Little Bit Know Something: Stories in a Language of Anthropology - Softcover

Ridington, Robin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0877452865 ISBN 13: 9780877452867

Publisher: University Of Iowa Press, 1990

Synopsis

Book by Ridington, Robin

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

In this collection of 14 papers spanning two decades, Ridington ( Trail to Heaven : Knowledge and Narrative in a Northern Native Community ), an anthropology professor at the University of British Columbia, provides an acute, absorbing look at the customs and beliefs of the Dunne-za Indians of British Columbia. In "Fox and Chickadee," an elderly Indian named Chickadee uses storytelling to teach then-Ph.D. candidate Ridington the difference between collecting data and learning. "Telling Secrets" describes how private and public knowledge are joined as personal "vision quests" become part of the communal myth. In "A True Story," an elderly woman recalls her "vision quest," an encounter with the spirit of a sleeping bear. A glimmer of the way this hunting community adapted to trade with the European settlers is given in "From Hunt Chief to Prophet." And "The Medicine Fight" shows how a community without a formal political structure can distribute political power through an institutionalized competition. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Of Iowa Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0877452865
• ISBN 13: 9780877452867
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 299