In James Welch's novel Fool's Crow, none of the Blackfeet Indians or other Natives would have used the terms "wilderness" or "camp." These are terms that would have been used by white outsiders.
For Blackfeet and other Natives, wilderness would be called simply "the world" or "nature." While Westerners often view nature which is not under human control as wilderness, Native Americans view nature as something they are part of. The Earth is considered a mother that nurtures and gives life, rather than something to exploit, tame, or conquer, as many Europeans and their descendants view it.
The "camp" would have been referred to as the village or town by Blackfeet. Camp is something temporary. Blackfeet and other Plains Indians, often called nomadic by outsiders, typically returned to the same sites each year. Their towns were mobile, but the winter towns and summer towns were their habitual places to live. In that respect, they were similar to Vikings, the Irish, or even many Americans traveling to campgrounds in RVs today.
Within both nature and the village, the Blackfeet were expected to live by natural law. The village and its people were seen as part of nature, of it and not separate; animals, plants, and the land itself were seen as relatives to the people.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
How do the camp and the wilderness contrast?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
Bacteria are single-celled microorganisms that thrive in diverse environments (such as the ocean, the soil, and the human body). Various bac...
-
Note that these events are not in chronological order. The story is told by the narrator, looking back upon her life. The first notable even...
-
It seems most likely you are asking about Michael Halliday's theories of language. He argues children have seven main functions they use...
-
When we try to analyze the modern world today, we’ll notice that it’s going through several changes. No one is sure who will control or s...
-
Under common law, any hotel, inn, or other hospitality establishment has a duty to exercise "reasonable care" for the safety an...
-
Ecofeminism (alternately ecological feminism) examines the connections between women and nature. Basic feminist tenets undergird ecofeminism...
-
Meg Meg is the central character in the novel, and we see the action through her eyes. She is important to the novel because she, along with...
No comments:
Post a Comment