The Mourning Road To Thanksgiving By Larry Spotted Crow Mann

The Mourning Road To Thanksgiving by Larry Spotted Crow Mann is the story told from the point of Neempau, a Nipmuc man who is struggling in his adult life while facing demons from his troubled past and accepting the kind of people his family truly was.. He develops this deep hatred all through his life with the American ideal and love for the Thanksgiving holiday and wants to eradicate from the world what he believes are ignorant beliefs and disrespectful to his culture. Neempau is trying to deal with all these pressures. The author Larry Spotted Crow Mann uses the character Neempau as the living representation of what he felt was true Native American culture. He embodied the millions of Native Americans who throughout their lives never let

go of the bitterness and hatred that they had towards the ignorant American society. Throughout this story you learn that in life although you go through many struggles, only when you learn to overcome life’s hardships can you truly discover who you really are as a person.
Race, Tradition, and Identity played a huge impacting role in The Mourning Road To Thanksgiving.

Race, like many words has a variety of meanings. In anthropology race is defined as a variety of species consisting of a more or less distinct population with anatomical traits that distinguish it clearly from other “races”. Race refers to the physical differences in skin and hair color, facial shape and other inherited characteristics which tend to include genotypic variations. When race is spoken about in terms of the human race it refers to how society at times has difficulty accepting and appreciating other ethnic groups which are not their own. That is because much of the world can be close minded to how others that are not like them live. Anthropologists strive to understand record, appreciate, preserve and explain the human race but in the process, show how though everyone is still the same no matter what race they were born into. Race is something that does not just matter as a genetic concept. It has meaning only because society gives it meaning. In the community that I live in race only matters because people in society constantly engage in racism and racial discrimination. It’s something that we have all witnessed at some point in our lives. My family and I have faced much racism at the hands of society. We are African and being in a society where everyone if not the same there are many ideas pass around about races that are not their own. In our world today you can be

judged based on what other people of the same race have done even if you haven’t acted in on it yourself. You have to deal with going through life every day knowing that not everyone is going to like you because of your race; that you will probably have racial slurs poked at you left and right and at times how we are treated can lead to not only physical issues such as race on race violence but psychological issues as well such as the feeling that you do not belong in society because your race is not accepted. In The Mourning Road To Thanksgiving Neempau, whom is Nipmuc, faced a problem with race in his left. He was referred to and stereotyped by many races but the one that he truly was. The issue with race has been around for so long that you would hope that people would be able to overcome it but rather it transforms people from just disliking each other to full on prejudice behaviors.
Anthropologists show a great deal of interest in an individual’s culture and personality.

The rise of culture and personality in a sense is what helps create ones identity. The concept of identity is very hard to explain being that the idea itself is so complex. Anthropologists view identity as the reflective self-conception or self-image that we each derive from our family, gender, cultural, ethnic, and individual socialization process. Our identity is what makes each and every one of us unique. Tradition also ties into identity. Traditions are beliefs or customs that are passed down from generation to generation. They tie in with our identity because traditions are taught to us and as we learn them they become a part of who we are; our identity. My family and I identify ourselves as Ghanaians. In our family part of our tradition that I grew up with was the clothing that we wear. The Ghanaian attire is complexly patterned and brightly colored kente cloth. All of our traditional clothing is handwoven and worn by both men and women. We wear these clothes because it is a part of who we are and we take great pride in representing ourselves. Society has their own idea of how they see us. To some we are well respected because we never let go of our roots and we show great pride in where we come from no matter how we are seen or labeled. To others, we are also seen as a threat to American culture as we do not completely conform to their ideas of what it means to be an American. To

do so would mean that we are destroying a part of us and that would not only bring great dishonor to our family but the previous generations who worked to make us the unique beings that we are today. The connection that I made with the book was that just like Neempau, although everyone is different and each and every one of us has that one thing that gives them their identity, they should also never let go of their roots and the traditions in which they were taught because at the end of the day that is what makes all of us unique.
In conclusion, The Mourning Road To Thanksgiving shows us that as you grow up who you are becomes instilled inside you. Your race, traditions, and how you identify yourself are based on your experiences in not only society but in your family as well. Larry Spotted Crow Mann when writing this book went to great lengths to challenge the American vies of Thanksgiving compared to how Native Americans viewed to them as a dreaded holiday. Rather than a time of reflection of an event in the history of America, people celebrate by dressing up and wearing feathers and eating turkey. To other cultures like the Native Americans this may come off as a mockery. I enjoyed this book because it teaches that in society we must learn to not judge but rather be accepting of one another and where we come from. We the people ore what makes society as unique as it is now and if each and every person was exactly the same then there would be no such thing as other races. There would be no such thing as identity either. If none of these factors existed, then it would not only affect us but Anthropologists as well because they dedicate their lives to uncovering the origins and functions, and cultures of human societies. Without these things that set us all apart then what can we truly learn from one another?