For an Amerindian Autohistory: An Essay on the Foundations of a Social Ethic (Mcgill-Queen's Native and Northern Series) [Hardcover]

Georges E. Sioui (Author), Bruce G. Trigger (Author), Sheila Fischman (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1992 | Series: Mcgill-Queen's Native and Northern Series

Sioui has produced a work not only of metahistory but of moral reflections. He contrasts Euroamerican ethnocentrism and feelings of racial superiority with the Amerindian belief in the "Great Circle of Life" and shows that human beings must establish intellectual and emotional connections with the entire living world if they hope to achieve abundance, quality, and peace for all. Sioui is proud to be a Huron and an Amerindian and is fully aware of the injustices that the aboriginal people of North America have suffered - and continue to suffer - at the hands of Euroamericans. He is convinced that the greatness of Amerindians does not lie only in the past but that Native peoples will play an even more important role in the future by providing ideas essential to creating aviable way of life for North America and the world. While this is a polemical work, Sioui never descends to recrimination or vituperative condemnation, even when that might seem justified. Instead, he has given us a polemic that is written at the level of philosophy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It was with great pleasure that I received Sioui's book, and I read it with as much interest as profit. Nothing is more important for the future of our studies than to know that our Amerindian colleagues are ready and determined to take on their own anthropology and their own history. Sioui's work is a brilliant demonstration of this undertaking." Claude Lévi-Strauss. "Well written and well presented ... It was with pleasure that I read For An Amerindian Autohistory. A literate and well-argued plea for a reassessment of Canadian history from the Amerindian point of view ... Sioui's scholarship is very sound ... His most original contribution is his reliance on the traditions of his people and oral testimony ... He is deeply imbued with his Huron culture." Olive Dickason, Department of History, University of Alberta.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Carleton Univ Pr (November 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 077350950X
• ISBN-13: 978-0773509504
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,596,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.