Overview
The Hopi have long been the focus of intensive ethnographic studies that have contributed to the popularization and commodification of their ideas and practices. As a result, since the late 1980s the Hopi have imposed research restrictions that have protected their traditions and cultural sovereignty but have raised the possibility that Hopi ethnography has reached an end.Peter Whiteley argues that joining structured Hopi perspectives on their culture, history, and politics to aspects of social theory can result in a more powerful transcultural understanding than conventional ethnography allows. In six essays he analyzes the dynamics of clanship and polity, the import of personal names, Hopi engagement with the environment in the face of mining-company water depletion, and a historical instance of deliberate, individual action (the 1922 burning of an altar) that precipitated cultural change. He contends that while Hopi metaphysics includes references to supernatural forces and belief in an integrated universe, the development of individual will and agency is a cornerstone of Hopi philosophy.
Taking issue with the postmodernist syllogism that objective cultural interpretation is impossible, Whiteley believes that the continued circulation of anthropological knowledge is crucial to fostering social equality and cultural pluralism. Urging an anthropology more fully cognizant of its moral implications, Rethinking Hopi Ethnography pays tribute both to critical cultural analysis and to Hopi thought and practice.