Blackfoot Religion and the Consequences of Cultural Commodification : Stolen Gifts

This book is based on a grounded and broad assessment of less well known details of Aboriginal knowledge and provides both a great deal of detail and a new assessment of rituals and practices. An important and unique finding of this volume is that Aboriginal environmental knowledge also includes knowledge about education for attitudes considered appropriate for survival, a concept not depicted within previous subject literature.

This book explores the exchange of Blackfoot 'medicine bundles' within contemporary Blackfoot culture and between the Blackfoot Peoples and Euro-Americans. Representing a valuable study of contemporary Blackfoot religion as well as the repatriation movement, Lokensgard also contributes to the studies of material culture and exchange. Central to his investigation is the critical examination and reapplication of the interpretative terms 'gift' and 'commodity,' helping scholars appreciate how different peoples perceive the worlds they inhabit.