American Indian Grandmothers
Subtitle: Traditions and Transitions
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
Published: September 1999
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9780826320773
Subjects: Ethnography; Indigenous peoples; Women's studies; United States; Kinship; Native American Sociology; Sociology Of Women; Social Science; Ethnic Issues; Sociology; USA; Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies; Women's Studies - General; Gerontology; Grandmothers; Indian women; Indians of North America
Description: "These nine essays blend documentary history, oral history, and ethnographic observation to shed light on the complex world of grandmothering in Native America. The cultural and emotional resources of their ethnic traditions help grandmothers grapple with the myriad social, economic, cultural, and political challenges they face in the late twentieth century.

Indian grandmothers are almost universally occupied with child care and child rearing at some time, but such variables as lineal descent, clan membership, kinship patterns, individual behavior, and cultural ideology change the definition, role, and status of a grandmother from tribe to tribe. Although late-twentieth-century society often impoverishes and marginalizes them, many Indian grandmothers provide grandchildren with social stability and a cultural link to native history and wisdom.

The contributors' case studies explore grandmothering among Navajos, Puget Sound Salish, Tewas, Hopis, Otoe-Missourias, Choctaws, and Sioux."--BOOK JACKET.