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Book Review: Gathering Together: The Shawnee People through Diaspora and Nationhood, 1600–1870 by Sami Lakomäki
American Anthropologist
  • Christina Gish Hill, Iowa State University
Document Type
Book Review
Disciplines
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
6-1-2015
DOI
10.1111/aman.12269
Abstract
Kinship as a theoretical frame is slowly coming into fashion again in anthropological research. These new kinship studies diverge sharply from classic structural scholarship to explore the cultural constructions of family organization and the political implications embedded in how cultures articulate relatedness. Scholars in indigenous studies have also renewed their interest in kinship. A far cry from Lewis Henry Morgan’s first tome on kin in Native communities, recent studies have explored the workings of kinship as Native people interacted with Europeans, constructing new identities in the process. While Sami Lakom¨aki’s new book Gathering Together is not primarily about kinship, he could not have realized his argument without it. His scholarship emerges from what he deftly perceives to be a gap in the literature on Native nationhood—namely that most scholarship on American Indian sovereignty currently relies on European political traditions. Lakomaki calls for more research on nation-building grounded in Native history and political philosophies. His book gives us a solid model of what such scholarship should look like.
Comments

This book review is from American Anthropologist 117 (2015): 434–435, doi:10.1111/aman.12269. Posted with permission.

Copyright Owner
American Anthropological Association
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Christina Gish Hill. "Book Review: Gathering Together: The Shawnee People through Diaspora and Nationhood, 1600–1870 by Sami Lakomäki" American Anthropologist Vol. 117 Iss. 2 (2015) p. 434 - 435
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/christina_gishhill/3/