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This book investigates the phenomenological ways that dance choreographing and dance performance exemplify both Truth and meaning-making within Native American epistemology, from an analytic philosophical perspective. Given that within Native American communities dance is regarded both as an integral cultural conduit and "a doorway to a powerful wisdom," Shay Welch argues that dance and dancing can both create and communicate knowledge. She explains that dance-as a form of oral, narrative storytelling-has the power to communicate knowledge of beliefs and histories, and that dance is a form of embodied narrative storytelling. Welch provides analytic clarity on how this happens, what conditions are required for it to succeed, and how dance can satisfy the relational and ethical facets of Native epistemology.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Native American Epistemology

Ethical Knowing

Native Truthing

Chapter 3: Native American Epistemology and Embodied Cognitive Theory

The Cognitive Unconscious and Native American Ways of Knowing

Embodied Metaphor and Narrative in Native Cognitive Schemas



Chapter 4: Native American Epistemology and Dancing

Dancing as Native American Storytelling

Creating Meaning through Embodied Metaphor whilst Dancing

Creating and Finding Truth Through Native Dancing

Chapter 5: Native American Dancing: The Truthing in Performative Knowing

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Shay Welch is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Spelman College, USA.

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