The Why of Coyote
I was asked about Anglos taking over
Native American mythic figures. I have
also been told that Anglos have a naive and
sentimental view of Native Americans.
My response is that Coyote and I
are not playing “feel good” games here.
We are doing some hard work rethinking
the mythic foundations of our culture.
I know many think myth is something we
have outgrown, that we should look to
technology and rationality as guides
out of our predicament.
I happen to believe that’s a myth, which
may be a good and useful myth, but when we
don’t recognize a myth for what it is we are
in danger of being fundamentalists, spending
our energy defensively protecting the literal
truth of our myth and ignoring the consequences
of our collective, human, willful ignorance of
what is real.
I find Coyote, the Trickster, an incarnation
of all in me that is not rational, that still screams
to be alive in a technically suffocating culture.
I find Coyote to be a magical animal, an incarnation
of what I experience in myself as earthy spirituality.
A revolution is going on against the technological,
rational, and corporate sentiments that dominate
our culture. It is a revolution saying “No!” at a
primal, spiritual, life-and-death, wounded animal
level. The proof of our deadliness, of our rational,
technical, corporate culture is the depression that
greets us when we open the morning paper or
listen to the evening news. We feel that it’s all to late,
that greed and denial are at the controls. Well, we’re
all going to die anyway, so we might as well have fun
whacking a few myths as we go. It’s a different path
we’re trying to discover again. We think it’s a path to
being whole, finding our animal nature. So I talk to
my animal nature and it responds with healing
intelligence. I invite you;
discuss things with your own animal nature
and see if you find a wise voice you have overlooked.
by Webster Kitchell
from Coyote Says
Skinner House Books, 1996
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It must be emphasised that until recently, the story of African philosophy has been synonymous with unjustified denial, exclusion, controversy, and scepticism. Thus, within the first chapter, Mungwini carefully provides an excellent cartographic analysis of the discipline of African philosophy before exposing some of the debates, challenges, disagreements and controversies that have historically characterised and shaped the development and current trends in African philosophy, particularly the famous “critique of ethnophilosophy” that was sparked by Paulin J. Hountondji. While he strives to “lay out its [African philosophy’s] methodological and epistemological foundations as an enterprise” (17), Mungwini makes an important entry into African philosophy. He identifies the kind of self-scepticism and hesitancy to affirm self-identity that impedes the progress of African philosophy owing to the critique of ethnophilosophy, unlike the “multiplicity of views and divisions that have characterised Western philosophy as a tradition” (14; see also, 18). Essentially, Mungwini alerts the reader to some of the consequences of the unintended exclusionary effects which the traditional critique of ethno-philosophy has had on African philosophical traditions, notwithstanding its encouragement of critical discourse on African philosophy through rejection of what Mungwini sees as unanimism and extraversion (24). Indeed, the critique of ethno-philosophy can be acknowledged for denying a collective philosophy that is always oriented towards satisfying the outside world, although, its putative implications on African philosophy is something that cannot be taken for granted, and Mungwini should be credited for his cautionary approach to it.
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