In the end, although it is clearly inappropriate to make assumptions about an individual's cultural identity based on appearance or blood quantum, most attempts to measure identity are of questionable adequacy and accuracy:"Indianness means different things to different people. And, of course, at the most elementary level, Indianness is something only experienced by people who are Indians. It is how Indians think about themselves and is internal, intangible, and metaphysical. From this perspective, studying Indianness is like trying to study the innermost mysteries of the human mind itself." The conflict in the story "The Big Game" illustrates the difficulty inherent in measuring identity by any one standard.
-from Indigenous Identity What is it, and Who really has it? by Hilary N. Weaver
American Indian Quarterly/Spring 2001/Vol.25, No.2 Page 249
No comments:
Post a Comment