Relational individuality among Native American academics: Popular dichotomies reconsidered

An interdisciplinary qualitative study working with 40 Native American academics, who were selected for their specific diverse backgrounds, focused on selected aspects of subjective experiencing they generally had in common. Participants experienced the socio-cultural contexts of mainstream academia and tribal communities as incongruent and based on conflicting values associated with the conceptualizations of individualism versus relationality and communal cooperation. Viewing these seemingly dichotomous concepts from the perspective of Native American tribal world views, however, enabled meaningful integration of these concepts. The innovative relational individuality conceptualization allows for appreciation of uniqueness and self-improvement efforts without adherence to the mainstream principle of competitive individualism. At the core of the involved conceptualization of relationality, with preference for communal cooperation, is the experience of one’s embeddedness in personal relationships and one’s involvement within groups as a valuable member, which cannot be explained by either the necessity of socio-economic and ecological factors or the imperative of conformity to collective conventions. The extent to which the independence–interdependence and individualism–collectivism dichotomies apply to this case is limited. The discussed relational individuality conceptualization, facilitated by Native American tribal world views and culturally specific narratives, extend the repertoire of thus far recognized mechanisms that underlie the existing cultural variation