THE ZUNI ENIGMA: A Native American People's Possible Japanese Connection

Davis, Nancy Yaw

ISBN 10: 0393047881 / ISBN 13: 9780393047882

Published by NY & London. 2000. W.W. Norton & Co., 2000

About this Item

blue & red hardcover 8vo. (octavo). dustwrapper in protective plastic book jacket cover. library discard copy in vg cond. library markings removed. binding square & tight. covers clean. edges clean. inside of covers have large scratchy spots where old dustwrapper protector was glued down (dustwrapper in new one now). front flyleaf missing. small scratchy spot on copyright pg from old sticker. text clean & free of markings. dustwrapper in near fine cond. wrinkled on the front, small hole in front flap, not price clipped. nice clean reading copy. good binding. clean text. no names, inking, underlining, remainder markings. first edition. first printing (#1 in # line). decorative 1/2 title, frontis. & title pg. xxx+318p. 72 b&w illustrations. 17 b&w maps. 9 tables. endnotes. bibliography. index. american indian history. world history. archaeology. ~ Did a group of thirteenth~century Japanese pilgrims journey to the American Southwest, there to merge with the people, language, and religion of the Zuni tribe? For many years, anthropologists have understood the Zuni Indians of the American Southwest to occupy a special place in Native American culture and , ethnography. Their language, religion, and blood type are startlingly different from all other tribes. What is most puzzling, however, is the fact that the Zuni appear to have much in common with the people of Japan. In this copiously illustrated, hugely informative book, Dr. Nancy Yaw Davis examines the evidence underscoring the Zuni enigma ~ "a theory," she suggests, "with a thousand themes." In a meticulous piece of detection and scholarship, Davis describes the circumstances that may have led Japanese on a religious quest, perhaps searching for the legendary "middle world" of Buddhism, across the Pacific and to the American Southwest more than seven hundred years ago ~ one of the most astonishing examples of transoceanic human mobility in history. The Zuni Enigma is an uncommonly absorbing anthropological inquiry whose implications are nothing less than massive, groundbreaking, and fascinating. Seller Inventory # 8142302

Bibliographic Details

Title: THE ZUNI ENIGMA: A Native American People's ...

Publisher: NY & London. 2000. W.W. Norton & Co.

Publication Date: 2000

Binding: Hardcover

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

Argues that the Zuni Indians of New Mexico exhibit unique cultural, linguistic, and biological traits due to the merging of Native Americans and Japanese settlers into one tribe in the mid-1300s.

About the Author:

Nancy Yaw Davis holds an M.A. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Washington. Author of numerous articles, she has long researched the history and cultures of the native peoples of North America. Her company, Cultural Dynamics, is located in Anchorage, Alaska, where she lives.