Cultural Hegemony Identity and the Story of the Catawba Nation

ECU Author/Contributor (non-ECU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)

Jefferson Locke Fortner (Creator)

Institution

East Carolina University (ECU )

Web Site: http://www.ecu.edu/lib/

Advisor

Ellen L. Arnold

Abstract: The Catawba Indians in order to maintain their own identity as an "other" culture utilized a course of acceptance and collaboration with the Euro-American majority that came to surround them while ultimately developing a dynamic use of "storytelling"--to establish their own "Living Culture " and to successfully cope with the challenges they faced versus the status quo of the dominant culture. After necessarily having to adapt to the realities of the new society and setting a course for survival as a sub-culture within that society the Catawbas have utilized these storytelling techniques to engage in such diverse venues as the Federal Court system--during their recent struggle to regain federal recognition as an American Indian Tribe--as well as the culture at large in cases of performance in and reaction to the White Eurocentric interpretation of their role in the overall culture. 

Additional Information

Publication

Thesis

Date: 2012

Keywords

American literature, Native American studies, Folklore, Cultural Hegemony, Identity, Narratives, Orality, Performance, Storytelling

Subjects

Catawba Indians

Storytelling--United States

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