Indigenous Dialectics at Garage Sales and in Traditional Tales

• Published in: Anthropological Quarterly
• Main Author: Fast, Phyllis A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Project MUSE 2009
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); Anthropology; Athabascan
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/anq.0.0097

Scholars of indigenous peoples have searched for inherent patterns of cultural behavior that have survived globalization. This study explores the underpinning dynamics of garage sales and doing garage sailing that may be reflected in traditional northern Athabascan narratives. Patterns of plot, humor, and acceptable character behavior mask competitive actions in the guise of sharing resources, nullifying status, and reinforcing notions of metaphysical powers. Likewise, garage sales, symbolic of poverty-level shopping, epitomize the unequal relationships between the rich and the poor, and have become yet another idiom for the multiple hegemonies endured or fantasized by indigenous peoples.