Neal B. Keating, visiting assistant professor of religious studies, presented a paper titled "Toward a Genealogy of Iroquois Studies: Healing the Great Divide?" at the Northeast Anthropology Association meetings, at Ithaca College on April 21. The paper examined the discursive divide that has emerged in the field of Iroquois studies, between non-Native scholars of Iroquois life, and Native Iroquois/Haudenosaunee scholars, intellectuals and artists.
Since the 1970s, the two groups have come into conflict with each other over the production and status of cultural representations and authenticity. A general mutual distrust has since marked the field. The presentation focused on two conflicts: the New York State Education Department's attempt to include a Native perspective in a revised curriculum resource guide, and the ongoing question of Iroquois influence on the United States Constitution. Keating's presentation featured 14 "ethno-cartoons" by John Fadden (Mohawk), that relate to both of these cases from a Native perspective.
