Login | Register

Sky woman's great granddaughters : a narrative inquiry into Kanienkehaka women's identity

Title:

Sky woman's great granddaughters : a narrative inquiry into Kanienkehaka women's identity

Horn-Miller, Kahente (2009) Sky woman's great granddaughters : a narrative inquiry into Kanienkehaka women's identity. PhD thesis, Concordia University.

[thumbnail of NR63412.pdf]
Preview
Text (application/pdf)
NR63412.pdf - Accepted Version
22MB

Abstract

This study features the self-described title "Sky Woman's Great Granddaughters: A Narrative Inquiry into Kanienkehaka women's Identity." Examined are liberal, socialist, and feminist world views that address the external authentication of Kanienkehaka identity and its impact on the lives of eight women from the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada. The Canadian liberal nation-state's philosophical tradition of individual liberty contrasts from what we observe in the lives of these eight women. Canada extends the right to its citizens to be self-authenticating and to pursue one's projects. Deliberative individuals enter into a dialogue with like-minded individuals to achieve consensus about a conception of the good life. This philosophy is the basis for Canada's criteria to authenticate who is fit to be a citizen of this country. However, authenticated Indians were accorded 'special status', translated using liberal philosophical criteria into legislation like the Indian Act. This Act governs every aspect of modern Indian life. This study focuses in particular on Kanienkehaka women who are victims of a process of authentication through intellectual colonization by feminism which poses as an authority to authenticate what is truly feminine. These eight women, through critical reflection, become self-authenticating as they describe the impact of these philosophical traditions on their lives and what they did to overcome the disorienting effects of the liberal and feminist traditions. This study finds that Indian Act Mohawk identity is a rigid construct, in contrast to the understanding of identity communicated by these women. When expressing one's Kanienkehaka identity, primacy lies in the interdependencies found in a unity of self, family, and of community

Divisions:Concordia University > Research Units > Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture
Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Humanities: Interdisciplinary Studies
Item Type:Thesis (PhD)
Authors:Horn-Miller, Kahente
Pagination:viii, 434 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
Institution:Concordia University
Degree Name:Ph. D.
Program:Humanities
Date:2009
Thesis Supervisor(s):Salée, Daniel
Identification Number:LE 3 C66S36P 2009 H67
ID Code:976655
Deposited By: Concordia University Library
Deposited On:22 Jan 2013 16:30
Last Modified:13 Jul 2020 20:10
Related URLs:
All items in Spectrum are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved. The use of items is governed by Spectrum's terms of access.

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Downloads per month over past year

Research related to the current document (at the CORE website)
- Research related to the current document (at the CORE website)
Back to top Back to top