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One of the most contentious issues facing indigenous peoples around the world today is the fight to maintain a connection and identity to – and with – traditional homelands. This fight, largely the historical outcome of imperial and colonial processes over the last four hundred years, is in many cases the only fight that matters for indigenous peoples.
After working closely with indigenous peoples in three different countries, I have learned just how important and closely held the land is. For indigenous peoples, the culture, the language, and the identity of the individual is directly tied to the land. It is the land that informs indigenous peoples and their world views (1). One question that has arisen as a result of this understanding centers on the ways and methods indigenous people can use to maintain their relationship to the land – often traditional homelands that have been occupied for generations – in the face of such overwhelming colonial and imperial forces, both present and past. In the recent book by professor Lisa Brooks, The Common Pot: The Recovery of Native Space in the Northeast,
Looking at indigenous Native American writers, activists, and leaders of colonial Northeast North America, Brooks convincingly argues that Samson Occom, Joseph Brant, Hendrick Aupaumut, and William Apess all used the mechanism of writing to maintain their Native identity and cultural ties to the land. In relying on the tool of writing, these indigenous Native American peoples were able to maintain – and in some instances reclaim – their rights, identity, and culture in the face of incredible colonial and imperial forces. In fact, as Brooks points out this method was indigenous to the Algonquian, Iroquois, Ojibwa, Abenaki, and other Native Americans of the Northeast as demonstrated by their long tradition of making awikhigan.
Read the rest of the review: The Common Pot: The Recovery of Native American Indian space in the Northeast here.
The Persian Gulf, also known as the Arabian Gulf, is an area of the globe that has a fascinating history, one that is not only culturally intertwined with the environment, but that is also physically tied to it. Unlike many other parts of the world where the resources are abundant, allowing the culture to develop in a manner free of environmental constraints, in the Persian Gulf the cultures that have developed have been directly shaped by the region’s environment. This environmental influence on the cultures and peoples of the Persian Gulf is perhaps reflected in no better way then through the traditional architecture of the region. In a stunningly comprehensive and photographically rich book, Professor Ronald Hawker has brought this long and complex intertwining of culture and environment to light.
Traditional Architecture Of Arabian Gulf: Building a Desert Tides
The Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes referred to as the Arabian Gulf by certain Arab countries or simply The Gulf, although neither of the latter two terms are commonly used in the U.S. Ronald Hawker uses the term Arabian Gulf throughout this book, but as he explains, it is not for political reasons but sentimental ones. “Many people refer to the region as the Persian Gulf, but my first introduction to it was through Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. For me, the Gulf, khaleej in either Arabic or Farsi, will always be the Arabian Gulf” (p. xix).
Read more about traditional Arabian architecture and culture here.
