Open AccessClay and Common Ground: Clanships and Polyspirited Embodiment
Author(s) -
Sebastian De Line
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of critical race inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1925-3850
DOI - 10.24908/jcri.v7i1.13378
Subject(s) - indigenous , reciprocal , common ground , context (archaeology) , relation (database) , aesthetics , sociology , epistemology , environmental ethics , history , philosophy , communication , ecology , archaeology , linguistics , database , computer science , biology
In this article, I explore embodiment within discourses on trans and two-spirit through a consideration of polyspirited(many-spirited) within the context of Indigenous and transnational stories of clay. Two main articulations spiral out from embodiments of the polyspirited: 1) that embodiment is not limited to one or two spirits but potentially many spirits operating through or within the body collectively in reciprocal relationality; and 2) that stories of clay teach us that the Westernized scientific conception of the human body is limited in its capacity to articulate what it means to be in relation. By understanding clay stories, we begin to comprehend that we are potentially more than two-spirit peoples.