“Third- and fourth-generation Americans indulge in growing nudity, informality in social relations, egalitarianism, and the rearing of women who value autonomy, strength, freedom, and personal dignity—and who are often derided by European, Asian, and Middle Eastern men for those qualities. Contemporary Americans value leisure almost as much as tribal people do. They find themselves increasingly unable to accept child abuse as a reasonable way to nurture. They bathe more than any other industrial people on earth—much to the scorn of their white cousins across the Atlantic, and they sometimes enjoy a good laugh even at their own expense (though they still have a less developed sense of ridiculous than one might wish).
Contemporary Americans find themselves more and more likely to adopt a “live and let live” attitude in matters of personal sexual and social styles. Two-thirds of their diet and a large share of their medications and medical treatments mirror or are directly derived from Native American sources. Indianization is not a simple concept, to be sure, and it is one that Americans often fined themselves resisting; but it is a process that has take n place, regardless of American resistance to recognizing the source of many if not most American’s vaunted freedoms in our personal, family, social, and political arenas.
This is not to say that Americans have become Indian in every attitude, value, or social institution. Unfortunately, Americans have a way to go in learning to live in the world in ways that improve the quality of life for each individual while doing minimal damage to the biota, but they have adapted certain basic qualities of perception and certain attitudes that are moving them in that direction.” Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, 217-8.
Contemporary Americans find themselves more and more likely to adopt a “live and let live” attitude in matters of personal sexual and social styles. Two-thirds of their diet and a large share of their medications and medical treatments mirror or are directly derived from Native American sources. Indianization is not a simple concept, to be sure, and it is one that Americans often fined themselves resisting; but it is a process that has take n place, regardless of American resistance to recognizing the source of many if not most American’s vaunted freedoms in our personal, family, social, and political arenas.
This is not to say that Americans have become Indian in every attitude, value, or social institution. Unfortunately, Americans have a way to go in learning to live in the world in ways that improve the quality of life for each individual while doing minimal damage to the biota, but they have adapted certain basic qualities of perception and certain attitudes that are moving them in that direction.” Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions, 217-8.
