Table Of ContentPHILOSOPHY
The Dance of Person & Place
One Interpretation of American Indian Philosophy
Ever since first contact with Europeans, American Indian stories about how the world is
have been regarded as interesting objects of study, but also as childish and savage,
philosophically curious and ethically monstrous. Using the writings of early ethnographers
and cultural anthropologists, early narratives told or written by Indians, and scholarly
work by contemporary Native writers and philosophers, Shawnee philosopher Thomas M.
Norton-Smith develops a rational reconstruction of American Indian philosophy as a
dance of person and place. He views Native philosophy through the lens of a culturally
sophisticated constructivism grounded in the work of contemporary American analytic
philosopher Nelson Goodman, in which descriptions of the world (or “world versions”)
satisfying certain criteria construct actual worlds—words make worlds. Ultimately,
Norton-Smith argues that the Native ways of organizing experiences with spoken words
and other performances construct real worlds as robustly as their Western counterparts,
and, in so doing, he helps to bridge the chasm between Western and American Indian
philosophical traditions.
“The author opens a unique and exciting avenue for philosophical discourse by demon-
strating a method of inquiry that provides a new way of interpreting Native thinking,
a method that not only promotes Native philosophical systems but allows for greater
communication between Western and Native philosophers.”
— Lorraine Mayer, author of Cries from a Métis Heart
“Challenging and provocative, this book is a great step forward in the conversation of
academic Indigenous philosophy.”
— Brian Yazzie Burkhart, Pitzer College
Thomas M. Norton-Smith is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Kent State
University Stark.
A volume in the SUNY series in Living Indigenous Philosophies
Agnes B. Curry and Anne Waters, editors
State University of
New York Press
www.sunypress.edu
Thomas M. Norton-Smith
Norton-Smith The Dance of Person & Place
The Dance
of Person and Place
SUNY series in Living Indigenous Philosophies
————————
Agnes B. Curry and Anne Waters, editors
The Dance of
Person and Place
One Interpretation of American Indian Philosophy
Thomas M. Norton-Smith
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2010 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval
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without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production by Ryan Morris
Marketing by Anne M. Valentine
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Norton-Smith, Thomas M., 1954-
The dance of person and place : one interpretation of American Indian
philosophy / Thomas M. Norton-Smith.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in living indigenous philosophies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-3133-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-3132-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Indian philosophy—North America. I. Title.
E98.P5N67 2010
970.004'97—dc22 2009033704
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Each nation of Indians was made by the Great Spirit, in the skies, and
when they were f nished He brought them down and gave them a place
upon the Earth. To the Shawnees he was more favorable than to any
others. He gave them a piece of His own heart.
—Black Hoof (Trowbridge in Kinietz and Voegelin 1939: 61)
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Foreword xi
Acknowledgments xv
1. Common Themes in American Indian Philosophy 1
First Introductions 1
Four Common Themes: A First Look 9
Constructing an Actual American Indian World 14
2. Nelson Goodman’s Constructivism 17
Setting the Stage 17
Fact, Fiction, and Feeders 19
Ontological Pluralism 26
True Versions and Well-Made Worlds 32
Nonlinguistic Versions and the Advancement of Understanding 36
3. True Versions and Cultural Bias 39
Constructive Realism: Variations on a Theme by Goodman 39
True Versions and Cultural Bias 43
An American Indian Well-Made Actual World 51
4. Relatedness, Native Knowledge, and Ultimate Acceptability 55
Native Knowledge and Relatedness as a World-Ordering
Principle 55
Native Knowledge and Truth 63
Native Knowledge and Verif cation 68
Native Knowledge and Ultimate Acceptability 74
5. An Expansive Conception of Persons 77
A Western Conception of Persons 77
Native Conceptions of Animate Beings and Persons 82
An American Indian Expansive Conception of Persons 93
viii Contents
6. The Semantic Potency of Performance 95
Opening Ref ections and Reminders About Performances 95
Symbols and Their Performance 97
The Shawnee Naming Ceremony 102
Gifting as a World-Constructing Performance 105
Closing Remarks About the Semantic Potency of Performances 115
7. Circularity as a World-Ordering Principle 119
Goodman Brief y Revisited 119
Time, Events, and History or Space, Place, and Nature? 120
Circularity as a World-Ordering Principle 122
Circularity and Sacred Places 128
Closing Remarks About Circularity as a World-Ordering
Principle 133
8. The Dance of Person and Place 135
American Indian Philosophy as a Dance of Person and Place 135
Consequences, Speculations, and Closing Ref ections 138
Notes 141
Bibliography 153
Index 159
