Neyooxet Greymorning Anty 326E justification.
(1) As perhaps the first doctoral student to be identified as a political anthropologist in North
America, I have noticed over the years that the paucity of knowledge students have about
Indigenous peoples and issues borders on shameful. From its onset my dissertation discusses a
number of scholars who helped shape the fields of philosophy and political science, and it would
be a most peculiar thing to think their thoughts and perspectives would not be brought into my
classes.
Tracing early notions of the concept of sovereignty, the Romans embraced a
philosophy that proposed: "Quidquid principi placuit legis habet vigorem cum
populus ei et in enum omne suum imperium et potestatum concessit." (The will
of the prince has the force of the law, since the people have transferred to him all
their right and power. Greymorning 1990. Pg 19-20)
Anty 326 provides a historical examination of discourse and ethics underlying the impact of
development on Indigenous cultures from the early 1930s to present. Thus, due to the historical
background provided, Anty 326 also serves as at introductory level to the topic. Anty 326 is
unique within Montana with no other class that introduces students to such issues faced by
Indigenous peoples. In a state that mandates Indian Education for all, support for this can be
given as result of my being asked and delivering a three hour seminar to teachers and
administrators from high schools in and around Missoula in 2013 on the basis of material taught
in this class. In Anty 326, while I don’t assign the actual writings of Ferdernand Bullow’s "The
History of the Theory of Sovereignty" John Lock’s “The Second Treatise of Civil Government
and a Letter Concerning Toleration”, Jean Bodin’s treatise on sovereignty, Thomas Hobbes’
Leviathan, George Santayana, existential philosopher R. D. Laing (“Unless you can see through
the rules, you can only see through the rules.”), or Thomas Aquinas, because I believe that
should be left to departments like philosophy, the thoughts of these writers and how they
shaped ideas of ethics are brought into my classes through discussions of their ethical
perspectives and how there has been a disconnect from theory to practice. Thus when
Bartholome de las Casas, who led the debate on whether Indians in the New World were fully
human, and whose efforts resulted in an increased focus on the “ethics” of colonialism,
students are not just led through discussions of whether this failed but also on the ethical
underpinnings of practice versus theory. Such discussions are relevant because it is important
to know the path events have taken in order to understand how we have gotten to where we
are.
When first taught in 1996 the course was numbered Anth 385, and then renumbered as Anty
326 when taught spring 2012. The class alternates with Anty 433 and is only taught spring
semester on even years. Because the class is linked to a Globalization minor upper division
students have always enrolled in the class. If the Anty 326 numbered is lower this would no
longer happen and it would most likely no longer link to the minor. When taught students are
canvassed to learn what they know of the topic. As a result I can state with certainty they know
little to nothing with regard to political, ethical, and justice issues that have historically faced
Indigenous peoples in the US, Canada, South America, New Guinea, or other countries, and
less familiar with how injustices violate codes of ethics espoused by such epistemological
thinkers as Hobbs, Lock, Santayana, Bodin, Gregory Bateson, or Laing, whom I reference
throughout various class lectures.
(2) Ethics content is met by familiarizing students with traditions and ethical thought of
Indigenous peoples juxtaposed through such philosophical thinkers as George Satanyana’s
“those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” by examining just what
continues to be repeated and whether this is by political design or oversight. Hobbs’ Leviathan
is given particular attention to his "frequency of insignificant speech" as it concerns speculations
with regard to scholastics and pharmaceutical research, and also R. D. Laing and how people
are conditioned to rules to the point where the lines of ethics can often be blurred, as it is
internationally with the difficulty determining and charging whether an act of genocide has been
committed. This is accomplished through lectures and discussions that draw from John Bodley’s
Tribal Peoples and Development Issues, Jerry Mander’s Paradigm Wars: Indigenous
People’s Resistance to Globalization, Marjane Ambler’s Breaking the Iron Bonds; Indian
Control of Energy Development, and Rupert Ross’ Dancing With a Ghost; Exploring Indian
Reality. Students are exposed to a framework of Indigenous ethical thought at the start of the
term through Dancing With A Ghost, specifically from chapter 3, The Rules of Traditional
Times, sections A. The Ethic of Non-Interference, B. The Ethic That Anger Not Be Shown, D.
The Ethic of Conservation and Withdrawal, and chapters 4, 5, & 6, Looking For a Synthesis,
Natural Science Versus Spiritual Belief, and Being Indian is a State of Mind, and come to realize
that different cultures gives shape to different codes of behavior that form what some label as
ethics. This then becomes a platform to discuss readings from John Bodley’s Tribal Peoples
and Development Issues, and whether European actions violate their own codes of justice and
philosophical thoughts that pertain to what is ethical. Among the chapters read and discussed
from Paradigm Wars are, Chp 2 Aspects of Traditional Knowledge and Worldview - the People
Belong to the Land – Subsistence and Materialism – Indigenous Ecological Knowledge; Chp 6
World Bank and IMF Impacts on Indigenous Economies – Eight Impacts of IMF/World Bank
Structural Adjustment Programs; Chp 8 High Tech Invasion; Biocolonialism – Code of Ethics of
the International Society of Ethnobiology, Chp 9 TRIPS Agreement: From the Common to
Corporate Patents on Life. Through these readings students are exposed to and discuss what it
means when a human being’s DNA is patented, as was a man’s DNA in New Guinea in 1993 by
a US pharmaceutical company, and whether this is an ethical pursuit in the name of research
and science for the good of “mankind”. In the movie “Drum Line” when a talented drummer was
scouted by a band director at a university and he let the director know that he could not read
music the Band Director stated, because “A lot of folks can’t read the sign that says toilet don’t
mean they don’t know how to use one.” Similarly, just because I don’t have the word “ethic
written on every week of my syllabus, doesn’t mean we are not discussing the nature of ethics
and how it is connected to each week’s topic.
(3) Although I have already gave Paul an assessment tool that I developed in 1989 when teaching
at the University of Alberta, I am attaching additional assessment forms. The first is the original
short form used up to 2012, the second is the long version that I developed when the class was
changed to ANTY 326 and the third is a form I developed Autumn 2013 titled Class Assessment
by Instructor that I use for individual classes each term. So, if I am to be questioned about
assessments, I’m reasonably sure I may be the only faculty here at UM that has developed three
assessment forms for the purpose of assessing students. Should this in fact be the case then
technically that would put me at the head of the assessment class in Missoula, and possibly in the
MUS. Also, if anyone wishes to use or appropriate the form they should ask me first least we
find ourselves having an ethical discussion of a different nature .