Monday, January 28, 2008

Traditional Leaders

Among ancient peoples, the leader is not to be found among the most corrupt and devious members of the community, or the most tricky and opportunist, or even the richest. He is not among the most grasping, or the most sectarian. Our leader is traditionally the person whom the rest of the community most respects, the person who has distinguished himself by his service to the community. His authority derives from his ethical behavior, and from his experience of life.

--Crossing Borders by Rigoberta Menchu

Friday, January 18, 2008

Research Seminar

California Institute for Integral Studies
Spring 2008 BA Completion

Readings:

  1. Behar, Ruth. (1996) Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart: The Vulnerable Observer. Boston: Beacon Press. Chapters 1 & 6.

  2. Boal, Augusto. (1985) Theatre of the Oppressed. New York, NY: Theatre Communications Group. Pp107-115 & 142-155. Handout.

  3. Taber, Jay. (2001-2005) “Research as Organizing Tool”. Pp 1-17. Handout

  4. Mindell, Arnold. (1995) Sitting in the Fire: Large Group Transformation Using Conflict and Diversity. Portland, Or: Lao Tse Press. Pp49-60. Handout.

  5. Gillmor, Dan. (2004) We the media: Grassroots Journalism By The People, For The People. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, Inc. pp. IX-41 & 158-190 plus glossary & notes.

  6. Lundgren-Williams, Kai and Methodologies for Resistant Negotiation Working Group. “Negotiating Communication Across Complex Difference: The Classroom and Democratic Social Movements as Coalitional Spaces”. Handout.

  7. Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. (2002) Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London & New York: Zed Books Ltd. pp. 1-41.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Right to Live

As I stood along the Sacapulas bridge rail, I glanced up and was startled to see a fully armed military patrol in camouflage gear marching toward me,. The line grew until I could see fifty or sixty soldiers, armed with everything from machine guns to mortars. The 1960's and '70's, leading up to the worst of the recent violence, had been the first period of church idealism in Guatemala since the [16th century] Verapaz experiment. Foreign priests, many of them Spanish and North American, had evangelized among the [Mayan] Indians, founded cooperatives, and taught literacy. The civil and military authorities in Guatemala had apparently found the resulting Indian political consciousness threatening, because in the late seventies, as a preface to the more generalized violence to come, thousands of religiously inspired catechists, cooperative members, and community leaders were selectively assassinated.

I followed the soldiers up the hill and into the center of town. Just off the main plaza, they filed through a gate bearing the words DECAMPAMENTO MILITAR SACAPULAS. To one side of the gate was painted the base motto: "Only he who struggles has the right to conquer. Only he who conquers has the right to live."

--The Heart of the Sky by Peter Canby

Friday, January 11, 2008

Momaday on Stage

Indian Country Today reviews a live performance by America's greatest living storyteller.

Monday, January 07, 2008

Old Testament New World

This review of Pagan's in the Promised Land has me convinced it's a book worth reading.