Native American Myths and Legends - Hardcover

Taylor, Colin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0861017536 ISBN 13: 9780861017539

Publisher: Salamander Press, 1997

Synopsis

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About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Under the direction of Taylor ( The Native Americans ), nine experts here survey Indian cultures in nine regions of North America. Each essay is organized by topic: origin, all-powerful spirits, heroes and monsters, holy places and sacred rites, revered animals, rituals and ceremonies. Passed down by oral tradition, myths were not simply entertainment--they established rules governing conduct between people and the natural world, serving as a code of behavior and a medium of instruction. The authors provide a wealth of information within a broad framework. We learn, for example, that an important taboo among Arctic peoples forbidding contact between land and sea animals results in the rule against eating seal and caribou the same day. The illustrations depict artifacts, ceremonies, paintings and people.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Another book on this subject? Yes, but one worthy of examination, nonetheless, because it's excellently illustrated and extremely well written. Nine specific chapters, each by a different hand or hands, describe Native American cultures of the Arctic, subarctic, both northern coasts, California, the plains, the plateau and basin near the western mountains, the Southeast, and the Southwest. Myths are retold as part of each chapter, but emphasis is upon the defining characteristics of the represented cultures. Thus we learn about the mounds and effigies, the significance of corn, and the purifying game-rituals in the Southeast; about the importance of place in the subarctic; about rock art in the native religions of California. Pat Monaghan

About this edition

• Publisher: Salamander Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0861017536
• ISBN 13: 9780861017539
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 144