Landscapes of origin in the Americas : creation narratives linking ancient places and present communities / edited by Jessica Joyce Christie.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Christie, Jessica Joyce, 1956-

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indigenous peoples--Origin.

Indigenous peoples.

Indians--Origin.

Indian mythology--America.

Indian mythology.

Sacred space--America.

Sacred space.

Indigenous peoples--Folklore.

Indians--Folklore.

Creation--Mythology--America.

Creation.

Physical geography--America.

Physical geography.

Creation--Mythology.

America.

Physical Description:

vii, 203 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, [2009]

Summary:

Landscape is a powerful factor in the operation of memory because of the associations narrators make between the local landscape and the events of the stories they tell. Ancestors and mythological events often become fixed in a specific landscape and act as timeless reference points. In conventional anthropological literature, "landscape" is the term applied to the meaning local people bestow on their cultural and physical surroundings. In this work, the authors explore the cultural and physical landscapes an individual or cultural group has constructed to define the origins or beginnings of that cultural group as revealed through shared or traditional memory. The cultural landscapes of origins in diverse sites throughout the Americas are investigated through multidisciplinary research, not only to reveal the belief system and mythologies but also to place these origin beliefs in context and relationship to each other. In a continual interaction between the past, present, and future, time is subordinate to place, and history, as defined in Western academic terms, does not exist.

Contents:

I North America

1 The Center of the World: The Principle People and the Great Smoky Mountains / Christopher Arris Oakley 3

2 Xeroxed on Stone: Times of Origin and the Navajo Holy People in Canyon Landscapes / Polly Schaajsma, Will Tsosie 15

3 Nuvagantu, "Where Snow Sits" : Origin Mountains of the Southern Paiutes / Richard Stoffie, Richard Arnold, Kathleen Van Vlack, Larry Eddy, Betty Cornelius 32

4 Origin Narratives, Places, and Concepts among the 'Namgis, a Kwakwaka'wakw Group in British Columbia, Canada / Jessica Joyce Christie 45

II Mesoamerica (Cultural Region Within Central America)

5 Malinalco: A Place between Heaven and Earth / Manuel Aguilar-Moreno 57

6 The Map of the Province of Manf: A Record of Landscape and Northern Maya Lowland Concepts of Origin / Merideth Paxton 77

7 Ancestral Presence at the Navel of the World: Francisco Sojuel and Santiago Atitlǹ / Allen J. Christenson 98

III South America-Region Of The Andes

8 Landscapes as Metaphor: Resources, Language, and Myths of Dynastic Origin on the Pacific Coast from the Santa Valley (Peru) to Manabi (Ecuador) / Patricia J. Netherly 123

9 Inka Pacariqtambo: It Depends Which Eyes Are Looking at It / Jessica Joyce Christie 153.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9780817316730

0817316736

9780817355609

081735560X

9780817382476

081738247X

OCLC:

317778255

Publisher Number:

99935761842