In the Western academic tradition the literature review is seen as an essential first step toward legitimate research. Literature reviews, however, are also standard in many other scholarly publishing and proposal formats, whether as material included within the text or as provided in footnotes. The literature review serves to establish the relevance of the research problem by reviewing and critiquing earlier scholarship related to the research question and by presenting the assumptions behind the logic of the research design. Thus, the literature review serves as a rationale, allowing the writer to introduce the theoretical constructs that frame the research, to place the study in the context of its overall significance, and to highlight its relevance to current research, including gaps in that research. By completing this process in the accepted format, the researcher is assumed to demonstrate and validate his or her readiness to tackle the subject at hand. This essay calls attention to the influence of the assumptions and structures embedded within the academic literature review. Particular issues relevant to a broader conception of the location of literature in the context of Aboriginal traditions of knowledge are addressed. The reactions of other scholars as well as discussion of the author's own attempts to address these issues are presented in this article. (Contains 84 notes.)