Main interests ethnographer | ||
 | ||
Alma mater Dartmouth College,
University of California, San Diego Institutions University of California, Santa Barbara Notable works Teaching Religion and Healing Notable ideas Indigenous Studies Group at the American Academy of Religion. | ||
Inés M. Talamantez is a Mescalero ethnographer and theologian. She is professor of religious studies at University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). She is an expert on Native American religion and philosophy.
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Biography
Talamantez is from New Mexico and is of half Mexican descent. She is a member of the Mescalero Apache tribe's Sun Clan.
Talamantez graduated form Dartmouth College and received her PhD in ethnopoetics and comparative literature from the University of California, San Diego. Talamantez is a member of UCSB's Religious Studies Department. She created a PhD program with an emphasis on Native American religious traditions. The program has awarded PhDs to at least 30 scholars.
Talamantez's areas of research are healing and religion in Native America, women in religion, nature and animals in Native American traditions, and religion and ecology. She has argued on behalf of the preservation of languages, and says that an understanding of the language is necessary for Native American studies scholars. Talamantez conducted anthropological field studies in Mexico and the Southwestern United States. She spent years developing relationships with Apache communities, learning the language and offering up her work for corrections and approval from community members.
Talamantez served as president of the Indigenous Studies Group at the American Academy of Religion. Talamantez co-edited the 2006 book Teaching Religion and Healing. She has been a contributing editor for the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. She co-edited the first issue of Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy to focus on American Indian women.