a obligation to the land and are expected to care for the land as in return the land will care for them. Each Aboriginal

“Without land and control of their assets, Indigenous Peoples are destined to remain the world’s poorest communities—with the worst health, highest mortality rate and shortest life span” (“The Indigenous Movement”). The Indigenous Peoples Movement works to acquire legal protection and works to raise awareness towards the indigenous peoples’ causes globally. Indigenous peoples are generally defined as individuals who belong to a highly conservative, culturally and linguistically different non-dominant social group,—distinct from the modernly dominant society—hoping to maintain that separation with the superior culture. In addition, their cultures and traditional practices have been harmed over the centuries—complications arising from the European

Indigenous peoples is a term especially used in the international context to recognize the existence of ancestral peoples who existed prior to the formation of modern nation-states and whose way of life was, and is, historically denied, outraged and discriminated against. In September 2007 the United Nations Declaration on the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples was signed. This represents a huge discursive change within the international context when recognizing the importance of indigenous people’s livelihoods. Indigenous ethos versus western ethos is extremely different in how they identify themselves. Indigenous peoples characteristically

Indigenous people believe that their connection to their traditional lands directly influence their physical, social, spiritual and emotional wellbeing. This notion is due to viewing their wellbeing as a holistic concept not an individual

Entering into the twentieth-century, Enlightenment ideologies proved to be prevalent in helping express and formulate newfound scientific discoveries. Renewed was the philosophy of focusing on the concepts of reason, individualism, science, reform and progress over traditional and customary viewpoints of the Western world. Authors of the book Discovering the Twentieth-Century World, agree with this outlook proclaiming, “By the early decades of the twentieth century, the patterns of nineteenth-century Western thought seemed under assault on every front. Old ways of thinking fell to new discoveries in the physical and social sciences, and Western artistic expression cast off old norms as well” (Discovering the Twentieth-Century World, 39).

Religion is a word that cannot be defined. It can be a way of life, an organized belief system, connection to higher beings, an institution, a set of moral guidelines or all of the above. It is impossible to give religion a true definition since the meaning varies from person to person. This makes understanding other religions from other groups difficult. Therefore, outsiders to so-called ‘indigenous religions’ impose contemporary challenges upon them. Some of these challenges include: organizing them into a category they do not belong in by stereotypes, imposing the belief they are primitive tribes, and labeling them as only local groups hidden away from modern society.

Holism also encourages the individual to focus on ones’ equilibrium with non-human entities. This includes the knowledge based on the significance of the land, animals, spiritual messengers, and the divine as teachers, rather than just objects in which to study. Indigenous individuals believe living things and spiritual entities; the Earth and the divine interact with each other and have greater importance together rather than separately (Howell, Auger, Gomes, Brown, & Leon, 2016). “This positioning ties in closely with relationships to the land; as people with millennia of history and knowledge based in specific territories, connection to place and land, as well as connection to one’s ancestors and the teachings that have been passed down from them, results in much deeper learning” (Vikashni, 2014). With an Indigenous holistic approach, individuals are seen as a single link that is intertwined with the “web of life” whereas a western approach defines humans as an image of God and their existence as the pinnacle of