Blackfoot Religion and the Consequences of Cultural Commoditization

This book explores the exchange of Blackfoot "medicine bundles" within contemporary Blackfoot culture and between the Blackfoot Peoples and Euro-Americans. These ceremonial bundles, which are circulated as gifts in their native context, are robbed of their statuses as living beings or persons, when they are treated as symbolic objects or commodities by cultural outsiders. Much of the original, ethnographic data presented in this book deals with the attempts of some Blackfeet to repatriate ceremonial materials from Euro-American hands. This book represents a valuable study of contemporary Blackfoot religion as well as the repatriation movement. Kenneth Lokensgard also contributes to the studies of material culture and exchange; central to his investigation is the critical examination and reapplication of the interpretative terms "gift" and "commodity." Careful use of these terms, Lokensgard argues, can better help scholars appreciate how different peoples perceive the worlds they inhabit. List of Illustrations, Acknowledgements, Introduction, 1. Blackfoot Medicine Bundles: Gifts or Commodities, 2. Gifts and Commodities: The Concepts Behind the Terms, 3. Scholarly Applications and Investigations of Commodity and Gift, 4. Blackfoot Medicine Bundles as Circulated Gifts, 5. Blackfoot Medicine Bundles as Accumulated Commodities, 6. Material Exchange, Metaphorical Markets, and Scholarly Ethics in the Study of Religion, Appendix: Informants and Collaborators, Glossary of Blackfoot Terms, Sources Consulted, Index