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sonicdonutflour's reviews
88 reviews
Out of Our Minds: Reason and Madness in the Exploration of Central Africa by Johannes Fabian
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
Interesting enough for the history part but trying to argue for the continuation of anthropology written by a white dude who also studied in Africa isn’t great.
No Spiritual Surrender: Indigenous Anarchy in Defense of the Sacred by Klee Benally
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Just read it.
The Philosophy of Social Ecology: Essays on Dialectical Naturalism by Murray Bookchin
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Bookchin changed the game in the late 70s; offering a view ecological anarchism that was inspiring and made a lot of the environmental movements of the 70s, 80s, and 90s look foolish before those ideas even surfaced. As a result, he was inundated with critics and general haters. This book of essays is primarily about answering his critics. They are good answers, but that just isn’t something I needed in my life.
Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance by Nick Estes
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
This book provides an historical account of the Oceti Sakowin that is an excellent glimpse into the way settler colonialism functions at both the micro and macro levels. Please read this!
The Gift by Lewis Hyde
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
The first half of the book was a quite interesting history of gift exchange (even if white anthropologists were sited uncritically) but the second half is primarily just an examination of boring white dude poets and lost me a bit.Flf
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Murakami is a very good writer; I had forgotten. This book delves into past traumas and how our futures are guided by them.
The Thirteen Original Clan Mothers: Your Sacred Path to Discovering the Gifts, Talents, and Abilities of the Feminin by Jamie Sams
medium-paced
0.25
This book is interesting enough, but as it went along I became more and more suspicious. I am a white dude, and certainly not the arbiter of who can use the title of Indigenous, but this book left me feeling skeptical.
Jamie Samms does not specifically claim being Seneca in the book but describes it as “being what she is most familiar with” but online she is listed as a shaman (red flag) of Cherokee, Mohawk, Seneca, and Choctaw heritage; as well as being half French. That’s a lot of tribes for one half of one’s lineage.
Furthermore, the knowledge “passed on” to her in the book came from two grandmothers (one of whom is said to be 127 years old) who were Kiowa and had fled to the mountains of Mexico rather than be relocated to a reservation in Oklahoma. At one point the relocation is referred to by her as the “trail of tears” but the trail of tears was the relocation of the five “civilized” tribes (two of which she claimed heritage of on new age websites so she should know that) and the Kiowa relocation was established by the Treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867. She says the two grandmothers only spoke Kiowa and Spanish, so the stories were told to her in Spanish. However, she doesn’t mention at any point as being fluent in Spanish, and the stories told in the book are absent any translation notes or even any Spanish words which I suppose is feasible but definitely seems odd.
The knowledge these hypothetical grandmothers shared is interesting and all, but it definitely seems like it is painting with a pretty broad brush that smells of being more of a buffet table of traditions borrowed from different nations’ traditions. The various animals whose medicine the women taught were also animals that there is absolutely no way Kiowa folks would have encountered such as flamingos and camels.
That is in theory rectified by the narrators suggestion that these stories originate from when Turtle Island was one big landmass, seemingly confusing it with Pangea and drastically stretching out the human timeline to exist before the beginning and end of the dinosaurs. Also, many of the stories include interactions with the ocean…which seems odd for a plains tribe.
But moreover, why if you are an Indigenous person would you feel the need to share a bunch of “sacred” wisdom of a tribe that is not your own? There are also no mentions of her own native family member’s teachings that made it into the book.
I googled “Jamie Samms pretendian” but didn’t come away with anything conclusive. Again, it isn’t my place to be policing folk’s identities. That said, if she is Choctaw, Seneca, Cherokee, and Mohawk, it seems like some family member probs would have stepped in and been like “oh honey, maybe writing a book about tribal teachings that aren’t your own and certainly appeals to and is easily digested by new age folks isn’t the best look.”
So, if you are looking for pan-indigenous spiritual teaching that won’t challenge you at all, perhaps this book is just what you need?
Jamie Samms does not specifically claim being Seneca in the book but describes it as “being what she is most familiar with” but online she is listed as a shaman (red flag) of Cherokee, Mohawk, Seneca, and Choctaw heritage; as well as being half French. That’s a lot of tribes for one half of one’s lineage.
Furthermore, the knowledge “passed on” to her in the book came from two grandmothers (one of whom is said to be 127 years old) who were Kiowa and had fled to the mountains of Mexico rather than be relocated to a reservation in Oklahoma. At one point the relocation is referred to by her as the “trail of tears” but the trail of tears was the relocation of the five “civilized” tribes (two of which she claimed heritage of on new age websites so she should know that) and the Kiowa relocation was established by the Treaty of Medicine Lodge in 1867. She says the two grandmothers only spoke Kiowa and Spanish, so the stories were told to her in Spanish. However, she doesn’t mention at any point as being fluent in Spanish, and the stories told in the book are absent any translation notes or even any Spanish words which I suppose is feasible but definitely seems odd.
The knowledge these hypothetical grandmothers shared is interesting and all, but it definitely seems like it is painting with a pretty broad brush that smells of being more of a buffet table of traditions borrowed from different nations’ traditions. The various animals whose medicine the women taught were also animals that there is absolutely no way Kiowa folks would have encountered such as flamingos and camels.
That is in theory rectified by the narrators suggestion that these stories originate from when Turtle Island was one big landmass, seemingly confusing it with Pangea and drastically stretching out the human timeline to exist before the beginning and end of the dinosaurs. Also, many of the stories include interactions with the ocean…which seems odd for a plains tribe.
But moreover, why if you are an Indigenous person would you feel the need to share a bunch of “sacred” wisdom of a tribe that is not your own? There are also no mentions of her own native family member’s teachings that made it into the book.
I googled “Jamie Samms pretendian” but didn’t come away with anything conclusive. Again, it isn’t my place to be policing folk’s identities. That said, if she is Choctaw, Seneca, Cherokee, and Mohawk, it seems like some family member probs would have stepped in and been like “oh honey, maybe writing a book about tribal teachings that aren’t your own and certainly appeals to and is easily digested by new age folks isn’t the best look.”
So, if you are looking for pan-indigenous spiritual teaching that won’t challenge you at all, perhaps this book is just what you need?
The FBI in Latin America: The Ecuador Files by Marc Becker
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This book is interesting and scary. The FBI was able to build a large presence in Latin America in the 1940s ostensibly to prevent Nazi infiltration but as is their typical way spent their time surveilling leftists.
Native Americans of California and Nevada by Jack D. Forbes
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Basically an in-depth analysis of the genocidal actions of everyone San Francisco named streets after followed by one of the clearest/most concise explanations of racial/cultural construction in the US…this was written in 1968 and yet folks are still falling for blood quantum.
Evolution, Creationism, and Other Modern Myths: A Critical Inquiry by Vine Deloria Jr.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
“…we often see what we expect to see and are hardly aware of the world as it really is.This tendency is better seen in romantic encounters, but it does give us pause when we realize that scientists insist they are capable of objective, unbiased observations and we know they aren’t. it should be noted that any future effort at understanding the heavens must be filtered through this acknowledged handicap.”
Vine Deloria books always feel like your brain is exploding. This one is no exception.
Vine Deloria books always feel like your brain is exploding. This one is no exception.