Abstract
AbstractIndigenous people share ancient epistemological understandings of the world. These define for them what makes up the world, how forces influence these components, and why this all happens. These understandings are basic in that they frame human value orientations, call for individual and group action, and interpret natural and human events. Because epistemology involves ancient shared cultural understandings of the world, talking about the world involves cross-cultural communication, which is a special feature of anthropology. This chapter is an analysis of epistemological divides in cross-cultural communication about massive stone bridges. The divide is most clearly viewed when Native American cultural experts explain the meaning and purpose of stone bridges to Western science-trained National Park Service managers and geologists. To the former, the stone bridges are alive and were made at Creation as a place for World-balancing ceremonies and as portals to and from other dimensions. To the latter, stone bridges are inert remanent sandstone deposits that have been eroded into oxbows and undercut by small rivers over millions of years.
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
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