The Transactional Relationship between Occupation and Place: Indigenous Cultures in the American Southwest

摘要

The transactional metaphysics of philosopher John Dewey (1859-1952) is applied in this article to the study of cultures and occupations among the Pueblo, Navajo, and Ohlone peoples. The data on these peoples’ occupations come from presentations by New Mexico-based scholars Dr Theodore S. (Ted) Jojola, Dr Kathleen Whitaker, and Dr Les W. Field, at the 6th Annual Research Conference of the Society for the Study of Occupation (SSO:USA) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2007. This article makes use of Dewey's concept of ‘situation’ to emphasize responses to problems that break into the continuous, emergent nature of human experience in specific regions or locales over time. The author proposes viewing occupations as the sites within Deweyan situations where cultures undergo transformation through the actual doing of things. Further, this article takes a transdisciplinary perspective, drawing on resources in occupational science, geography, anthropology, and postcolonialist perspectives to explore the relevance of Deweyan concepts to occupational science as an emerging and evolving discipline.View full textDownload full textKeywordsOccupation, Place, Culture, John Dewey, Pragmatism, Post-colonialismRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2011.562874