Weathered Character: Envy and Response to the Seasons in Native American Traditions

Strategies for comparative ethics need to be chosen historically, for how they will play within the pre-existing field of comparisons already formative of public opinion. To counter popular misunderstanding of native ethics as a static repetition of taboos, I will examine the way mature character is...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Swanson, Tod D. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell 1992
In: Journal of religious ethics
Year: 1992, Volume: 20, Issue: 2, Pages: 279-308
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:Strategies for comparative ethics need to be chosen historically, for how they will play within the pre-existing field of comparisons already formative of public opinion. To counter popular misunderstanding of native ethics as a static repetition of taboos, I will examine the way mature character is formed through long experience in responding to the seasonal movement of species. Drawing on examples from the Arizona Papago, the Colombian Páez, and Ecuadorian Quichua peoples, I argue that the moral character is the well-weathered character, the person experienced in appropriate response to unpredictable weather, plant, and animal cycles. Within this framework native analogies to such standard topics of Euro-American ethics as envy, ownership of place, privacy, shame, and modesty are reinterpreted in a new light.
ISSN:1467-9795
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics