Indigenous Social Lives and Social Beingness: Indigeneity in Sociology?

This paper will examine Indigenist theories of social beingness as represented by the distinctive ontological and epistemological commitments of Indigenous cosmologies. These commitments are fundamental in the considerations of how the social lives of Indigenous peoples are constructed in scholarship. Sociological literature offers valuable insights into and critiques of the ontological and epistemological commitments of sociologists, policy research and impacts on the public, inequities facing Indigenous peoples and communities, and research practices that are oriented towards justice for Indigenous peoples. Nonetheless, very little is known about the sociology of Indigeneity within the discipline itself. This paper will consider the concept of “social beings” as situated within Indigenous cosmological claims, and propose new opportunities for a cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas.