Native American Philosophy: An Excursion Into the Self
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- Опубліковано 13 тра 2024
- Native American Philosophy is one of the most under-covered areas in philosophy proper. I hope to add a bit of contrast here, and focus on how Native American Philosophy, their "concepts" of self, and how they may relate to Western concepts at large.
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Timestamp:
00:00 Outside of Western Philosophy
7:18 Dissolution of Categories
11:16 Process of Self
17:35 Indigenous Monism
22:34 Epistemology and Domination
27:12 A Message
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Two spirit tribes members took many different roles in the west. Some were negotiators, some warriors, some stood out in the middle of the trail screaming childish political chants blocking their fellow tribesmen trying to forage and hunt for “social justice”.
@@andoriannationalist3738 typical Andorian 🙄
It really does change your mind, once you accept and understand this connection with nature, life becomes so much richer. One of the things that really hit me was the native american perception of time, which is so different from the abstract western hour we are so used to. It inspired me so much that i filled my garden with all kinds of plants, most from seed, even tried to recreate the three sisters technique and with varying success and lots of learning, these plants have showed me a new kind of time, a time that is much fuller than the abstract time, a time that slides slowly as the seed hatches, grow a stalk and leaves and eventually gives fruit. It just re enchants life in a way that no commodity could ever do and you really do nothing "special", only help something grow and care for it, which is all we ever really needed to do
Beautifully articulated, mate. I have a large garden, grow from seed to seed and share my bounty with my neighbors and family. Nothin’ better than diggin’ in da dirt, walkin’ barefoot in da dirt, eatin’ da dirt (in the form of veggies), keeping worm farms and recycling all kitchen waste and dried leaves and grass clippings into compost (soil).
The Wind, One Brilliant Day
The wind, one brilliant day, called
to my soul with an odor of jasmine.
"In return for the odor of my jasmine,
I'd like all the odor of your roses."
"I have no roses; all the flowers
in my garden are dead."
"Well then, I'll take the withered petals
and the yellow leaves and the waters of the fountain."
the wind left. And I wept. And I said to myself:
"What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you?"
Antonio Machado Translated by Robert Bly
And what is connection to nature?
Is it just Vegan?
Or is it planting more trees?
Is it loving like a caveman just for few seconds so you can comment in a video that you are superior?
Or is it going around hunting and eating other animals?
I wonder should I create my own?
Beautiful
This is exactly why I converted to paganism. Once you realize that everything and everyone is one, it just makes sense to revere and respect nature, instead of trying to extract value from it for profit.
I happen to be a Philosophy Major, and I just finished an essay I wrote for a friend that was inspired by this video, and I made sure to mention this channel! I'm part Native American (Cherokee to be exact), and my friend is part Native as well. So, I got my Cherokee citizenship, but I didn't know whether to claim it at first because I'm more Caucasian than anything and I wanted to maintain respect. But the World Cultures Anthropology class I'm in led me to this video, and THAT led me to making some awesome connections, and now I've written perhaps the most cohesive work longer than 8 pages that I've ever produced! I actually think my connection to the Cherokee Nation may be done justice! So, you have my thanks. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this video!
That's so incredibly kind. I appreciate these comments more than you know!
Why I it always Cherokee? And that's not their word for themselves.
Once westerners "religious" people open a damn Meister Eckart or Saint John of the Cross, or even William Law book, and read about apophatic mysticism, they'll realize how close they are, in their beliefs, to the natives colonial propaganda framed as primitive godless people for decades.
People say that you realize how different we are through travels.
I, as a Spinoza enjoyer, argue the opposite: it's always the same belief, the same frame of experience, getting distorted by petty greed, anger and grievances.
Read a buddhist book, read a stoics book, and then listen to how native people speak about their cosmology.
It's the same. Always has been. Alienation is making us blind to our common human condition.
Амин - Amen.
These were my thoughts as well. The western tradition is varied and it is up to each generation to determine which line of thought is emphasized.
Christ is the fullfillment of all philosphy because He Is the Truth. That was the whole idea of catholicism(catholic means universal) where all the world is brought together as one family in Christ. It has always been a tug of war though between this ideal, and those who want power. Take care and God bless
@@johnphipps4105yes a lot of religions holes are filled by Christ
@@johnphipps4105 Don't you think every religious person thinks this about their own religion? Why should all the world be brought together under Cathoicism, as opposed to Sikhism, Islam, Protestantism, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, and so on? Aside from the obvious answer- because Catholicism is your own religion, so it's obviously the best one...
The idea of every religion is to be the 'best' and 'correct' religion. This kind of arrogant thinking keeps us divided.
At the beginning you said we "fail to ignore" this- which is a good thing. They are still here and they should be. I appreciate you posting about them. My child is a descendent too.
You bet. Thanks for being here!
Oh wow philosophy youtube doesnt pay nearly enough attention to the many philsophies present in indigenous cultures of the americas. From political to metaphysical to epistemology and more its pretty cool stuff once you learn to look past what appears as just superstitions or just spiritual dogma.
Truly one of the main reasons why I thought to cover this and relate it to the type of philosophy we study.
@epochphilosophy indeed many of my own cultures philosphies i was taught from stories, general teachings and my many family and community memebrs parroting sayings who no one knows how old they are but are all meant to teach us the philosophies that had run our society since before colonialism, the ones that merged or that remained untouched despite the tons of mixing going on and alot of incorporation of newer ideas.
One of the biggest teachings i take to heart is the idea of walking two roads, im not sure what you would call this sociopolitical philosophy? im not sure what to exactly call it but the idea is that you must be able to function in both your own native culture and in the "white man's world" but this really just means the modern industrial world and their seemingly contradicting values. A neccessary way of thinking in order to adapt to a world which wanted to very much destroy that so called red road representing our culture only leaving the single path. but you must learn when to walk which road in your life ie walking the white road at the right time means to drop the spiritualisms, changing your dialect to standard engiish instead of the dialect on your reservation or urban core for those not in reserves, etc. while walking the red road at the right time is learning to stick to your traditions and cultures even if you might neccissarily not believe in the religious or spiritual aspects.
i personally view alot of the spiritualisms through a pseduo-sprititual scientific lense where I rationalize everything under the scienetific method but i am open to admitting that there are things where its not as useful cuz for example philsophy is asking questions and thinking of thought experiments which are abstract and unable to be tested yet we find much use in this discipline. Religion and spriritualism serve their roles mainly the role of social cohesion. Im sure many optimistic nihilists know the notion of how religion or an adequate replacement for it is neccessary for society which is embodied by nietzche's philosophies and his hatred of nihilism.
I want to add a little tid bit about the idea of the self, it is important like you said to keep in mind many people differ from the notions outlined in the video since it was just so many damn cultures and identies and ways of thinking. in my culture the idea of the self is very present with collectivism not sacrificing the individual and the two are not seen as opposing forces politically. It is seen that individuals must collectivize and collaborate in order to not only survive but to thrive; we had found a balance in our old lifestyle where we found abundance for much of the time due to the massive reaping of meat from the massive buffalo herds which we would kill en masse using the buffalo jump. (an actually pretty rare thing since it requires a specific terrain only found where the plains turn to foot hills then cliffs high enough to kill animals in a fall but not too tough terrain for humans to traverse long distances.)
I think a good analogy or atleast the closest I have yet to come across in western philosophy that mirrors my culture, the blackfoot, and our conception of this individuality and the collective is the ideas of Max Stirner and his work like the ego and its own. I think I was much more easily able to understand his often misconstrued ideas.
as for two spirits in my culture gender is expressed by labour practiced or roles in the community. ie a woman being a warrior would be considered two spirit or our sense of transgender male. The same with a male who took up domestic duties with the woman was treated as such. And with a well known story in our community about the first man and women who realized that both men and women needed eachother to survive even though they might not get along all of the time. in the story the woman for example doesnt like the mans smell and sloppyness in eating. A typical stereotype of men in many cultures, and its metaphorical of course but they end up finding out that for example the man doesnt know how to make clothes and cant afford to take to time he needs to spend hunting to learn to make it. The woman has her epiphany and then its meant to teach us the importance of gender equality from an early age. we also pair this with teachings (though not as much from older folks} about the two spirit and non heterosexual sexualities. You are taught that they may be a male acting like a woman but since they do womanly things and wish to express themselves as female thencyou respect it. Btw the expression of gender does ofcourse extend beyond labour into other ways of expression like dress, mannerisms and interests and its not treated with stigma outside of those who have adopted christian views and view the act of homosexuals and transgender people as sinners.
A thing i like to add just that is sort of a tangent, that shows what i mean about adaptation. my grandma and my mom adapted christianity and merged it with our indigenous sundance religion while I have merged science like astrophysics and my indgenous religion. but either way we incorporate new ideas from western culture which we find compatible or which change our perspectives in ways we deem positive and dont remain static. So these philosophies are changing all the time. each generation comes with different ideas. W2
@epochphilosophy also i wanted to say that you did a very good job of relating the many philosophies youve touched on before this video on your channel. I was ecstatic to see you making a video on the topic.
If you ever want to do a follow up video id love to help you out in anyway since I grew up in my homelands and still keep in contact with many family and community members including elders who all know tons about our own people but also the people of the region's philosphical beliefs. Im from the northern great plains btw, im from the blackfoot confederacy and in specific the kainai first nation. This region has alot of philosphical ideas in different philosophies like metaphysics, epistemology (pragmatism is a big thing here, but its very different than american settler pragmatism and the movement it got its name from), ethics, politics, etc.
As time passes I become more intrigued by non western forms of philosophy like those from America and Africa. Thanks for talking about this subject!
I think you did a good job here, speaking as a Native person. Oh and Iroquois is pronounced Yuro-kwoy, but it's term that came from the French trying to pronounce a not so flattering name our neighbors called us. So don't fret over the misprounciation. And yeah IMO, Cordova's book is pretty good. I have critiques, but they're minor things.
It's cool to see this topic broached. I'm sure you're aware of how extensive it gets. Some primary sources I would recommend are Brian Burkhart's Indigenizing Philosophy through the Land, and three works by Vine Deloria Jr. - Evolution, Creationism, and Other Modern Myths; God is Red: A Native View of Religion; and The Metaphysics of Modern Existence.
Secondary sources that are good are Eduardo Viveiros de Castro's Cannibal Metaphysics; Keith Basso's Wisdom Sits in Places; Carlo Severi's The Chimera Principle; Timothy Pauketat's An Archaeology of the Cosmos; and then some early ethnographic works like James Mooney's Myths of the Cherokee or stuff from John Swanton
Thanks for sharing this! Indigenous, and even eastern philosophy is relatively new to me so these are super useful.
Thank you for bringing attention to indigenous being. Fascination
Damn bro I just stumbled upon your channel and I am blown away, your format, your thoughts, the way you convey your concepts, it’s all so clear and entertaining
That’s such a kind comment. Thanks so much.
5:50 - This is something that I don't think enough people grasp. I've had people tell say to me "Well we're ALL indigenous to somewhere" like yeah you're right but what the hell does that mean to you? How does being indigenous affect your life and your perspective?
I also really like what you said about indigenous knowledge being existing alongside something, rather than subjugation and domination. Awesome video
Mine, and most White people I know are affected by not being 'allowed' to recognize how they are indigenous peoples. They are the only peoples actively discouraged from knowing of their tribes and how they were destroyed long before globalists shipped them throughout the world to help.destroy tribes in other regions. All other peoples are told to worship their ancestors. Those indigenous to Europe are attacked if they want to worship theirs.
Antiwhiteism is the great evil of our time.
Thank you for this, I love your view point and I’m not even half way through yet, gives hope that in a world of over saturated philosophy videos you and others are starting to emerge to change that
Big love
Great video! I had never really thought of Native American philosophy as an independent subject, but i am very interested in the theory of "self" as described here. Thank you for bringing attention to this! I hope to see you do more informational content like this and I would love to see videos on other indigenous american philosphies from regions like mezo and south america.
Absolutely wonderful video. I've been trying to understand the indigenous perspective as much as I can.
I loved "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer and "Aztec Philosophy" by James Maffie as well if you want any recommendations.
A "Materialism" that includes animacy and process sounds way more like Animism to me than materialism (yes I know the history of animism being used dismissively, but materialism just doesn't describe a world full of spirit to me no matter how hard you squint), which is something that, while obviously absent from dominant cultural forms in Europe, never fully went away in the rural north, and exists in varied forms in basically all "pre-modern" peoples. It's a deep Third Option between materialism and idealism that I think humanity needs to reintegrate for the sake of our own survival. It's a common heritage of humanity, it was the process of agriculture-as-dominance (or technodominance more generally) like you mentioned that slowly peeled us away from this kind of relational thinking in the west.
Dr. Michael Levin's nobel-worthy work on bioelectricity & cellular intelligence and the ways in which it relates to Sheldrake's morphogenic field concept to me implies that the next paradigm western science will have to grapple with is the first paradigm human cultures developed, Animism. I recommend the youtube channel "Nordic Animism" run by Dr.Rune Hjarnø for more information on animism from a comparative lense, specifically related to your own heritage that you mentioned, too.
I think it's important we recognize that a lot of what is considered "western" is specifically post-platonic/christian thought, and the dominance and legitimacy of this thinking, after some genuine and some tactical conversions, was forced on to the continent of Europe through a colonial, imperialist process by the Roman empire and it's many successor states with their divinely ordained conquests. In my opinion, any coherent interpretation of "all other religions are demonic tricks" or that god would have a "chosen people" is that universal genocide and subjugation is a moral imperative, and I don't think we're going to have an honest discussion about the origins of colonialism until we take a hard look at the inherent colonial ideology within abrahamic religion. Zionism, Christian Nationalism, and Islamic Nationalism are not some distortion of their holy texts, those religious texts genuinely paint a world-image that justifies these ideologies. I'm a big fan of humanist and pacifist interpretations of these traditions and I don't mean to imply that their adherents are inherently suspect. But there is a very specific root of this kind of thinking and it was not ever universally adopted across Europe despite what common historical myths tell us, if that were the case, the renaissance would have never happened. Even western science itself emerged out of pre-christian, idealism-as-animist-monism philosophies/religiosities like Hermeticism and it's practical side we called Alchemy.
We have the right to reclaim our own branch of this sort of wisdom and right now cutting edge biology itself is pointing the way home.
Phenomenal way to put it. I will definitely check out those texts!
Braiding Sweetgrass 💪
This reminds me of the new book by Klee Bennally called Indigenous Anarchy. Have you come across this @Epoch?
Also, the anthropologists David Graeber and David Wengrow writes about the influence native american thought had on european philosophers in the 17th century, when journals of colonists were brought back to Europe of the encounters they had. Very interesting.
I have not and I will need to check this out. David Graeber always pops up in my head whenever reading things around indigenous history.
Men, I really love this video. It's really interesting and makes you want to research more about native american philosophy. Great work 👍🏼
amazing video, kind of content that is under represented
Thanks so much. Hope to do more outside western philosophy.
Welcome Back! Thanks for sharing!
thank u for sharing this!! ive questioned this but havent known where top begin the search, i myself stem from the NA Yavapai indigenous people and this knowledge has been lost on me
Dr. Leroy Little Bear is an amazing writer and speaker on the concept of Indigenous (specifically Blackfoot) philosophy if a deeper dive is appealing to anyone.
This is exactly what I've been waiting for
We need to understand that acceptance of limitations does not mean you shouldn't strive to achieve something greater.
Great great video! Thanks so much. Would love to learn about the Aztec philosophy in another video
Yo my man, since this video is meant to shed light on philosophy that's outside the standard eastern/western philosophical boundary;could you do a video on Latin American philosophy? I feel like it and African philosophy are super underrepresented.
it is Sissitonwan and Wahpétonwan the fish scale mound village and the dwellers of the leaf village
Signed up to your Patreon for this episode. Worth it. Thanks for this. Do you have further resources for the philosophically inclined?
Hell ya. Thanks dude. Appreciate the support an absolute ton. From me, outside of public videos, I have some Patreon podcast/content, but there's also plenty of great channels like PlasticPills, CCK Philosophy, Then & Now, 1Dime, etc. I very much recommend!
If you wanna learn about indigenous philosophy look into the KAIANEREKOWA (The great law of peace)
My people the people of the land of the flint (kanienkehaka) took up this message of peace first.
It comes from the Kanonsonnionwe. Which translates to the people of the longhouse
You have a new subscriber. Fascinating video! Would love to see more videos on indigenous philosophy throughout the Americas. But can already see that there are many cool other topics on your channel too.
Great video !! There conception of self aligns highly with conclusions I've already come to !
Great efforts here to do something good here. Im impressed
Wow what is that tone/song called that you used in the first seconds of the video it sounded so cool?
If you ever do cover aztec philosophy i highly recommend the florentine codex, theres a section specifically about philosophy
Very good to know! Thanks.
Great job on this video. Thank you for sharing your talent
I love it, and yeah contemporary neurology supports a picture of individuality that is like how all else in nature is formed in tightly wound and nearly unfathomable nonlinear relationships. We are shaped by forces far larger than us, and it's only through that understanding that we may find a greater sense of belonging as well as a path to freedom as a society that is truly worth fighting for and doesn't mislead people.
Thank you for your video. I was hoping you'd mention wetiko. Do you talk about wetiko in any of your other videos?
Mind = Blown
~ 12:10
I always thought that way, what the fuck. Spirals... The movement of hot and cold in a contained environment... Up and down making a spiral... I fall down the abys, circling and circling, my position and perspective in constant shift and at such a brake neck pace I don't even have time to find a rock or branch or stick or any stability before the white waters of life whisk me away to another experience.
The Spiral... What the fuuuuuuck.
We and the Process?
I remember this... Transformative feeling when... I learned to be more comfortable with the HIGHWAY. I always felt like I was not comprehended. Just there as a blank placeholder. No one needing to interact with me and to be quite frank the feeling was mutual... Then I /needed/ to learn how to drive on the freeway. I was always fuckin terrified. If I wasn't seen or comprehended, I'd be like all those people who just so happen to always get into accidents... I desperatly wanted to drive and experience the greater Americana through Auto Culture....
Then, when I got back into the car at the rest stop, my heart a race, my instructor let me know I gotta get us home. Drive BACK! Getting on the freeway was wild enough, but this is in the middle of nowhere! People are going 3x the speed! They barely see me, let alone in this little student driver car!
He politely asked again and it forced my hand...
It was on the way back I felt... a part of something. Like I was integrated... Like I was a puzzle piece, traveling around for the portrait I was to be a part of and here it was. People were looking at me and reacting, not negatively, but that I was there at all. Not gonna 'noclip' through me like I was a vaporis ghost. They didn't want to hit me because I was a furry or young or mixed or straight or a dude. No one really cared. All they cared about was the traffic in front of them. I was too. They were the traffic... and So was I.
damn - that kinda felt good to let out.
It's like the more you learn about philosophy the more Western dualistic conceptions of the self and humanity are an outlier. Sure they're pretty prevalent among the Abarahim traditions including Islam but look anywhere outside or even more closely withing and you seem to be way more likely to find this sort of monism/nondualism.
There is plenty of monism is western thought. It lost it's favout in the early 20th century for a mroe analytic approach, but that was just a phase. We have been exploring mind/body relationships in various fields for decades now.
Isn’t it funny that cross cultures in their own ways still talk about one thing. one intangible thing. We call god. East calls Tao, presence. Krishna. Allah. Great spirit. Flow. It goes on yet the same is here
Depends on the cultures 🙄
I learned quite a bit about the tribes in canada and it was unbelievably interesting!
Whats the name of the song which plays at the beginning of the video
I love your channel. Thank you for your efforts
Fantastic video. Thank you.
Very good video. Thank you for this.
Wonderful talk, thanks! ❤
Fantastic video!
Please also do native american outside USA borders! Your way of portraying everything is beautiful and it would be beautiful to hear the other native american philosophies! Well done!
What’s the song that starts at 7:18?
Here you go: ua-cam.com/video/lf9P5kF-Ty8/v-deo.htmlsi=rM3xhJ3ABkeso7dx
Such outlook on life is indeed a lot more in-tune with everything else. Where you are part of everything around you.
However, as everything has impact on us, we in turn have impact on everything else. Sometimes it's beautiful, other times it's ugly, though this is just a moral evaluation.
Does predator destabilise fabric of life when causing some species of pray to be wiped out, or does predator just do what predator does? 'Everything' is indifferent to it, it persists nonetheless, just in a different form (in this case as predators muscles and excrements, and then so on and so forth, lol).
We learn and categorise, we impose ourselves on everything because that's what we do. We see tendencies, we document them in some form, we learn to affect it in new ways. Indeed an act of domination of everything. But that's where we come from, to dominate is to have certainty and security. We gravitate towards "easier" avenues. Living in undisturbing tandem with everything would require compromises, and acceptance of, some, undesirable "uncontrollable" outcomes. That, as we have shown throughout most of human history, is very difficult for us.
Even you yourself, no matter how ethical and considerate your process of learning about North American Indigenous philosophy was, you have dissected it and even appropriated it into yourself, like a proper human being would. That's just what we do.
Also, on categories:
They aren't meant to be rigid. They are as chaotic and ever-changing as Everything. Categories evolve and change as our understanding of things evolves and changes.
I am so happy that you made this! This mode of reasoning and understanding is also present in sikh, sufi and mystic circles. It's interesting because it stands in direct juxtaposition of societies surrounding them which see the divine/monoistic being/power/entity as something distant and disconnected. We have the concept of "Khaalak khalak, khalak mein khaalak" (transl.: The creation within the creator, and the creator (is) within the creation).
As for when you mentioned "monoism actually leading to diversity", drawing from the sikh tradition, I can see parallels to this in our perception too. from "everyone is a sovereign" (positing: "then is there truly a 'king'?") to "the self in all is the self within you (oneself)" (positing: "if there is no other disconnect between beings; we are all one and the separation is an illusion")
P.S.: yes, here I am drawing from our dharmic pool of philosophy but I am not religious. The video connected with me on those levels so I thought about sharing concepts from my part of the world 😅
Your videos are amazing 😍
Really appreciated the preface that western/european philosophy has its place as well. It reminded me of when a friend of mine said "it's not that European history and philosophy don't have value it's just that theirs isnt the only with value. It's not that European history and philosophy need to be erased but they need to be put in their place alongside the rest of the world." This video is a nice contribution towards that effort.
I'm biracial, I was raised western at home but something between east-west in the military community I grew up to champion. These conversations provide me language on observations I've been making since I can remember... being biracial you don't often grow up with biracial models. Neither parent will ever be fully qualified.
I share that because, two things:
1. "Western philosophy" is even dismissive of indigenous Europe. Western philosophy is every institution that thrived (long enough) but exists as a result of the fall of Persia... that serves Christianity. What is Pagan Philosophy? Is it not both "Western" and Indigenous? Western philosophy needs to rebrand with transparency, "white philosophy"? Christian philosophy? Can't say "judeo-christian philosophy", right? Because Muslims and Jewish people only matter to Western philosophy when engaged with Christians. Idk... whatever works, I just don't see Western philosophy (critical enough for me) of the religious institutions... because they're two sides of the same card.
2. Another personal observation, the "divine feminine" doesn't show up in Western philosophy, that was stripped away from white women. But this stays in tact outside of the west...including European pagans (white indigenous? Sorry, there's gotta be a more appropriate term? European non-conformist?). Christianity being the mechanism of confirming.
I could be completely wrong, but content like this confirm my thoughts. I fully recognize you're specifically discussing Indigenous North American, just this is the first space I've encountered to compare the two realities close enough to objectively.
I look forward to more content. ❤
European religions and up until the Roman Empire’s incursions were similar if not identical to that of the First Nations. The Druids of the Gallic regions venerated nature and until the the Romans changed everything we’re not an idolatrous culture. The very name Britain means the land of the painted after the ancient tradition of tattooing.
"a multi-faceted framework, that I believe, we often fail to ignore"
What
More indigenous, egalitarian, working class, anarchist, etc and their spiritual connections. A Great read is “Spiritual Anarchy” on Anarchist Library or “Mutual Aid” by Kropotkin.
one could draw apt parallels to the pre-socratics and to the lyric traditions in western culture. Heraclitus probably could have been a shaman of sorts.
Native "philosophers", Black Elk,Wovoka,Charles Eastman,Sequoiah.
Great video. Learned a lot. Great cadence. Will support as long as I can, have a feeling I'm gonna like whatever else you got. Good luck.
Starts at 6:45
While I sympathize fully with the view that we need to leave behind the many forms of parochialism found in much of Western thought and culture, and take more seriously the ways by which non-western peoples understand life and the world, I think this video falls short on the substantive side of things. How about more *citations* of what some of the more outstanding members of the many indigenous tribes of North America have actually said, as recorded down presumably by white settlers who talked to them? Surely there must be at least a few such recordings. We can then proceed to an *examination/analysis* of how the words of those natives should be correctly understood, plus *compare* the ideas coming from different tribes. That would make the study of Native American thought more scholastically robust, don't you think?
Especially liked the gender portion of the video.Please,make more content about gender.New subscriber.
thanks for this great review. I just want to clarify that North America includes a substantial portion of Mesoamerica, including the Aztecs and the Maya. Also, North America includes the Inuit societies. What you are discussing is largely nomadic or semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer societies, not strictly "North American."
I clarified that at the very beginning of the video.
@@epochphilosophy I apologize. I'm from Mexico and I have an oversensitive eye for this. I posted before watching more than 10 seconds. Thanks for your video.
@@goatskip No problem. I understand that sensitivity. Would like to delve into more anthropological topics in the future that may include central America! Hope you enjoyed the video.
FINALLY
Are you aware of Native American Studies? You know there are living Native American Philosophers, right?
In your intro you reference palestinians. How is their spirituality like that of the American Indians?
traditional philosophy encourages self reflection and doing good, the Christian one says you can ask and be forgiving and you know what that does to people not make them self reflect and think about their actions idk im drunk and it seems likes our ideology is failing us in real time
This is a much-needed video. I've never quite had words for it, but transformative model of identity is probably the concept I lean most yowards in these matters. It's nice to have a term to use. I never realized how close to indigenous philosophy my own philosophical opinions tend to be, and I can imagine many others may feel the same. This is a fantastic video as well. Thank you, and thank you for providing your viewers with potential reading material on the subject as well.
My absolute pleasure. Thanks for the comment and thanks for being here!
@@epochphilosophy Well, thank you for giving me the opportunity to be and making indigenous philosophy more accessible.
For more on this theme, read God is Red by Vine Deloria, Jr.
And to reclaim their own relationship with the planet (rather than play Indian) white people should watch the original Pathfinder movie out of Norway, from 1987, titled "Olefas".
i think europeans all know they come from europe no matter where they're born.
The self is a framework around an idea that seeks to continue to exist given parameters. corporations.lol
I support native americans not because im native I too am of irish and scots mix. I support first nations because its the right thing to do I need no other reason.
Traditional African philosophy (Yoruba, Asante, etc.) is very deep, intuitive, and informative as well. Hell, most ALL indigenous philosophical thought across the world is superior to Western, materialistic, "philosophical," thought.
Thanks for the content and insight. Keep it coming 🙏🏿💯
Brilliant overview! Thanks.
Thank you.
This is a very Anglo-centric view of the world. The west is way more than the Anglo-sphere and America. I know you focused on amerindian culture and thought but inputing west philosophy on American history and modus vivendi is very shallow.
You named a few German and at least one "Portuguese-Jewish" philosopher, two cultures with deep connections with nature in their surnames and also two cultures with a enormous impact on the world and west.
Also the differentiation between a collective perception of self (as native amerindian) Versus a egocentric perception of self (as euro/western) seems ideological contaminated and is totally incongruent with European history and culture.
This was a good one mate
Chief Seattle never said anything like any of that. That whole "speech" is anachronistic fiction, full of references he could never have known or seen, and events that had yet to take place. Moreover, he did not speak any English. Beyond this, there was nothing even remotely like a "philosophy' among North "American" peoples; there were tens of thousands of disparate viewpoints. That most people thought of themselves as a component of their tribe or village is well known, but they also, generally, had a word meaning "I." Duh.
Feel the most intelligent people in the history of the planet were the ones who laughed when told gold and silver had "value".
Assigning value to material objects is the way we moved from trading cows for sheep, and got our species to modern levels of advancement.
Think about that.
@@RhetoricalMuse always better to trade things of actual value and worth though, and always will be.
@@krono5el
Those things are asigned value too. Everything is. This is why it was a poor mechanism.
Gold and silver are assigned value so that a more stable and equitable trade can occur. One can also accumulate assets and sell assets.
Fast forward to money.
@@RhetoricalMuse thats only if you want to control people and slave trade a bit when you assign worthless things value. imagine being stranded somewhere without a way to contact anyone for a while, would you want a grain a rice or a lump of gold.
@@krono5el
*thats only if you want to control people and slave trade a bit when you assign worthless things value*
You say many things but explain very little. How do you determine what is 'valuable'?
'Controlling people' doesn't require economics. Humans were traded as capital way before money was created. There are records of slave trading as far back as 11, 000 years!
This false conflation of 'bad things' to 'money' (or it's derivative) is false on a multiude of levels. Might be a good idea to read into economics and how capitalism is the best tool ever derived to pull people and nations out of poverty. It also lead to mass education for all (when income tax was introduced).
*Imagine being stranded somewhere without a way to contact anyone for a while, would you want a grain a rice or a lump of gold.*
Neither.
You seem to be mixing two different things here.
Think of Maslow's needs. Needs change depending on the situation of the person.
11:07 oh yeah? Try getting 2 XX or 2 XY chromosomes to produce offspring naturally. LOL. In humans, it's a pretty clear-cut duality.
there is no such thing as 'native' American philosophy/ every tribe has there own beliefs and are not all the same peoples or the first according to their own history. BS
This was well balanced thanks 🙏
My own two cents about this is that a lot of traditional societies around the world had an analogous philosophy. Most differences are influenced by the style of civilization, which is why Central American thought is largely different, for example. And why old world shamanistic traditions are closer to the indigenous American ones
As a practising student of Neoplatonic Philosophy within Anarchist Spirituality, I feel deeply the reality of what you’ve discussed here.
The more I see Theophany, the realisation that all the things in our world are layered manifestations of the Divine Mystery, the more I see the world as a wondrous and beautiful expression of Reality. However, I also see how the Western powers have cherry-picked certain aspects of ancient Philosophy, appropriated the ancient Greek explorations and findings, and have appropriated them and used them into means to allow the powerful to exploit our world and its peoples.
I look forward to your next videos, and perhaps we can discuss the anarchistic spiritual implications soon.
Two-spirit had nothing to do with gender. That is ridiculous. It was about spirituality, not something as shallow as gender.
Certainly no one lynching homosexuals and cross dressers though
@@NCRonradRidiculous
@@goldenhoneybee8128 in indigenous societies? No, during the inquisition or Wyoming in the 90’s? Yep
Yes exactly!!
As someone who is two spirited, it does have to do with third genders in some contexts along with a lot of other concepts. It depends on the individual cultures which are under the label
wtf I didn't got the notification
Why are so many people mispronouncing taoism these days? 😮
Amazing job. Not Western philosophies are worth paying attention to, specially as a kind of historical reparation to those cultures
When "everything is philosophy", nothing is.
It’s an interesting occurrence that oxygen is found worldwide and yet no one owns it; don’t you agree?
When Epoch heard this, he became enlightened.
Refere to section 15:24. The great white spirit, Wakan Tanka. Your view that the West only sees phenomenon through Christianity is incorrect. The West started with Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. Platos description of 'the good' and 'the one' is our version of Wakan Tanka. Please study. Also, Western Esoteric philosophy describes a spirit that is omnipotent, omniesence, just as Wakan Tanka (refere Hegel, Spinoza).
I, too, an intellectual powerhouse, am worthy of gatekeeping what is *real* philosophy! If you are not doing logic tables, genuine, real structured pursuits of absolute truth, than it's not philosophy!
@@namedrop721 ...YET. No one owns it yet. 😞
It's because they're the lost Hebrews... "you know who" doesn't want anyone to know!
The indigenous peoples of America are some of the lost tribes of Israel .
Native Americans where brutal af
As opposed to Europeans, who were famously never brutal.
@@canifer5546 naw they all drank milk and ate ice cream, and just looked pretty.
You lost me at gender is a spectrum.
Eleven minutes and I'm out. The subject seems to be a mechanism for virtue signaling your wokeness.
It was a nice presentation, but honestly very surface level and not entirely accurate. But a relatively decent broad spectrum look at north American indigenous philosophy.