a href="http://www.oupcanada.com/ebrochure/steckley/index.html"img src="/images/hed/closer_look_btn.gif"/aAcclaimed by instructors and students alike for its fresh, innovative approach to the discipline, Elements of Sociology is back and better than ever in this brand new third edition. Narratives, anecdotes, and a wealth of examples and illustrations challenge students to think differently not onlyabout sociology, but also about the social world that surrounds them.
The Inuit are a familiar part of Canadian identity but also exotic residing in the remote Arctic. The mix of the familiar and the exotic has resulted in the creation and perpetuation of a number of "White Lies." These are stories that have been developed over long periods of time, reproduced in classrooms, anthropology and sociology textbooks, and other media, but have been rarely challenged, contributing to misunderstandings that have ultimately, in subtle ways, diminished the stature of Inuit traditional culture. In this lively book, designed specifically for introductory students, Steckley unpacks three "White Lies"—the myth that there are fifty-two words for snow, that there are blond, blue-eyed Inuit descended from the Vikings, and that the Inuit send off their elders to die on ice floes. Debunking these popular myths allows him to illustrate how knowledge is shaped by Western social science, particularly the anthropology of the "Other," and that it can be flawed. In the process, students learn not only about Inuit culture, but about the difference between popular and scholarly research.
The philosophical underpinnings of this textbook make it a most interesting read for scholars of Aboriginal Studies, the social sciences, humanities and cultural studies and humanistic curriculum development. John Steckley's familiarity with and respect for the epistemology of the Huron, Mohawk and Ojibwa peoples enlightens and enables his research. In this book, he provides a critical framework for assessing Aboriginal content in introductory sociology textbooks. He defines what is missing from the seventy-seven texts included in his study of the manifestation of cultural hegemony in Canadian sociology textbooks. This critique is suitable for students and professors of sociology, as Dr. Steckley addresses the impact of the ellipses from the textbooks they have traditionally used.
The Wyandot were born of two Wendat peoples encountered by the French in the first half of the seventeenth century—the otherwise named Petun and Huron—and their history is fragmented by their dispersal between Quebec, Michigan, Kansas, and Oklahoma. This book weaves these fragmented histories together, with a focus on the mid-eighteenth century. Author John Steckley claims that the key to consolidating the stories of the scattered Wyandot lies in their clan structure. Beginning with the half century of their initial diaspora, as interpreted through the political strategies of five clan leaders, and continuing through the eighteenth century and their shared residency with Jesuit missionaries—notably, the distinct relationships different clans established with them—Steckley reveals the resilience of the Wyandot clan structure. He draws upon rich but previously ignored sources—including baptismal, marriage, and mortuary records, and a detailed house-to-house census compiled in 1747, featuring a list of male and female elders—to illustrate the social structure of the people, including a study of both male and female leadership patterns. A recording of the 1747 census as well as translated copies of letters sent between the Wyandot and the French is included in an appendix.
Investigation into 17th century Huron culture through a kind of linguistic archaeology applied to a language that died midway through the 20th century. Explores construction of longhouses, wooden armor, the use of words for trees in village names, the social-anthropological standards of kinship terms and clans, the Huron conceptualization of European-borne disease, the spirit realm of orenda, Huron nations and kinship groups, relationship with the environment and to material culture, relationship between the French missionaries and settlers and the Huron.
This vibrant, engaging introduction to society and social life promises to be the book sociology students will want to read. Through his inimitable narrative style, author John Steckley explores the theories, structures, and relationships that make up our social world while encouraging students to think critically about their role in society. Cutting-edge and comprehensive, Foundations of Sociology lays the groundwork students need to succeed in introductory sociology courses and beyond.
In 1911-1912, French-Canadian anthropologist Marius Barbeau spent a year recording forty texts in the Wyandot language as spoken by native speakers in Oklahoma. Though he intended to return and complete his linguistic study, he never did. More than a century later Forty Narratives in the Wyandot Language continues Barbeau's work. John Steckley provides an engaging analysis and fresh translation of the texts in order to preserve the traditional language and cultural heritage of the Wyandot or Wendat people. Leveraging four decades of studying the dialects of Wyandot and Wendat and his role as tribal linguist for the Wyandotte Nation, the author corrects errors in Barbeau's earlier text while adding personal anecdotes to provide readers with a unique comparative work. The stories in this collection, largely drawn from the traditional folklore of the Wyandot people and told in a language that has been dormant for decades, act as a time capsule for traditional tales, Indigenous history, humour, and Elder knowledge. Steckley's new translation not only aids Wyandot peoples of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Michigan in reclaiming their language but also gives researchers worldwide a rich, up-to-date reference for linguistic study. A significant literary record of a people and a language, Forty Narratives in the Wyandot Language is a major contribution to the preservation and revitalization of an Indigenous language in North America.
I have spent most of my life telling stories. In my first year at university in a northern city, I would walk the streets and tell stories I concocted to random people. I taught college and university for over 30 years, embedding stories into many of the lessons I gave. My students used to call me a storyteller. In the textbooks that I wrote and in some of my other adventures in non-fiction, I tried to be more narrator than reporter of "just the facts." My students told me that reading my textbooks was like reading the words I spoke in class. What are these stories like? They are more Alice's Restaurant than Alice Munro. Moving away from recent trends, they are not dark, psychological thrillers, and none of the heroes has super powers, although some have access to articles that possess magic, one being a vegetable These are ordinary people who through their reasoning and imagination win victories in life. Every story has a happy ending.
John and Angelika Steckley share their home with an entire flock of parrots, and have long been fascinated by this diverse group of birds. In this book, the anthropologist and author explores parrots' traits and habits, considers the matter of parrot intelligence, and shares the joys and occasional heartbreak of living among parrotkind.
Canadians are beginning to learn about the negative effects of residential schools on Aboriginal people in Canada. More hidden in the written record, but bearing a similar powerfully destructive role, are Indian Agents, who were with very few exceptions White men who ‘ruled the reserves’ in Canada from the 1870s to the 1960s. This book is the first to present a discussion of Indian Agents in general. It provides an introductory look at the control Indian Agents exercised over Aboriginal communities throughout the period in question. The primary intent is to spark discussion in Indigenous studies courses. This book is built upon a discussion of the lives and impact of five Indian Agents: Hayter Reed, William Morris Graham, John McIver, William Halliday, and Fred Hall. However, the practices and views of 39 other Indian Agents are interwoven throughout the text. Although there was a readily detectable sameness in the way that Indian Agent power was imposed on Aboriginal communities based on the institutional racism of the Indian Agent System, one of the points to be made is that not all Indian Agents were the same. Some were more oppressive than others. Also frequently pointed out is the fact that Aboriginal peoples were not merely helpless victims to Indian Agent control, but resisted that control, sometimes successfully. The book concludes with a chapter comparing the Indian Agent System in Canada, with similar systems in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.
Learning from the Past by John Steckely traces five cases of injustice faced by Aboriginals in the Canadian justice system: J. J. Harper, Helen Betty Osborne, Donald Marshall Jr., Minnie Sutherland, and Neil Stonechild. Each case has had an inquest, inquiry or even a royal commission dedicated to identifying the wrong done, with recommendations for change. This book reveals what has happened since the investigations, good and bad.
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