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Model Midterm1 answers 2018 Web Highlights: review previous student answers re minorities and / or American Indians Index to Web Highlights Models 2018 |
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Kristin Mizell
Voices from the Past
While reviewing web highlights from previous students, I am always
interested to read about how different people can read the same texts and have
such different experiences. I find myself reading essays on a subject that had
not occurred to me while reading the same source text and I am able to get a
better and broader understanding of the material. It is also interesting to read
how some thoughts and ideas intersect in these essays. I will be reviewing Tara
Lawrence’s “Christianity in American
Minority Literature: How the Religion of the Dominant Culture Serves to Both
Unify and Differentiate African-American, Native-American and Mexican-American
Literature,” Bundy Fowler’s “Native American Spirituality: True
Personification of Cultural Genocide,” Paul Acevedo’s “American Indians’
Struggle to Survive Against the Dominant Culture,” and “Humor in Native American
Literature” from a 2005 Final Exam that did not have the author’s name listed.
Both Lawrence and Fowler’s essays had great insight on religion and
spirituality in Native American culture. They both make the point that the
dominant culture attempted to strip away the spirituality of Native Americans
and force them to participate in Christianity. Fowler writes that, “as Christian
beliefs were forced upon them, Native Americans were given the choice to
assimilate into the mainstream culture, or suffer the consequences as well. As a
result, a type of syncretism developed, ultimately robbing future generations of
Native Americans to experience the vital framework of Native American
Spirituality and tradition.” Lawrence also touches on this with her statement,
“American Indians have lost much of their own religious narrative, so the
narrative and symbols of the dominant culture stand in for what has been lost to
form a new narrative with symbols that have different meaning.” Both essays
comment on the important fact that Native Americans were forced into
participating in a religion that was foreign to them instead of the one passed
down through generations.
Fowler’s and Lawrence’s essays
expertly tie in the theme of loss and survival in respect to religion. Fowler
points out that, “Unfortunately, along with all aspects of Native American
culture, their dynamically mystical sacred views have been ripped asunder by the
forced breakdown of their culture.” As stated above, Lawrence points out that
Native American’s lost “their own religious narrative” and in order to survive
have adapted “the narrative and symbols of the dominant culture” to replace what
was lost. In “Humor in Native American Literature,” the theme of loss and
survival is represented with the trickster character. The author states that,
“the trickster embodies the idea of survival in which the figure is able to pass
on valuable information to the next generation.” The trickster embodies the way
religion and spirituality were passed down through generations before becoming
watered down or eradicated completely by the dominant culture, as is stated in
Fowler and Lawrence’s essay.
The question, “‘Why does the religion of the dominant culture feature so
prominently throughout minority literature?’ is posed in Lawrence’s essay. This
question is an important one, and though she does not attempt to fully answer
the question she does reference the fact that the dominant culture “believed
that in wiping away the brute and heathen religions of the minority.” This
sentiment is also reflected in Fowler’s essay in many ways. Fowler writes that
as recently as 1990 the Supreme Court ruled, “‘that the Bill of
Rights---specifically the ‘free exercise of religion’ clause in the First
Amendment …does not extend to the Native American Church because of its
sacramental use of Peyote.’ ” The dominant culture has done its best to stamp
out the minority culture. Acevedo’s essay focuses on the Native American
culture’s struggle for survival. Acevedo states, “Before the Europeans came
here, however, this land belonged to the American Indians. War and disease
decimated the American Indian population, reducing them to minority group
status. For a long time they faced harsh treatment at the hands of the dominant
culture, being viewed as little more than savages or terrorists.” He has a more
optimistic outlook on how Native American’s are treated now than described in
Fowler’s essay. The only criticism I have is that this optimism is misplaced in
the essay and does not serve his point in any way.
Reading through these essays gave me much more insight into Native
American’s as a minority culture. I was intrigued with the religious aspect of
some of these essays as that is a major way the dominant culture’s effect can be
seen on the minority culture of Native American’s. I enjoyed reading these
papers and felt they were very well written and organized and definitely helped
broaden my understanding of Native American culture.
