PERMITTED USE: This image may be downloaded or is otherwise provided at no charge for one-time use for coverage or promotion of National Geographic magazine dated January 2014 and exclusively in conjunction thereof.  ©Martin Schoeller/National Geographic
(credit: National Geographic) 
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/01/kayapo/schoeller-photography; January issue of National Geographic magazine.”
Kayapo who live near border towns supplement their subsistence diet with trips to the supermarket, like this one in Tucumã.

We hear from Phil Deloria again this week in the form of his monograph that has become classic in the field in its own right.  His arguments about expectation and time and history relate to the chapter by Mark Rifkin that accompanies the book.

This is a biggie – easily the most influential work in American Indian history (term chosen deliberately) of the last quarter-century. As Paige said, we’d like to you read it, and the articles responding to it, as much for analysis of the particularities of historical events as for the broader conceptual and ethical questions we often speak about.

Here’s what we’d like you to read:

Everyone: Chapters 1-4, 7, and Epilogue.
Dane, Jakub, Elspeth, Nicole, and Henry: Chapters 5, 6, and 8.
Nick, Rosie, Vicki, and Michael: Chapters 9, 10, and 11.

We realize that’s a lot, especially in combination with the additional readings. Do your best.

These four pieces each take on the prehistory-history divide and illustrate the necessarily interdisciplinary approaches required for this kind of work. What lessons might we bring from earlier weeks to our assessment of these works? How is doing more “distant” history different, if at all, from the kinds of research and writing we’ve already seen? Are the stakes at all different? Lastly, what sorts of interventions are these particular works trying to make?