| Papers [385-396] of 527 :: [Page 33 of 44] | | Go to page : <— 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 —> | |
|
|
The Changing Tradition, 2003.
An insight into the oral tradition of the Native Americans through a review of Leslie Marmon Silko's book "Ceremony".
1,582 words (approx. 6.3 pages), 3 sources, MLA, $ 51.95
»
Click here to show/hide summary
Abstract
This paper explains how traditions must change over time to remain relevant and shows how Leslie Marmon Silko illustrates the importance of oral tradition and language with Tayo's story in her novel, "Ceremony". It examines how Native Americans believe that when people speak, they exchange spirits and the addition of human breath transforms sounds into words and gives them life. The living word then becomes a part of each individual who hears it which is why oral tradition is so important to them. It compares Auntie and Josiah and how they view tradition and people outside their race and how Silko uses Auntie to represent people who blindly follow the traditions of the past while not believing in the spirit behind them.
From the Paper
"Oral tradition includes many different forms including "letters, anecdotes, gossip, jokes, poems, legends, family stories, crafted stories-that must be included for a person to become self-knowing, to create community and even to comprehend the evil, the witchery, which disrupts community" (Brown). Silko uses many of these forms in Ceremony. The novel, as a whole, is an example of a crafted story. The different components of the novel are also important parts of the oral tradition. Grandma "liked to sit by her stove and gossip about the people who were talking about their family" (Silko 89). As she gossiped, she carried on that tradition. The story of Tayo is also a good example of Silko using the oral tradition, because it is an example of a family story."
| |
|
The Indian Question: Cooper vs. Sedgwick, 2000.
Examines and compares the novels "Hope Leslie" by Catharine Maria Sedgwick and James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans" and the way they address the question of Native Americans.
1,236 words (approx. 4.9 pages), 2 sources, MLA, $ 42.95
»
Click here to show/hide summary
Abstract
This paper examines two classic 19th century American novels in order to identify the dramatically different manner in which each author views the cultural conflict between whites and Native Americans. This paper examines the role of race, interracial marriage, and the point-of-view of white vs. Indian characters through the characters in the novels.
From the Paper
"Almost since the moment white settlers landed on the continent of North America, Americans have grappled with the question of how to coexist with the country’s native inhabitants. The debate on this subject reached a fever pitch in the 1820s as the nation struggled to formulate some type of comprehensive Indian policy. Should the Indians simply be herded westward, or should Americans strive for some type of coexistence? In 1827 Catharine Maria Sedgwick penned her novel "Hope Leslie" to counteract what she saw as the rising support for an aggressive Indian policy caused in part by the stereotypes of Indians presented in such popular novels as James Fenimore Cooper’s "The Last of the Mohicans." By examining these two novels, one can see how the authors present opposing views of the conflict between whites and Native Americans."
| |
|
"Hope Leslie", 2000.
An examination of the use of letters in Catherine Maria Sedgwick's work "Hope Leslie".
902 words (approx. 3.6 pages), 1 source, MLA, $ 32.95
»
Click here to show/hide summary
Abstract
This paper reviews Catherine Maria Sedgwick's "Hope Leslie", an expansive work detailing with both sides of the conflict between the Puritans and the Native Americans in the Massachusetts Bay colony. It discusses how in order to create this rich and detailed story, Sedgwick presents a varied cast of characters and employs a number of literary techniques. One of the most prominent of these techniques is the use of letters that her characters write to each other. It analyzes these written letters and shows how Sedgwick uses this literary device to overcome the problem of omniscient narration, obtain more in-depth characterization, and better deal with the passage of time in the story.
From the Paper
"Hope Leslie is written in the third person through the eyes of an all-knowing, all-seeing narrator. This allows the author to add a great deal of depth to the story by interjecting characters' thoughts and feelings, but it comes at a price: this style of storytelling is inherently difficult for readers to believe. Many critics describe third person narration as the "God's-eye view" because only a god could understand and explain the motivations and feelings of every character in the story at all times. Many readers do not find this to be a believable viewpoint. On the other hand, using first person narration would unduly limit the depth of a novel with as wide a scope as Hope Leslie by only allowing one character's thoughts to be explicitly defined."
| |
|
Native American Societies, 2002.
Native American societies from alternative perspectives.
1,352 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 3 sources, MLA, $ 45.95
»
Click here to show/hide summary
Abstract
This study examines Native American societies from a world view perspective, focusing on the issue of cultural and institutional differentiation. The study argues that the non differentiation (of causality, religion, ceremony, art, etc.) of Native American societies, in general, is the foundation of the conservatism of those societies.
From the Paper
"In short, Native Americans have faced the same pressures to assimilate which other minorities have faced. However, because of their conservatism (i.e., their resistance to that assimilation and to changes which would dilute their culture and weaken their community structure), they have managed, like few other minorities, to maintain their culture and community.
Again, the emphasis on nondifferentiation of central aspects of their culture has helped created a conservatism which in turn has enabled Native Americans to withstand onslaughts of the dominant culture which threaten community and cultural survival. Champagne writes in another work that "Internal cultural differentiation refers to the degree of interpenetration of views of causality, ceremony, morality, and religion" (Champagne Social 14). "
| |
|
The Native Americans of Southern New England, 2002.
A history of the life of the Native American Indians in Southern New England.
1,911 words (approx. 7.6 pages), 4 sources, MLA, $ 61.95
»
Click here to show/hide summary
Abstract
This paper discusses how the first peoples of Southern New England were the American Indians and how their lives were radically altered during the 17th century as their culture came into conflict with that of the Europeans. It examines the original culture of the area and looks at what made the region attractive to the Europeans who displaced the natives. It explores how the final outcome of European incursions into the area was the result of the traditional native settlement patterns and the ways in which these interacted with the specific goals of the Europeans. It shows how the displacement (and often murder) of Native Americans by European and later white Americans tends to be treated as if it were all a single phenomenon when in fact the displacement of natives by whites varied from place to place and across time depending on the specific cultures that came together with the desire to occupy the same land.
From the Paper
"Indians of this region, as noted above, certainly supplemented their food collection activities with horticulture. The major crops of the natives of this region were maize, kidney beans, squash, Jerusalem artichokes and tobacco. These were planted in fields from which the smaller plants had been cleared and the trees cut down (the stumps removed when the roots died). Spades were made of hardwood to help in the cultivation and fish were used as fertilizer (although this practice may have been borrowed from the Europeans)."
| |
|
Miami Indians, 2002.
An examination of the importance and contributions of the Miami Indians, particularly to Ohio.
2,503 words (approx. 10.0 pages), 6 sources, MLA, $ 76.95
»
Click here to show/hide summary
Abstract
This paper discusses the Miami Indians, the existence of whom were recorded by French explorers and missionaries as far back as the early seventeenth century. In particular it examines how The Miami Indians in Ohio were defeated by white encroachment on their lands and the government policies of western expansion. It analyzes how their influence in Ohio was significant although not as profound as that of Tecumseh and the Shawnees. It looks at how their major contributions were in agriculture and preparing decorative skins. It evaluates how although the Miami Indians were traditionally a society of warriors, they were unable to successfully combat the overwhelming strength and policies of U.S. Government forces and ended up defeated and diminished as was the history of all Native Americans.
From the Paper
"The Miami were known as the tattooed or naked Indians. They were lighter in color and shorter than other Illinois tribe. In spite of the severe weather of the Great Lakes region, they wore skins, leggings, and moccasins during the winter. During the summer, they wore only breechcloth and moccasins, which exposed intricate tattooing on their skin. Men wore unornamented skins most of the time. Fringed, beaded, and quilled clothing were worn for festive occasions. Women usually were lightly tattooed on the cheeks or chin. White men could never duplicate the skill of preparing skins, making the Miamis skins much more desirable. As trading continued, the Miami women used brooches and glass beads to add prestige to their clothing. They developed techniques to get striking effects such as skillful applique and nickel-silver decoration (Murdoch, 21). But even the finest of these skins was discarded by Miamis whenever they could secure European cloth (Anson, 20)."
| |
|
"The Legacy of Conquest", 2002.
Discusses Patricia Nelson Limerick's book "The Legacy of Conquest" on the settlement of the American west.
1,208 words (approx. 4.8 pages), 3 sources, MLA, $ 41.95
»
Click here to show/hide summary
Abstract
Limerick's book is a work of synthesis designed to suggest a new, comprehensive ground on which the history of the American West, often fragmented into many different branches, can be approached afresh. The paper discusses Limerick's view that, contrary to popular thinking based on the ideas by Frederick Jackson Turner that the American Frontier closed officially in 1890, the 'settling of the west' experience was not an exclusively European domain. The book reminds the reader of the Indians, Hispanics, Asians and women whose involvement in the Western history was not a minor matter.
From the Paper
"As Limerick notes in discussing current events that may have an impact on further shaping the West, every historian operates from a presentist context and it was a mistake for historians to ignore the fact that Turner's presentism exerted a particularly limiting force on his thesis. If historians today look at the continuities and common themes of Western history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, rather than adhering to the artificial 1890 watershed imposed by Turner's thesis, they will certainly, even if they do not accept every aspect of Limerick's own thesis, develop a means of viewing Western history in a comprehensive fashion."
| |
|
"Love Medicine", 2002.
Examines the role of the male characters in Louise Erdrich's "Love Medicine".
983 words (approx. 3.9 pages), 1 source, MLA, $ 34.95
»
Click here to show/hide summary
Abstract
Louise Erdrich's "Love Medicine" follows the lives of several Native American families through five decades, with the main theme of the novel being the struggle between continuity and change. The paper shows that despite the novel's focus on the women in the novel, the brothers Eli and Nector Kashpaw have great symbolic weight as embodiments of the tendency toward preservation and change.
From the Paper
"Eli, on the other hand, was "the old bachelor of the family" and his only child was the wild, wayward June whom he adopted (8). Unlike Nector, Eli did not participate in propagating the tribe. He often sought solitude in the woods and this choice could have no issue except for June, who died. June's sons, who repeat the modern/traditional dichotomy of Nector and Eli also fail in these roles as June had failed in the role of mother. King -- who married a white woman and moved away -- was a weak man of no character whose modernity did nothing for the tribe and less for himself. Lipsha had traditional gifts but lost them when he cut corners and botched the love spell."
| |
|
"Cabeza de Vaca", 2002.
Examines the film about the Spanish explorer of the same name.
1,282 words (approx. 5.1 pages), 5 sources, MLA, $ 43.95
»
Click here to show/hide summary
Abstract
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was one of the many Spanish explorers to set foot in the New World in the early sixteenth century. This paper discusses the film "Cabeza de Vaca", directed by Nicolas Echevarria, which tells de Vaca's story. The paper argues that while the film is well done, it makes grossly incorrect stereotypes of the Native Americans and their treatment of the Spaniards. It shows that the portrayal of the Native Americans in this way is in direct contrast to de Vaca's original writings in which he praised the way the locals treated his exploration party.
From the Paper
"Governor Panfilo de Narvaez was also a Spanish explorer, and it was on June 17th, 1527 that he set sail from Sanlucar de Barrameda. The king of Spain had commissioned him "to conquer and govern the provinces that lie between the river of Las Palmas and the tip of Florida" (Pupo-Walker 5). Accompanying Narvaez and his five ships were three to six hundred Spanish people, of which included Cabeza de Vaca. Cabeza de Vaca "was made treasurer of the expedition by a royal warrant dated 15 February, 1527" (Bishop 25).
The exact details of the voyage are rather confusing. Most historians agree that the expedition stopped several times along the coast of Cuba, gathering supplies as well as losing many men. It then seems that before leaving a port in Cuba, several of the ships sank, drastically dwindling not only the amount of supplies, but also the amount of Spaniards. The voyage then continued their mission to the southern tip of Florida."
| |
|
Powhatans and the Southeastern Nation Indians, 2002.
Examining the cultures of these native ethnic groups and how external forces changed their cultures.
2,112 words (approx. 8.4 pages), 0 sources, MLA, $ 66.95
»
Click here to show/hide summary
Abstract
This research paper compares and analyzes the cultural and institutional change among the Powhatans and the Southeastern Nation Indians during the 19th century. In this paper, the pre-colonial cultural and institutional structures are explored to determine their potential change. Then a brief description of the changes of the two groups of Indians is examined and compared.
From the Paper
"The Powhatans were a farming people who lived a stable lifestyle, governed by an orderly government. Women were responsible for the cultivation of the fields, while the men hunted and fished (Rountree 5). They prided themselves on their possessions by wearing deer hides that were decorated with different ornaments (Rountree 7). External clothing and decorations were also used to delineate the social hierarchy on special occasions. The different rulers were also expected to be addressed with specific special behavior (Rountree 9)."
| |
|
"The Last Of The Mohicans", 2002.
Discusses the emotional meanings created in the 1992 film by director Michael Mann.
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 1 source, $ 47.95
»
Click here to show/hide summary
Abstract
Discusses the emotional meanings created in the 1992 film by director Michael Mann. Visual means employed. Central relationship between Hawkeye and Cora. Analysis of shots and their visual and narrative impact. Discusses the progression of the plot by detailing varioius shots and how they reveal the tensions and emotional content of the film.
From the Paper
"Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans is a carefully designed film in which all the visual means at the director's disposal are skillfully employed to create the emotional meanings of the work. These meanings occur at several different levels and are structured so that by the end of the film the central relationship--the love between Hawkeye And Cora Munro--achieves an importance that goes beyond their personal lives. By the end the two stand for the future that the bravest and strongest individuals will be able to carve out of the land and, sadly, for the way these settlers will displace the Native Americans. The film emphasizes the size of the wilderness around the people who act out their story and the degrees of comfort that people feel in the wild, the tamed, and the partially subdued parts of the country. Despite the speed with which the film moves through the ..."
| |
|
"Indian Killer", 2002.
Analysis of Sherman Alexie's novel.
675 words (approx. 2.7 pages), 1 source, $ 23.95
»
Click here to show/hide summary
Abstract
Analysis of Sherman Alexie's novel. Centers on character of John Smith, a man caught between two worlds: the Indian and the White and not at home in either world. Issue of John's intolerance; his suffering, alientation and violence. Negative impact of intolerance of white society and co-workers. Author's message.
From the Paper
"John Smith, the protagonist of Sherman Alexie's novel Indian Killer, is a man caught between the white world and the Indian world, and at home in neither. He is a full-blooded Native American Indian, but was raised by whites, and knows little about his Indian roots. As a result of these circumstances, and the fact that he is a man who appears to be an Indian in a nation of prejudice against Indians, he is a man without an identity. With respect to the issue of intolerance, one could say that John has become a man without the capacity for tolerance at all, including tolerance for himself and his confusing situation in life. In other words, he has been shaped by an unforgiving and intolerant culture which does its worst in creating human beings who are such victims of intolerance that they practically do not even exist. They have been made invisible by intolerance. In fact, John is certainly mentally ill to some degree, and it is clear from the book that his madness is a direct result of living in an intolerant society which tries to take away his history, identity, cultural roots and his very humanity at every turn. It should come as no shock that in his suffering and alienation and madness, he turns to ..."
|
|
|