Kincentricity and Indigenous Wellbeing: Food(ways) and/as Holistic Health in the Native Medicine Wheel

Rachel Presley

doi:10.5744/rhm.2021.2002

Rhetoric of Health and Medicine Jan 2022 Open Access

Kincentricity and Indigenous Wellbeing: Food(ways) and/as Holistic Health in the Native Medicine Wheel

Rachel Presley University of Minnesota

Abstract

This manuscript explores the rhetorical coupling of food as a holistic health initiative across two Indigenous organizations—Indian Health Services (IHS) and the American Indian Cancer Foundation (AICF). Drawing upon contemporary literatures of rhetorical ecologies, I position “kincentricity” (Salmón, 2000, 2012) as a particularly provocative framework to reconceptualize the body as its own rhetorical ecosystem, contending that Indigenous dimensions of RHM offer radically creative ways to decolonize the body/body politic. My analysis demonstrates theways in which IHS and AICF engage in kincentric logics to repurpose rhetorics of food within the Native medicine wheel, most notably by emphasizing (1) pre-Columbian diets, (2) traditional harvesting and cooking methods, and (3) spiritual food-based rituals—all of which explicitly link tribal food(ways) to bodily wellbeing. Finally, this essay encourages RHM scholars to reorient rhetorical vocabularies and understandings toward more pluralistic and non-Western accounts of health, medicine, and collective wellness.

Journal: Rhetoric of Health and Medicine
Published: 2022-01-18
DOI: 10.5744/rhm.2021.2002
CompPile: Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access: OA PDF Gold
Topics: rhetorical criticism
Export: BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (0)

No references on file for this article.

CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Kincentricity and Indigenous Wellbeing: Food(ways) and/as Holistic Health in the Native Medicine Wheel

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

References (0)

Related Articles