Brushed by cedar, living by the river : Coast Salish figures of power / Crisca Bierwert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bierwert, Crisca.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Coast Salish Indians--Social life and customs.

Coast Salish mythology.

Oral tradition--British Columbia--Fraser River Valley.

Oral tradition--Skagit River Valley (B.C. and Wash.).

Oral tradition.

Coast Salish Indians.

Fraser River Valley (B.C.)--Social life and customs.

Skagit River Valley (B.C. and Wash.)--Social life and customs.

British Columbia--Fraser River Valley.

Physical Description:

xvii, 314 pages : map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Tucson : University of Arizona Press, [1999]

Summary:

Bierwert employs postmodern literary and social analyses to examine many aspects of Salish culture: legends and their storytellers; domestic violence; longhouse ceremonies; the importance and power of place; and disputes over fishing rights. Her reflections overlap as a dialogue would, weaving throughout the book significant threads of Salish knowledge and creating a nonauthoritative text that nonetheless speaks knowingly.

This book represents the future of contemporary anthropology Unlike traditional ethnography, it makes no attempt to portray a complete picture of the Coast Salish. Instead, Bierwert utilizes a critical and diffuse approach that defies colonial, syncretic, and hegemonic structures and applies advanced literary theory to the creation of ethnography.

Brushed by Cedar is an important guideline for anyone who writes about other cultures and will be especially useful to classes in the methodology and history of ethnography, as well as to scholars specializing in Native American studies or oral literatures.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [295]-310) and index.

ISBN:

0816519196

OCLC:

39811743