Deconstructing the western worldview: toward the repatriation and indigenization of wellness Item Type Thesis Authors Rahm, Jacqueline Marie Download date 23/09/2021 13:22:54 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/11122/4821 DECONSTRUCTING THE WESTERN WORLDVIEW: TOWARD THE REPATRIATION AND INDIGENIZATION OF WELLNESS A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Jacqueline Marie Rahm, B.A., M.A. Fairbanks, Alaska December 2014 Abstract As Indigenous peoples and scholars advance Native histories, cultures, and languages, there is a critical need to support these efforts by deconstructing the western worldview in a concerted effort to learn from indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing for humanity’s future wellbeing. Toward that imperative, this research brings together and examines pieces of the western story as they intersect with Indigenous peoples of the lands that now comprise the United States of America. Through indigenous frameworks and methodologies, it explores a forgotten epistemology of the pre-Socratic and Pythagorean Archaic and Classical Greek eras that is far more similar to indigenous worldviews than it is to the western paradigm today. It traces how the West left behind this timeless wisdom for the “new learning” and the European colonial settlers arrived in the old “New World” with a fragmented, materialistic, and dualistic worldview that was the antithesis to those of Indigenous peoples. An imbalanced and privileged worldview not only justified an unacknowledged genocide in world history, it is characteristic of a psycho-spiritual disease that plays out across our global society. This dissertation suggests that the healing of the western mind rests with shifting the dominant paradigm toward a fundamental axiom of holism found within the life-ways of American Indigenous peoples and also buried within the West’s own ancestry, particularly within a misunderstood ancient Greek tradition at the cornerstone of the western world. v Dedicated to the Spirit of Everything Thank you To my husband Brian Rahm for his love and friendship To my parents and family To my mentors and friends To my committee members for their guidance, encouragement, and inspiration: Mike Koskey, Ph.D., Beth Leonard, Ph.D., Theresa John, Ph.D., and Jordan Lewis, Ph.D. To the Peace Corps Coverdell Fellows Program, University of Alaska Fairbanks Graduate School, and Mellon Foundation Fellowship for their generous support. vii Table of Contents Page Signature Page ...................................................................................................................................... i Title Page ................................................................................................................................................................. iii Abstract ..................................................................................................................................................................... v Dedication Page ................................................................................................................................................... vii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................................. ix List of Figures ......................................................................................................................................................xiii List of Appendices ............................................................................................................................................... xv Preface .................................................................................................................................................................. xvii Chapter 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 Purpose ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 Research Questions ................................................................................................................................ 4 Evolution of the Inquiry ....................................................................................................................... 6 Methods and Design ............................................................................................................................13 Significance of the Study ....................................................................................................................16 Chapter 2 Literature Review .........................................................................................................................19 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................19 Indigenism ...............................................................................................................................................20 Worldviews .............................................................................................................................................24 Traditional Knowledge .......................................................................................................................30 Native Science ..........................................................................................................................33 Roots of Democracy ...............................................................................................................34 Ancient Medicine ....................................................................................................................36 Native Ways of Knowing ....................................................................................................................43 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................................50 ix Page Chapter 3 Methodology ...................................................................................................................................51 Overview ..................................................................................................................................................51 Decolonizing Methodologies ............................................................................................................52 Tribal Critical Race Theory ...............................................................................................................55 Holographic Epistemology ................................................................................................................58 Research as Ceremony ........................................................................................................................61 Mindful Inquiry ......................................................................................................................................63 Research Setting ....................................................................................................................................66 Chapter 4 A Pre-Socratic Epistemology ....................................................................................................69 The Pre-Socratics ..................................................................................................................................69 Epistemological Theme 1: Transmitting Knowledge ..............................................................79 Epistemological Theme 2: The Cosmos and Four Elements ................................................80 Epistemological Theme 3: Places of Power ................................................................................82 Epistemological Theme 4: Incubation ..........................................................................................83 Epistemological Theme 5: Mêtis and Common Sense .............................................................85 Epistemological Theme 6: Divine Madness ................................................................................87 Epistemological Theme 7: A Way of Living ...............................................................................89 Epistemological Theme 8: Aporia—Pathlessness ....................................................................90 Epistemological Theme 9: The Stillness of Motion ..................................................................92 Epistemological Theme 10: The Oneness of Everything .......................................................93 Reflections ...............................................................................................................................................94 Chapter 5 Ancient Greek Mysticism Meets Indigenous Ways of Knowing ...................................99 A Common Vision..................................................................................................................................99 Oscar Angayuqaq Kawagley—Spirit and Knowledge ............................................ 100 Phillip Duran—A New Science Worldview................................................................ 102 Vine Deloria, Jr.—A