By training I am a Historian of Religions and received my Ph.D.
from the University of Chicago in 1973. My current interest is in the
process of Euro-American cultural identity formation based both on hist-
orical contact with native peoples and on Euro-American _imagings_ of
these peoples. To put it in a simplistic formula: "We are we (Euro-
Americans) _because_ we are not they." Who we are, then, becomes a function
of who we _perceive_ them to be.
Related to this process of imaging are two further issues. The
first involves the adequacy of the images of native peoples or, put
another way, "Who _are_ they?" The self definition of native peoples thus
becomes central. The second issue involves the reality of the _contact_
between Euro-Americans and native peoples and the role that this contact
played in _mutual_ cultural change. The result of this is that the culture
of the United States becomes, in Charles Long's terminology, a "Euro-Afro-
Aboriginal Culture." One implication of this, for Euro-Americans at least,
is the need to re-examine cultural identity in the twentieth and twenty-
first centuries. "If they are not what we (Euro-Americans) imaged them to
be and if they have influenced us (as well as we have influenced them),
then _who are we?_
Finally, I believe, along with Laurence Sullivan of Harvard, that
native peoples have their own perspectives on and interpretations of
modernity. In other words, there are various interpretations of the modern
world. The Euro-American interpretation is one but one which should not
necessarily be privileged.
I hope this gives you some handle on where I am coming from. I
would be very interested in making contact with both Euro-Americans and
native individuals who might share my interests. You may feel free to post
this introductory missive to Native-L if you think that there might be
broader interest in projects such as mine. Thanks for your help.
Jim Dalton
Dr. James S. Dalton
Department of Religious Studies
Siena College
Loudonville, NY 12211
(518) 434-1908 (home)
(518) 783-4235 (office - this might change in August)
Bitnet address: DALTON@SIENA.BITNET