The Aborigines of Puerto Rico and neighboring islands / Jesse Walter Fewkes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fewkes, Jesse Walter, 1850-1930.

Series:

Caribbean Archaeology and Ethnohistory

Caribbean archaeology and ethnohistory

Standardized Title:

Aborigines of Porto Rico and neighboring islands

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of the West Indies--Puerto Rico.

Indians of the West Indies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (330 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

A valuable recounting of the first formal archaeological excavations in Puerto Rico. Originally published as the Twenty-Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1907, this book was praised in an article in American Anthropologist as doing ""more than any other to give a comprehensive idea of the archaeology of the West Indies."" Until that time, for mainly political reasons, little scientific research had been conducted by Americans on any of the Caribbean islands. Dr. Fewkes' unique skills o

Contents:

Contents; Introduction; Physical features of Porto Rico; Precolumbian population; Present descendants of the Porto Rican Indians; Race and kinship; Bodily characteristics; Mental and moral characteristics; Government; Political divisions; Houses; Thatched with grasses; Thatched with palm leaves; With palm leaves on walls, and straw-thatched roofs; With slabs of palm wood on walls; Secular customs; Naming children; marriage customs; Hunting and fishing; Agriculture; Religion; Zemiism; Zemis of wood; Zemis of stone; Zemis of cotton cloth inclosing bones; Zemis painted on their bodies and faces

PriesthoodDivination; Medicine practices; Narcotics; Rites and ceremonies; Ceremony to bring crops; Survival of ceremony in modern dances; Burial ceremonies; Myths; Traditions of origin; A modern legend; The name Borinquen; Archeological sites; Dance plazas; Shell heaps; Caves; Archeological objects; Celts; Enigmatical stones; Pestles; Mortars; Beads and pendants; Stone balls; Three-pointed stones; Type with head on anterior and legs on posterior projection; Type with face between anterior and conoid projection; Type with conoid projection modified into a head; Smooth stones; Interpretation

Semicircular stonesStone heads; Disks with human faces; Stone amulets; Pictographs; River pictographs; Cave pictographs; Stone collars; Massive collars; Slender collars; Theories of the use of stone collars; Elbow stones; Knobbed heads; Pillar stones; Large stone idols; Pottery; Shell and bone carvings; Wooden objects; Cassava graters; Dance object; Swallowing-sticks; Ceremonial baton; Idols; Stools; Canoes; Other objects; Gold objects; Basketry and textiles; Conclusions

Notes:

Originally published in 1907 as one of two papers accompanying the 25th annual report of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8173-8249-6

OCLC:

772459653