Across many First Nations' cultures, the idea of building consensus was a natural and harmonious way of living. There were no rigid hierarchies in these societies, just people who did some jobs better than others. Everyone could cycle through leadership positions within a community. One person might have learned the language of another tribe the best, so s/he would be volunteered to talk to a visiting delegation. Another person might have better skill at finding and using medicines, so s/he would be the healer. Another person might be really good at calling in animals to eat for dinner, so s/he would lead hunts and train new hunters. Maybe someone did excellent basketry and knew all sorts of different kinds of ways to make baskets. S/he would be in charge of teaching new weavers. Maybe someone was fairly good at everything, then they would help out wherever they were needed. Elders held the stories and the genealogies and the histories and the traditions -- they may not be as fleet of foot, but they kept traditions alive so that the next generations could learn.
When a community needed to make a decision, they did not work on the "top-down" model. They worked cooperatively to build agreement within the community about how to address a situation. Elders were essential to building consensus because of their status as knowledge holders. Elder women, in particular, were respected for their wisdom as they both guided life into being and helped life pass on to the next world. They tended to hold more genealogy and history mainly because there may be very few men who made it to elderhood or (*disclaimer: I am offering humorous speculation here*) maybe because elder men tended to remain somewhat childlike even in advanced age.
In my previous diaries, I explored matriarchy and patriarchy and before that, I gave a little tutorial on tribalism. I also touched on the subject of racism and how it affects Red America. I wrote a couple of others, but with no strong connections to general First Nations' cultures. I bring up these previous diaries because this subject of consensus building is closely tied to some of the other traditional cultural aspects shared by most First Nations peoples.
I also wanted to provide these links because I get tired of the same old arguments coming up and feeling like I am reinventing the wheel every time I try to respond to such arguments. That last statement is a bit unfair. Those arguments and justifications might be new and fresh for you, the reader. From my perspective, I have already discussed those arguments and justifications ad nauseum as I have given presentations and lectures and written on these issues for the last 20 years. I also apologize for my bluntness; sometimes I feel a little like Molly Ivins when she wrote in her introduction to Bushwhacked,
"Our biggest problem with the Bush administration is that for us it's déjà vu all
over again. We spent six years watching the man as governor of Texas, the basis
of our 1999 book, Shrub. We were tempted to begin this book by
observing, "If y'all had've read the first book, we wouldn't've had to write this
one." Cooler heads prevailed."
(Bushwhacked: Life in George W Bush's America, Molly Ivins and Lou
Dubose, Random House, 2003, page xiii).
I realize that not everyone has read what I've written before and I realize that not everyone was born into a consensus-driven culture. So, the links are to help give a little more background information.
Consensus building for community decisions was and is a very important dynamic that is shared by most modern day First Nations' peoples. There will always be exceptions, so to head off that argument, this is not a discussion about the exceptions.
Spiritually speaking, it is very important to maintain balance between oneself and one's environment. If one is out of balance with oneself or out of balance with one's surroundings, it means that food will become scarce and arguments with other people will occur. Arguments and disharmony in a community means less food and less chance of survival. This idea is explored throughout the book The Whale and the Supercomputer by Charles Wohlforth. This book focuses on the Inupiat peoples of northern Alaska. But, there are cultural similarities amongst most Alaska Natives and other First Nations peoples.
When one's society is built on cooperation and maintaining balance, consensus on most issues that affect the community is the only decision-making style that makes sense. Listening to those who have the most life experience, elders, is essential to making informed decisions.
Elder women carry a lot of wisdom and nearly endless history. Young people, young men in particular, need to express themselves. Middle-aged people are not as compelled to speak as the younger people are, and have learned through life experiences that the elders tend to know what's what. In many village meetings I went to as a kid and young adult, elders sat around the edges, with middle aged people in the middle and the young people at the center. Topics were brought up, the young people would discuss it, the middle-aged people would occasionally lean back to listen to an elder then lean forward and whisper in a young person's ear. If no consensus was reached, the topic was tabled for the next day. If no consensus could be reached on a certain topic, the meeting would be extended to additional days.
As Ojibwa mentioned in a comment to my diary yesterday, new topics brought before a council would not be immediately discussed. A lot of First Nations traditions hold that if someone thought a new topic important enough to bring up, the topic deserved due consideration and not just a knee-jerk reaction. Discussions about certain topics might take days or weeks to resolve. This was a way to show respect to the person bringing up the new topic. It also gave a chance for the community to build consensus around the new topic.
Everyone has a position, a job, a place in most First Nations communities. Everyone has value in most First Nations traditions. Everyone has a say in most First Nations traditional communities. There are few "top-down" orders because that negates the sense of self and how the self is tied to the community (exceptions being, "There's a tree falling! Move!!!! or perhaps, "The ice is buckling, we need to move more quickly!"). Top-down decisions causes disharmony within the community which is to be avoided at all costs. Validating everyone's equal place in the community by giving them jobs builds not only a sense of community and belonging, but also builds a sense of self. There is a gentleness inherent in many traditional communities as the people are secure in themselves as well as in their community.