Director, Environmental Studies
Professor of English

STUDY QUESTIONS
Richard Nelson, "The Gifts of Deer"
At Home on the Earth

Page numbers: first number refers to The Island Within , the second to At Home on the Earth

1. How would you describe his view of nature that he has adapted from the Koyukon: animals (especially deer), nature as a whole, his personal relationship to nature, the relationship between culture and nature?

2. What is his attitude toward hunting? Look for tensions and complexities in a variety of passages.

3. How does Koyukon spirituality inform his life? Find as many ways as possible. Is he religious – and if so in what way?

4. In what way does he diverge from the Koyukon? What are the tensions and ambivalences that he feels? Identify relevant passages.

5. What is his “ culture”? What is his place in relationship to North American culture? In what way is he critical of American culture? How does his anthropological study affect this critique?

6. What are the special states of mind (e.g. “mystical” or becoming an animal) that he experiences?

7. Is there an implicit critique of contemporary society present in this essay? Is there a view of environmental responsibility involved? Be specific, with references to passages.

8. Are his attitudes, values, and ways of life relevant to those of us who are not homesteading and hunting? Can we adapt his way to ours in constructing our own sense of an ideal way to live and in reforming our culture? If so, how and how much?

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