Towards an Essential Native American Identity: A Theoretical Overview

Abstract / Resume Contrary to the postmodernist critique of essentialism, Native peoples of North America retain primordial Native essence. This essence is realized in the Natives' symbiotic relationship with land and nature. This, combined with a sense of place where they belong, and the connectedness of all forms of life resist the constructionist model of identity advocated by postmodernism. Thus, from Natives' perspective, postmodernism acts like a conceptual cannibal invented by Whites to erase everything that does not conform to the White norm. In arguing that identity is more about self identification and culture than about blood, the essay proves Natives' agency and pushes the limits of discourse. Contrairement aux critiques postmodernes de l'essentialisme, les peuples autochtones de l'Amerique du Nord conservent leur essence autochtone primordiale. Cette essence est concretisee dans les relations symbiotiques des Autochtones avec la terre et la nature. Alliees a un sentiment d'appartenance et d'interdependance de toutes les formes de vie, ces relations resistent au modele constructionnel de l'identite mis de l'avant par le postmodernisme. Aussi, dans une perspective autochtone, le postmodernisme est un cannibale conceptuel invente par les Blancs pour effacer tout ce qui ne se conforme pas aux normes des Blancs. En avancant que l'identite vise plutot l'auto-identification et la culture que les liens de sang, le present article demontre le pouvoir des Autochtones et deborde les limites du discours. Concepts like essentialism, culture, identity and resistance, have been interrogated in cultural theory in the recent years. Certain paradigm shifts that have entered cultural studies are the notions of essentialism as misnomer, culture as hybrid, identity as contingent and resistance as impossibility. Attempts to deconstruct these issues and their displacement are incompatible with Native American experience and identity. Since discourse and representation cancel difference, their normativity needs to be challenged by Native culture and lived experience. In spite of the postmodern denial and suspicion of cultural essence, the latter has been at the centre of Native politics. Recovery of that purity and past are fundamental to Native American identity. This brings into focus the opposition of essentialism and constructionism. Essentialism believes in a fixed essence and an idea of a pure origin, to which individuals must conform. In contrast, constructionism believes that there is nothing pure and originary, because discourse invariably mediates in the formation of identity. Critics of essentialism argue that as various tribes did not experience life the same way, there is no constant determinant of Native identity. This formulation ignores the fact that all these tribes were colonized and dispossessed, dislocated and subjected to cultural genocide. The denial of an origin and authenticity to the former victims of White history does not fit into the agenda of Native resistance. The refusal to acknowledge Native origin and purity perpetuates the colonial myth of 'a people without history.' Even though there is no standardized Native due to internal heterogeneities, Natives have a collective sense of origins rooted in the land and tribal ways of life. Natives represent the most primordial and immutable state of existence among all ethnic groups in North America. This primodiality defies all discursive models and constructionist approaches. This Native essentialism has survived White discursivity. Rudolfo Anaya says, After long years spent in the realm of imagination and creativity, I came to understand that many of the symbols which welled up from my subconscious were not learned, they were part of my ethos, symbols from the archetypal memory residing in the blood, (in Cochran 83) Purity as myth is one of the most pervasive ideas associated with the constructionist approach. …

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