Worldview pdf

Johnston , 47 In further of his observations, Mishi-Waub-Kaikaik observed columns of ants working on the ground and picked one up, which wriggled in his hand. With the removal of the ant from the column a gap was created, but only for a moment. The ants closed ranks as if it had never been. Mishi-Waub-Kaikaik put the ant back in between the columns. A space was opened and the ant once more merged in the moving chain. All have a place. Aside from the belief that all creation is imbued with spirit, the creation story itself is set within a larger historical context.

In a story about the Waubunowin, the Society of the Dawn, Johnston writes that [the tribal storyteller] spoke of the beginning of all things in the vision of the Great Mystery; and of the mystic origins of the Anishinaabeg. He spoke of the four Spirit Beings who were sent to help the people; and of the five Water Beings who tested the people for their kindness, and then gave them the reward of knowledge.

He told his listeners of how the Anishinaabeg established settlements across the land; and of how one band, travelling far in search of the Land of Dawn, was led back home by the sacred shell.

The stories you will hear tonight are about men and women…who kept to their path as revealed in vision…They withstood ridicule without taking revenge; they saw marvels without flinching. And although they were tempted by comfort and by plenty, they persevered in their journey.

Such men and women have been granted long life. The Great Mystery created. And what the Great Mystery created, he will one day end.

Our Elders say that once again, as in the days before the Anishinaabeg came to be, waters will cover the earth. On that day, all things will come to an end. Below the sky, the animals, birds and fish invited her to come down from the skies to rest upon the back of the great turtle North America , who they had persuaded to rise to the surface. They were called Anishinaabeg Good beings or Spontaneous Beings.

And the totems became bonds of brotherhood and unity among our people. Emerging from the stories about the mystery beings is the origins of the clans and various Ojibwe societies.

From here the history of the Anishinaabeg continues to unfold — after recovery from the epidemic, many Anishinaabeg settle in other parts of the land. Newer stories tell of migrations of the people and arrivals of the white settlers and treaties.

In both the Mishomis Book and Ojibwe Ceremonies, a medicine person is asked for a name, and today, trusted Elders or grandparents are sometimes asked for a name, which is arrived at through a process which can take up to several months and which often includes prayer, dreaming and fasting. A feast is prepared for all attending and tobacco is offered when the name is announced to the four directions. All those present repeat the name each time it is called out.

In this way the Spirit World comes to accept and recognize the young child with the new name… [and] recognize him as a living being. Thereafter, the Spirit World and all past relatives watch over and protect this child. They also prepare a place in the Spirit World that this living being can occupy when his life on Earth is at an end. Embedded in these traditional stories is the formation of Anishinaabe councils, societies, and clans within Anishinaabe communities as well as values and codes of conduct such as those illustrated by the Seven Grandfathers.

The Seven Grandfathers The Seven Grandfathers were the powerful spirits who watched over human beings. Once found, and as instructed, the helper traveled with the child to the four quadrants of the universe and instructed him for seven years - after which time the boy was introduced to the Seven Grandfathers.

Within the lodge he was instructed in the meaning of the Four Directions4 and their colors. Today these colors are used to signify the medicine wheel. Each grandfather gave the boy a gift from a vessel in the lodge. Dbaa-dem-diz-win Humility To know yourself as a sacred part of the Creation Nbwaa-ka-win Wisdom To Cherish knowledge is to know wisdom De-bwe-win Truth To know all of these things Benton-Banai , 64 For centuries, the seven grandfathers have been held in high regard, and persons who embody the seven Grandfathers are held in high esteem.

The seven grandfathers are commonly featured on Ojibwe First Nations websites. Others consider the application of the seven grandfathers as the earliest form of Indigenous law. These are among the most sacred laws and teachings we have.

Borrows , 12 Several interpretations of the Seven Grandfather teachings refer to Truth as being composed of the former teachings, or that an application of the Grandfather teachings with sincerity in action, character, and utterance yields Truth. According to Benton- Banai, the meaning of the gifts from the Seven Grandfathers was revealed on his homeward journey with an otter5, reached at the time he had become an old man.

Midewewin - The Medicine Society Later on, the man who had returned to his people accepted a young boy as a helper from his village, who became ill. In treatment for the boy, the old man-made exhaustive preparations for the first medicine lodge, including the creation of the water drum. This first ceremony that the old man conducted represented the first degree of the Midewewin…With each degree came another set of knowledge that built upon the original first degree…The otter came to represent the first degree…It took many years, perhaps centuries, for the eight known degrees of the Midewewin Lodge to develop.

They were able to communicate with all the other things of the Ishpiming Universe. They understood that they belonged to the Four Levels of the Earth: The Mother Earth, the plant life, the animal life, and the human beings.

In this chain, the human beings were the last to come. It was understood that human life could not survive without any of the preceding levels, while the other levels could survive very easily without the human beings…The people were given a give of unlimited development. But this development had its dangers…its twin. The people could help themselves, but they could also destroy themselves. Mishi-Waub- Kaikaik, the boy who had been on a vision quest and the man Benton —Banai refers to as having returned to his people was later trained in the four degrees of the medicine society.

The Anishinaabeg were to found the Midewewin so that they could attain inner peace by seeking for the good in life. After the great test of powers, a great council composed of the man, Makataeshigun, the Autissokaunuk Makers of Stories and spirits of the animal and plant worlds restored peace and paved the way for the origin of medicines.

It transcended human comprehension, going beyond it in the form of an echo that could be heard only by spirits. Instead, long life was a gift that the Anishinaabeg had to reclaim after it had been lost by the man who first challenged the Spirit of the underworld. They became known for their knowledge of plants whose roots, bark, or leaves could be used as medicines to treat the ailments of their people.

Thus, you will have different collections of clans per Anishinaabe communities or nations. An earlier recorder, William Whipple Warren, listed 21 clans. The clans are related to kinship and descent, whether matriarchal or patriarchal8 but characteristics of each clan are intrinsic, that is, persons born into the clan or adopting or adopted into the clan will exhibit specific qualities or characteristics which are known for the specific clan.

I suspect also that differences of opinion relating to which of the Loon or Crane clans is older have more to do with the functions of each, as the existence of two chiefly clans points to the one chief clan having to do with matters external to the clans and the other chief clan having to do with matters internal to the clans. In addition, marriage is prohibited between persons from the same clan.

Together the clans form governance units as required and carry out specific roles within the community. Though today the Bear Clan has all merged into a single clan known as Nooke, at one time the Bear was the largest — so large, in fact, that it was sub-divided into body parts such as the head Makoshtigwaan or "bear-skull" , the ribs and the feet Nookezid or "tender-foot" , as well as different types of bears such as theWaabishki-makwa or "White Black bear" and the Mishimakwa or "Grizzly Bear".

Negik Otter , the first and leading patron, was in the center; Noka Bear was both at the entrance and the exit in order to guard the ritual; and the Autissokaunuk were placed at the cardinal points.

There were carvings of Moozo Moose and Addikmeg Whitefish symbolizing nourishment; as well as images of Animkee-Binaessi Thunderbird and Makataeshigun. Johnston , These descriptions give a basic account of clans which may be involved in Midewewin ceremonies, depending on location.

Clan stories, embedded through traditional representation in stories about various air,earth and water beings, are found across Ojibwe nations. According to Benton-Banai, After the Clan System was given to the people, the Seven Grandfathers sent seven spiritual beings to Earth to clarify how the Clan System was to be used and to amplify the meaning of many gifts often taken for granted in life.

The beings came to the people out of the water. It is said that the first five beings brought messages pertaining to the five senses of man: touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight. The sixth being brought teachings about ahmunisoowin intuition. According to such teachings, these Beings came to live among the second generation Anishinaabe after the world was destroyed by flooding rains.

Stories written in English acknowledge these Beings as Spiritual ancestors who brought teachings about a clan system for living harmoniously with all of Creation. From that time on, each Doodaem adopted a guardian Spirit that taught its members how to live together and conduct their affairs. According to Warren, the clan system constitutes the most ancient and most important system that divided the Anishinaabe into several grand families.

Each clan was known and perpetuated by a symbol of some bird, animal, fish, or reptile which they denominated the Totem or Do-daim as the Ojibway pronounce it …. Mostly these are formatted in quaternities familiar to the Anishinaabeg, some of which have found their way into corporate literature and into educational literature as forms of facilitation, etc. Indian names are designated by Elders, older family members or those who are approached as respected members of the extended family.

South - Giizhik - Cedar - Courage, cleansing, growth, express feelings. West - Mmuskode-washk - Sage - Purifies, introspection, direction we go when we change worlds in death. North - Wiingashk - Sweetgrass - Invites in good.

Anishnaabek Ojibwe interpretation of the medicine wheel Such medicine wheel teachings have been incorporated in curriculum. Within this curriculum, stories accompany explanations for each of the directions and the seven stages of life. There were four seasons in the year; and there were four points on the earth. There were four levels of dream; and four degrees in the operation of the mind.

As four parts, four times, occurred and recurred in the natural order — so man regulated his ceremonies into four parts: the preparation, the ceremony, the re- enactment, and the feast. By going four times around the Midewigun, the priests represented this principle in their ritual.

This led me to the conclusion that the medicine wheel originates from teachings about the four directions and other quaternities associated with traditional stories and ceremonies, but is not specifically referenced as such in the older, traditional stories. In Teo, T. Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. At its most basic level, a worldview serves as a kind of organizing structure. The concept of worldview is founded on the epistemological principle that observation of the physical and social world is a mediated rather than direct process.

From this view, understanding does not occur by fixing the spotlight of attention onto a pre- structured reality. Instead, observation proceeds as the active process of interpreting and organizing the world in terms of some sort of already existing system or conceptual framework. Without such existing frameworks, observation is simply unintelligible. Definition A worldview consists of a comprehensive set of philosophical presuppositions, beliefs and values about the nature of physical and social world.

The term worldview is used to refer to refer to at least four different types of global conceptual systems. These include: a scientifically-derived models of the physical world Dewitt, ; b philosophical belief systems that pre-figure and guide scholarly inquiry Pepper, ; c religious systems that are unconstrained by scientific activity Peterson, ; and d personal and socio-cultural Note, et al. A complete worldview should be composed of least three components: ontological assumptions about the nature of what exists; epistemological principles about what and how it is possible to know; and axiological beliefs about what is good, moral or valuable Goldberg, The concept of worldview has its origins in the German concept of Weltanschauung.

After Kant, scholars elaborated different conceptions of Weltanschauung. History progresses through as a series of dialectical movements thesis, antithesis, synthesis that register and synthesize contradictory elements of the collective human experience, ultimately resulting in an integrated unity.

Building upon the naturalism and historicism of his day, Nietzsche held that people were products of tightly organized systems of cultural belief and values Weltanschauung. In a world that lacked the luxury of a deity, worldviews provide the tools with which individuals interpret the world and create their lives. In the twentieth century, scholars continued their attempt to navigate through the shifting tides of absolutism, historicism, and relativism.

Recoiling against both the relativism of historicism and the materialism of naturalism, Husserl rejected the concept of worldview.

In an attempt to develop a precise approach to phenomenology, Husserl advanced the concept of epoche, the procedure of bracketing all assumptions in order to examine the essence of experience. Dasein is a kind of self-conscious experience of being in the world. Through Dasein, the concept of worldview transcends antinomies between subject and object; experience and world; and consciousness and self-consciousness.

From worldviews to scientific paradigms. Kuhn advanced that idea that theory revision in science is not a linear result of hypotheses disconfirmation. According to Kuhn, in any given historical period, scientists operate within the context of shared paradigms — pre-theoretical systems of assumptions, beliefs, rules and values that specify the parameters of theory making, methodology, interpretation and acceptable forms of data.

Normal science occurs as scientists work to address questions that arise within a particular paradigm. Paradigms are recalcitrant systems; scientific evidence that is inconsistent with established paradigms do not prompt their immediate transformation. Instead, scientists continue to work within existing paradigms until the accumulation of disconfirming evidence indicates a paradigmatic anomaly.

A period of revolutionary science begins in which anomalous assumptions are overthrown as a new paradigm takes shape. Kuhn held that different paradigms are incommensurable in the sense that their basic terms, concepts or implications cannot be directly compared or translated from one to another.

Worldview 6 Examples of paradigm shifts include the Copernican revolution in astronomy and the shift from Newtonian to quantum physics. Scholars after Kuhn have extended the concept of paradigm in diverse ways. Some suggest that paradigmatic shifts imply that science not progressive. Instead, paradigm shifts simply reflect changes from one structure of knowing to another.

In rejecting this idea, Lakatos proposed the idea of research program as an alternative to the concept of paradigm. Research programs consist of more precisely definable core principles shared by scientists working on a given problem. Progressive research programs generate new questions and findings; degenerative research programs protect unsuccessful core principles and fail to generate new questions and findings.

In contrast, postmodern e. Traditional Debates Traditional psychology proceeds from the view that scientific progress is a largely cumulative process of testing theoretical assertions against theory-neutral facts.

From this view, the most basic question concerns whether worldviews and related pre-theoretical systems are relevant to the process of psychological research. Much psychological research proceeds without clearly referencing the need to understanding how foundational assumptions inform theory making and research.

Nonetheless, traditional psychology has invoked the concept of worldview in several ways. Worldview 7 Use of worldview as an individual difference variable. One notable example includes terror management theory, which builds on the work of Becker As self-aware beings, humans are aware of their mortality. To protect themselves from fear of death, humans construct cultural worldviews that provide answers to the riddle of existence and identify the circumstances for achieving happiness.

Differentiating worldviews from everyday schemes. Koltko-Rivera differentiated the more comprehensive concept of worldview from the more local concept of scheme in terms of their structure and scope. In particular, schemas are structured representations about concrete everyday events and objects that are abstracted from everyday action and social experience. In contrast, worldviews are more abstract culturally-mediated meanings systems that are less grounded in everyday experience.

As a result, worldviews are more difficult to disconfirm and modify than everyday schemas. The consequences for disconfirming everyday schemas are minimal, whereas the effects of disconfirming broad-based worldviews are more encompassing, ranging from the catastrophic to the transformative depending upon the nature of the disconfirmation and the opportunities for constructive revision.

Critical Debates Given its continued reliance on positivist epistemology, the very assertion that worldviews frame scientific activity reflects a critical stance toward traditional psychology. Worldview 8 Psychology continues to operate as a pre-paradigmatic or multi-paradigmatic science, without consensus about foundational issues.

This state of affairs is reflected in the ways in which a different traditions in psychological theory and research are founded upon different worldviews; and b culturally indigenous psychologies call into question foundational assumptions of Western psychological science. Worldviews as epistemological frameworks for psychological inquiry.

Pepper provided a particularly compelling analysis of the primary world hypotheses that have structured Western thought since antiquity. His four world hypotheses consist of formism, mechanism, contextualism and organicism. Figure 1 provides a representation of how these worldviews provide the conceptual basis for the development of different traditions in psychological thought. Formism adopts the root metaphor of form, class, entity or essence. From a formist worldview, psychological inquiry involves the quest to identify the fixed nature, essence or forms of psychological existence.

Mechanism is organized around the root metaphor of the world as machine. Like machines e. Mechanism presumes the principles of determinism, positivism and unity of science. The principle of unity of science assumes the ultimate reducibility of higher-level sciences to presumably more basic ones. Mechanism tends to operate as the default worldview in psychological science. Its application is most keenly apparent in traditional behaviorism, computer-based versions of information processing psychology, behavioral genetics, and in reductionistic forms of neuroscience and connectionism.

Figure 1: Worldviews in Psychology Contextualism embraces the metaphor of the world as an historic act or event. The principle categories of contextualism are change and novelty. Within contextualism, event are composed of multiple strands that lie within a context.

Changes context can produce changes in events; change in any single strand can modify the quality of events. Contextualism advances the idea that observer is an important part of the context within which scholarly inquiry occurs. Contextualism thus calls for sustained reflexivity about the ways in which concepts and categories of the observer inform scholarly inquiry.

Current versions of contextualism include critical psychology; discursive psychology; narrative psychology; social constructionism; socio-cultural psychology; some versions of life-span psychology; and postmodernism. The root metaphor of organicism is the developing organism.

Like an organism, the world is composed of organized systems, which are themselves organized into systems and subsystems, all of which, like the human body, work together in the service of a unified whole. Within organicism, change in the world is organized with reference to some sort of endpoint, goal state or telos.

The world functions as a grand ecosystem that tends toward equilibrium. Development occurs as organized systems move toward higher levels of organization to form increasingly perfect versions of themselves.

In psychology and philosophy, organismic thinking has been reflected in the work of Maslow, Piaget, Rogers, Werner, and more recently in neo- Piagetian and organismic-developmental theory. Worldviews as reflected in indigenous psychologies. Traditionally, the practice of scientific psychology has presumed the universal applicability of Western conceptions of psychological functioning. In studying the role of culture in human behavior, Western researches tend to adopt an etic approach which seeks to establish a common metric for the quantitative comparison of psychological activity across national groups.