Native American Societies

Paper Summary:

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 non-differentiation 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). "

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