A Study Of The Native Kiowas’ Crude Ecological Views In The Ancient Child

American native(also Indian) literary traditions have a profound history of many thousand years. These literary traditions have two traits: being oral, namely, with folk tales, ballads, praying words and speeches as genres; containing deep love toward earth, and having simple but profound ecological philosophies and concerns of the harmonious relationships between man and nature. Affected by cultural fad and social movement in 1960 s, profound changes in American society and culture have taken place. The American ethnic literature was constantly emerging in the mainstream literature and gradually drew much attention of Americans.Native American writer Scott Momaday is the leading figure of American Indian literature, and his masterpiece House Made of Dawn won the American Pulitzer Prize in 1969, which marked the beginning of the Native American Renaissance. The Ancient child is another novel of Momaday but there is still no Chinese version yet. Although studies on House Made of Dawn have been done by some scholars, there is little research on The Ancient Child. From the ecocritical perspectives, with ecological holism, intersubjectivity between man and nature, ecofeminism and sense of place as theoretic basics, the author of this thesis tries to analyze Kiowas’ crude ecological views implied in the novel, and then offer some implications for China’s constructions of ecological civilization.This thesis has six parts. The introduction makes a sketch of Momaday’s life and his main literary achievements. Then it reviews the researches at home and abroad on The Ancient Child and also shows the importance of this research.Chapter One focuses on the theoretic framework of ecocriticism and the ecological consciousness in American Indian culture. In this chapter, the author also discusses research object of ecocriticism and the related theories applied in this research.Chapter Two traces the origins of Momaday’s ecological views which derive from his life experiences on the Indian reservation, his Kiowa cultural background and native Creation Myths passed on from his ancestors.Chapter Three analyzes the Kiowas’ crude ecological views in novel The Ancient Child from three aspects: Kiowas’ love for and reverence to nature which is based on their ecological holism; Kiowa medicine women’s strong healing power in their prototypical folktales of Mother Earth; Kiowas’ home sense and homesick nostalgia, and their return to Kiowas’ reservation, actually, a metaphor.Chapter Four, by reflecting on Kiowas’ crude ecological views, explores the implications for the ecological conservation of the modern society, aiming to look for remedies for ecological crisis in modern society and seeking ways for China’s constructions of ecological civilization. The implications are that modern men have to abandon anthropocentrism, to build friendly and intersubjective relationships between men and nature; modern people should feel grateful for the Mother Earth; they should build up strong home sense and poetically dwell on the earth.In the conclusion, the author will sum up the contents discussed in the former parts. After combing the Kiowas’ crude ecological views, the author draws a conclusion that man should build friendly and equal relationships with nature; that as the Mother Earth feeds man, in return, man should return to nature and protect the Mother Earth; and that man should guard the peaceful and beautiful homeland.