B2: Definitions

• geological strata: In geology and related fields, a stratum (plural: strata) is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil, or igneous rock that was formed at the Earth's surface, with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers.
• Steven J Gould: he theory of punctuated equilibrium, a view of evolution by which species undergo long periods of stasis followed by rapid changes over relatively short periods instead of continually accumulating slow changes over millions of years.
• geomythology: the study of etiological oral traditions created by pre-scientific cultures to explain—in poetic metaphor and mythological imagery—geological phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, ...

B2 Main Concept: Native American knowledge only given validity when white scientists make same observations

• asks for a dialogue between the western and tribal people
• they know more

1. corrective measures to eliminate scientific misconceptions about indians, culture and past
2. need to find a way in which traditions will be taken more seriously as valid bodies of knowledge

Struggle: who is the authority, racism, Indian knowledge is not due to luck

B2 Storytelling and Language : Storytelling is a form of art

• languages have precise words to describe human emotion, land, human intensity,
• western languages cannot duplicate or translate

B2: Difference: Relativity

• it is known but different
• knowledge is only valid and valuable when white scientists document and articulate it
• story of bear use a plant as medicine that taught the Navajos how to use the plant

B2: Difference: The world we live in is Alive

• look at events to determine the spiritual activity supporting or undergirding them
• human have to participate in events
• western methods are mechanical
• indians ask the spirits for knowledge
• all things are connected and related,
• knowledge in terms of religious rituals, and also guidance to structure them in their behaviour,
• listen to their environment to fish, hunt and protect

B2: Difference: Authority in Science

• storytellers gain nothing form having knowledge
• does not gain personal interest
• a respected storyteller was not a status dependent upon economic or military powers
• some cannot praise their own accomplishments

B2 Scientific Community: Elders as Scientists

• specialized jobs to remember certain knowledge
• Vision Quests( puberty ceremonies) when young people sought to help and seek guidance from nature
• info from young people shared with spritiual leaders
• knowledge is personal for non-western people versus impersonal for western scientist
• only those people given the knowledge by other entities can use it properly

B2 Oral Tradition Practices

• recited during winter time, regular part of the life
• religious ceremonies involved reciting stories
• accumulated tribe wisdom was shared to all
• said that special knowledge is revealed in visions or dreams, "personal knowledge""need-to-know" basis?

B2 Oral Tradition is the the equivalent to science

• **oral tradition is "loosely held collection fo anecdotal material that explains the nature of the physical world as people have experience it and the important events of their historical journey" (33)
• "American indian traditions deal with commonsense ordinary topic such as plants, animals, weather, and past events that are not particularly of a religious nature"
• made a point of Westerners appropiating traditions ex: spiritually, burning sage, stones, meditation/trances,
• validity based on tribe's spiritual forces
• oral tradition is serious, knowledge, true

B2 Problem with bringing non-western tradition within the scope of science

1. subject to extra scrutiny:

• future discredits their validity in culture

1. subject to racism in academia:

• white scientist looking form the outside in studying other cultures, they need to bring people from the culture

1. information become valid when offered by a white scholar

   "color of the skin guarantees scientific reason"

• they have to submit to the establish authority

B2 Science is folkflore

• i don't agree with this statement
• especially because science is being attacked everyday through the debate of climate change

• Science IS a true but sometimes the way it communicated to the public is flawed. Example the CDC with so many changes, people lose trust in the way it's communicated

  "immense knowledge and factual proof of many scientific theories does not extist"(30).

• reminds me of the little high school argument between a biology teacher and a christian girl

• this is very true, bering straight and big bang theory taught as fact when they are theory

B2 Science critique in the paper

• scientific method seen as the be all end all
• scientists can be frauds
• science is hierarchical - "poor ignorant laypeople" versus the elite scientists
• scientists are ignorant fo the developments outside their field"

B2 - Western Darwinian evolution discredited all other beliefs

"all accounts of a creation ...are superstitions devised by ignorant peoples to explain the processes fo the world"

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B2: Native American and the myth of scientific fact,Chapter 2: Science and The Oral Tradition starts page 34

• written 1995 Summary: every society maintinas its sense of idenity with a set of stories which explain creation, linked events after creation and experiences that "serve as precedents for determining present and future actions." Stories have moral teaching , traditions, spritual powers, invisible forces, memorable events in history.