This dissertation examines the use, functions and meaning of traditional personal names and naming practices in the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Indian) culture. The present study indicates that Niitsitapi personal names appear to play an important role in recording and transmitting various aspects of traditional Niitsitapi socio-cultural knowledge.
Introduction
- Overview
- The nature, scope, and objectives, of the research
- The Niitsitapi people: a brief historical background
- The residential school era
- Niitsitapi oral tradition and the importance of story
- The story behind the study
- Clarification of terminology use
- Outline of the dissertation structure
5 Figure 1.1: Map showing the location of the Kainai Reserve (pink shaded area); Siksika Reserve (dark blue); Piikani Reserve (grey); and the Blackfeet Reservation (light blue). Our theory of knowledge is found in the sacred stories that are the living knowledge of men.
Literature review
Introduction
Theoretical perspectives on the meanings and functions of names
Crystal defines "connotation" as "personal associations evoked by words" and notes that these associations depend on the contexts (including cultural contexts) within which language is used. Markey further asserts that “knowing a name does not require knowledge of the language…[n]ames are linguistic distinctions; are singular terms.
The sociocultural significance of names
- Communicating social and cultural norms through names
- Personal naming and sociocultural/ethnic identity
She also highlights the metaphysical aspects of Chinese personal names; specifically, the apparent power of names to change people's character and destiny. This underscores the notion that, as in other societies and cultures, Niitsitapi personal names index sociocultural as well as individual identity.
Accounting for cultural context in names research
- An ethnolinguistic approach to names research
- From description to explanation: applying indigenous knowledge in names
- Indigenous knowledge recovery and decolonisation
Each of these sources contains extensive lists of names and their literal (translated) meanings, but only brief and somewhat cursory explanatory remarks about the significance of the names within the context of each respective culture. 28 A more deliberate expression of the intention to use local knowledge in name research is found in Waugh (1998).
Research in Native American personal names
- Research in Niitsitapi personal names and naming practices
- Niitsitapi oral literature on personal names and naming practices
In other words, the cultural significance of Niitsitapi personal names and naming practices has been overlooked until now. 33 personal names in the Niitsitapi culture; that is, how the Niitsitapi people themselves understand their names and naming practices.
Summary
Methodology
- Introduction
- Ethnolinguistics and participant observation methodology
- Participant observation and the ‘problem’ of local knowledge
- Towards an alternative approach: using local knowledge as an interpretative
- Researcher’s participation as ‘learner’: a lesson in Niitsitapi epistemology
- Location and duration of field work
- Field work location
- Duration of field work
- Collecting information
- Personal interviews
- Involvement in social activities
- Use of library materials and museum archives
- Interpretative/explanatory methods
- Evaluating the methodology
- Weaknesses
- Advantages of the methodology
- Summary
I also made several follow-up visits to the Reserve during the dissertation writing phase. The participants represented a good part of the local community (Reserve) in terms of educational level and occupation; for example, college students, instructors, social workers, a building custodian, researchers, and retirees were among those interviewed; many of the interviewees (twelve in total) were elderly. In the early stages of this process, I carefully reviewed all the information I had.
Another beneficial aspect of the methodology was the close collaboration between me and people (especially my mentors) in the Kainai community.
Names tell us stories: learning about Niitsitapi personal names
Introduction
58 extract, route; and such an abstraction would cause the reader to miss the essence and reality of the things I am trying to communicate about what I have learned in the course of my research in relation to Niitsitapi names. In order to avoid unnecessary separation of thoughts and ideas and thereby effectively limit abstraction, I have structured this chapter in only three parts: the introduction, the main body of the discussion, and the conclusion. This not only reinforces the theme of the 'story', but also allows the content to be presented in a way that I believe will help the reader follow the development of thoughts and ideas more easily than if the latter were disjointed or disjointed due to frequent section breaks.
In addition, I hope that this format will allow the reader to experience something of the fluid and intuitive way in which this research has been conducted.
Names tell us stories: learning about Niitsitapi personal names
So it was arranged that he would receive a name as part of the celebration. 74 Giving personal names with sstowa'pssi in mind is also sometimes referred to in the sense of 'designating a path' for the life of the person receiving the name. I have already explained, for example, how personal names are given as blessings for kainaisoka'pii 'all good things' in the lives of the people who are receiving the names.
Another interesting implication of the sacred nature of Niitsitapi personal names has to do with the mistranslation of these names into English.
Summary
Duane also told me how names keep the ancestral spirits alive and make their wisdom available to the name bearers. In the first part of the chapter, I discussed how Niitsitapi personal names are passed down or handed down, along with akáítapiitsinikssiistsi 'stories of people/ancestors from the past', and how this gives the people who bear the names a sense of identity, in terms of knowing their own history and understanding where they come from. 84 At this point I would like to share with the reader how I personally experienced the reality of some of the concepts I explored during the course of this project.
The following quotations capture, in my opinion, the essence of the whole discussion which I have presented in this chapter, and give it an appropriate conclusion:.
Conclusion
Overview
The sociocultural significance of Niitsitapi personal names
The discussion in the previous chapter shows very clearly that Niitsitapi personal names are an integral and indeed inseparable part of traditional Niitsitapi socioculture. Not only do Niitsitapi personal names have cultural significance, but they are also effective communicators of this content. Niitsitapi personal names thus play a crucial role in conveying socio-cultural norms and values in Niitsitapi society.
In this respect, the present research demonstrates that, based on the cultural knowledge embedded and transmitted through them, Niitsitapi personal names provide a powerful way to establish, maintain and change perceptions of individual as well as social and cultural (ethnic) to communicate. identity.
Contribution to onomastics research
For example, the same kind of associations between Niitsitapi personal names and cultural elements such as spiritual beliefs, kinship relations, warfare and ethnohistory have been observed with respect to the personal names of the Winnebago, Iowa, Oto, Missouri, Kwapa, Osage, Kansa, Omaha, Ponka, Siouan (Dorsey 1890), Sarcee (Sapir 1924), Cheyenne (Moore 1984), Yococh and Miwok (Bissonnette 1999) tribes. Given the mostly categorical and descriptive content of the existing published literature in Native American anthroponymic research, the results that emerged from the present study represent an important contribution to this field of onomastics. It seems that it could provide a deep insight into the language and culture of the Niitsitapi as reflected in personal names.
In this sense, this approach lays the foundations for a rich science of onomastics." Certainly, the discussion in §4.1 illustrates the considerable depth of knowledge on Niitsitapi personal names and naming practices, oral tradition, as well as other aspects of culture, that have benefited from adopting this approach.
How the research serves local interests
This again raises the question that if we can learn so much about the Niitsitapi culture by studying personal names and naming practices in this particular cultural context, what can we learn about other cultures by conducting similar name studies within those cultures. . Frank's comments suggest that this thesis could be used to remind Niitsitapi people (especially young people) of the importance of tribal names and traditional naming practices in their culture, particularly with regard to the role of personal names and naming in the teaching of Niitsitapi- ethnohistory and cultural ways, and by promoting awareness of Niitsitapi sociocultural identity (§4.1). Additionally, since Niitsitapi personal names are expressed through the Niitsi'powahsin language, the current study could serve to motivate people to learn the language, in the sense that knowing one's tribal name and its real meaning requires some basic knowledge of how that name is structured and pronounced in Niitsi'powahsin.
As mentioned in §1.1 and §2.4.1, this thesis constitutes the first comprehensive scientific study ever to focus exclusively on Niitsitapi personal names and naming practices as the subject of investigation, and to provide an in-depth, Niitsitapi-oriented and written, explanation about the sociocultural meaning of Niitsitapi personal names.
Fostering cross-cultural dialogue in social science research
Sociopolitical aspects of the study
Even looking at the supervision of the thesis from two different sides, this is a dialogue in itself. 97 Since the beginning of this study, I have realized the importance of establishing good personal relationships with people in the Kainai community and have worked hard to pursue and maintain a friendly relationship between myself and my colleagues and informants in the Kainai Reserve. While this research project exhibits a strong orientation, both methodologically and philosophically, towards an ethno-scientific approach, it is positioned in support of work being undertaken in Niitsitapi communities to recover and affirm traditional Niitsitapi tribal knowledge within the context of postcoloniality. North America. society.
In this way, the study also makes a broader sociopolitical statement in favor of deconstructing Western-based interpretations and analyzes of tribal cultures.
Accounting for the spiritual dimensions of Niitsitapi personal names: some wider
The potential for the current study to function in this way became apparent at the 2008 annual conference of the American Name Society (ANS), where I presented a paper that included some discussion and illustration of the spiritual dimensions of Niitsitapi personal names (Lombard 2008 ) ). After my presentation, one of the audience, a gentleman from Nigeria, stood up and expressed his appreciation that I had addressed this issue and then very excitedly shared with the audience where some of the spiritual features of Niitsitapi personal names , I had spoken. about, is also found in his own tribal culture. In §4.1 I provided a number of illustrations which show the apparent power of Niitsitapi personal names to guide, direct and even protect the lives of the name bearers.
While some may consider this to be mere folklore or superstition, I can assure the reader that, from the perspective of the Niitsitapi people - based on their lived life experiences in the real world - names do indeed fulfill these functions.
Limitations of the study and recommendations for further research
100 among some Kainai elders that the history carried in names is being lost along with the gradual disappearance of the use of many traditional Niitsitapi personal names. Another possible avenue for further research into Niitsitapi personal names could be to explore more closely the linguistic meanings of the names. I am convinced that a more intensive study of the semantic structure of Niitsitapi personal names would reveal some additional underlying cultural concepts and traditional ways of thinking, which have not been addressed in this thesis.
As the current research focuses on the sociocultural significance of Niitsitapi personal names, it can be used reflexively by researchers from other cultural groups to answer the question of whether personal names contain and convey so much sociocultural meaning in Niitsitapi society, then to what extent, and in what ways, the personal names of the other cultures in question perform the same functions.
Summary
101 As indicated in §5.2, this thesis also provides a basis for comparative research on the personal names and naming practices of other cultures. As this dissertation is the first scientific study to provide a detailed explanation of the sociocultural significance of Niitsitapi personal names and naming practices, it makes a somewhat ground-breaking contribution to the existing written literature on the subject. The present study also drew attention to the spiritual elements of Niitsitapi personal names and naming practices.
The limitations of this dissertation highlight opportunities for more research into some aspects of Niitsitapi personal names and naming practices.
Glossary of terms
Paahkapsaahkomapi – Bad Boy/Boy Of The Not Good/Misfortunate Boy Paahtsiinaam/ Paahtsiinaama'ahkawa – Takes the Wrong Weapon Paksskii – Broad Face. Kaaahsinnoon/ kaaahsinnooniksi – Our Grandparents Kainai – Blood Tribe; literally, Many leaders Kainaisoka'pii - All good things. 115 Kimmapiiypitsin – The practice/habit of being kind to others or looking at them with compassion. Kitawahsinnoon - Our land (including used when speaking among fellow Niitsitapi) Kitsiitsinihka'siminnoonistsi - Our real names.
A description of my own Niitsitapi naming ceremony
Although our people began to live as the makoiyi ['wolves'] had shown them, life was still very difficult and people were often hungry. A lady named Weasel Woman was fetching water from a river near her camp when she heard something calling to her from the bushes. Kamen explained how it could be used in a ritual that would call the buffalo to a beeping "buffalo jump."
The people followed her instructions and soon they had enough meat and lots of skins for new teepee covers.
