Author: Patricia Ann Lynch
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 1438119941
Category : Indian mythology
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
Features over four hundred entries that explore such topics as the core beliefs of various tribes, creation accounts, and recurrent themes throughout North American native cultures. The beliefs of many Native American peoples emphasize a close relationship between people and the natural world, including geographical features such as mountains and lakes, and animals such as whales and bison. Therefore, many of the myths of these peoples are stories of strange occurrences where animals or forces of nature and people interact. These stories are full of vitality and have captured the attention of young people, in many cases, for centuries. Native American Mythology A to Z presents detailed coverage of the deities, legendary heroes and heroines, important animals, objects, and places that make up the mythic lore of the many peoples of North America from northern Mexico into the Arctic Circle. A comprehensive reference written for young people and illustrated throughout, this volume brings to life many Native American myths, traditions, and beliefs. Offering an in depth look at various aspects of Native American myths that are often left unexplained in other books on the subject, this book is a valuable tool for anyone interested in learning more about various Native American cultures. Coverage includes creation accounts from many Native American cultures; influences on and development of Native American mythology; the effects of geographic region, environment, and climate on myths; core beliefs of numerous tribes; recurrent themes in myths throughout the continent. The beliefs of many Native American peoples emphasize a close relationship between people and the natural world.

Author: David Wright Falade
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 9780802160393
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Already excerpted in the New Yorker, Black Cloud Rising is a compelling and important historical novel that takes us back to an extraordinary moment when enslaved men and women were shedding their bonds and embracing freedom By fall of 1863, Union forces had taken control of Tidewater Virginia, and established a toehold in eastern North Carolina, including along the Outer Banks. Thousands of freed slaves and runaways flooded the Union lines, but Confederate irregulars still roamed the region. In December, the newly formed African Brigade, a unit of these former slaves led by General Edward Augustus Wild--a one-armed, impassioned Abolitionist--set out from Portsmouth to hunt down the rebel guerillas and extinguish the threat. From this little-known historical episode comes Black Cloud Rising, a dramatic, moving account of these soldiers--men who only weeks earlier had been enslaved, but were now Union infantrymen setting out to fight their former owners. At the heart of the narrative is Sergeant Richard Etheridge, the son of a slave and her master, raised with some privileges but constantly reminded of his place. Deeply conflicted about his past, Richard is eager to show himself to be a credit to his race. As the African Brigade conducts raids through the areas occupied by the Confederate Partisan Rangers, he and his comrades recognize that they are fighting for more than territory. Wild's mission is to prove that his troops can be trusted as soldiers in combat. And because many of the men have fled from the very plantations in their path, each raid is also an opportunity to free loved ones left behind. For Richard, this means the possibility of reuniting with Fanny, the woman he hopes to marry one day. With powerful depictions of the bonds formed between fighting men and heartrending scenes of sacrifice and courage, Black Cloud Rising offers a compelling and nuanced portrait of enslaved men and women crossing the threshold to freedom.

Author: Ellen Douglas
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 9781617033575
Category : Mississippi
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description

Author: Jerrold E. Levy
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520920570
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
Jerrold E. Levy's masterly analysis of Navajo creation and origin myths shows what other interpretations often overlook: that the Navajo religion is as complete and nuanced an attempt to answer humanity's big questions as the religions brought to North America by Europeans. Looking first at the historical context of the Navajo narratives, Levy points out that Navajo society has never during its known history been either homogeneous or unchanging, and he goes on to identify in the myths persisting traditions that represent differing points of view within the society. The major transformations of the Navajo people, from a northern hunting and gathering society to a farming, then herding, then wage-earning society in the American Southwest, were accompanied by changes not only in social organization but also in religion. Levy sees evidence of internal historical conflicts in the varying versions of the creation myth and their reflection in the origin myths associated with healing rituals. Levy also compares Navajo answers to the perennial questions about the creation of the cosmos and why people are the way they are with the answers provided by Judaism and Christianity. And, without suggesting that they are equivalent, Levy discusses certain parallels between Navajo religious ideas and contemporary scientific cosmology. The possibility that in the future Navajo religion will be as much altered by changing conditions as it has been in the past makes this fascinating account all the more timely. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1998. Jerrold E. Levy's masterly analysis of Navajo creation and origin myths shows what other interpretations often overlook: that the Navajo religion is as complete and nuanced an attempt to answer humanity's big questions as the religions brought to North Am

Author: James Musgrave
Publisher: James Musgrave
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
When Abortion was Against the Law, Attorney Clara Foltz Confronts the EstablishmentMa In the fifth mystery of the Portia of the Pacific series, Attorney and Detective Clara Shortridge Foltz and her partner, Attorney Laura de Force Gordon, become involved in two trials. One, an administrative case, Clara defends the accused, an abortifacient merchant, who is allegedly the incestuous father of a child by his sixteen-year-old daughter, who dies during an abortion attempt. But since this is 1887, no criminal charges can be made on the father, so the San Francisco police go after the midwife, a Chinese-American who treated the deceased, a half-Navajo girl, with acupuncture. Clara and Laura call in witnesses from the past, including a Medicine Man from the victim’s mother’s tribe in the Arizona Territory, the famous Claflin sisters, suffragists who live in England, and the State Supreme Court Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Junior. The supernatural curse of the tribe’s Skinwalker witches, in the form of a coyote, which allegedly can run on two legs like a man, and the strange practices of the Navaho Medicine man and his deaf assistant, cause this mystery to evolve into a much bigger conundrum than merely that of abortion. The search for truth will end on the Navaho Nation’s land, under less than ideal circumstances.

Author: Gary Y. Okihiro
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1610696131
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 1985

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Book Description
Firsthand sources are brought together to illuminate the diversity of American history in a unique way—by sharing the perspectives of people of color who participated in landmark events. This invaluable, four-volume compilation is a comprehensive source of documents that give voice to those who comprise the American mosaic, illustrating the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. Each volume focuses on a major racial/ethnic group: African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Latinos. Documents chosen by the editors for their utility and relevance to popular areas of study are organized into chronological periods from historical to contemporary. The collection includes eyewitness accounts, legislation, speeches, and interviews. Together, they tell the story of America's diverse population and enable readers to explore historical concepts and contexts from multiple viewpoints. Introductions for each volume and primary document provide background and history that help students understand and critique the material. The work also features a useful primary document guide, bibliographies, and indices to aid teachers, librarians, and students in class work and research.

Author: Marta Weigle
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 1512809004
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

Author: John R. Farella
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 9780816512102
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Although they are among the most studied people on earth, the Navajo possess a complex philosophy. . . . A valuable source for those deeply interested in the structure of the Navajo universe, its mythology, and its central concept of long life and happiness. ÑMasterkey This is a stimulating book. Essentially, it criticizes previous discussions of Navajo religion and philosophy for greatly underestimating their complexity and sophistication. . . . What the author discovers in Navajo thought is that the key concepts are interrelated in a grand, moral, ethical, philosophic, and cosmic unity." ÑAmerican Anthropologist "Discredits dualists, both non-Indian and Indian, who see simplistic oppositions of Good and Evil in Navajo culture and philosophy. The concept of walking in beauty, as related to the proper growth of the corn plant, unifies the book, and Farella does some impressive cross-cultural linguistic analysis to derive practical and ceremonial applications of these central Navajo metaphors. . . . This is one of the better books on Indian religion" ÑChoice

Author:
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824842839
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
While its actors made their entrace down the Flower Way over three hundred years ago, little of kabuki's repertory has been available to English readers. Not only are adequate translations difficult to produce, but also because the spoken parts of the drama constitute but a portion of that grand spectacle, English renderings often have an elliptical quality.These five plays, however, were translated from tapes made by James Brandon at actual performances, imparting to them an unusual immediacy. The superb translations are further enhanced by detailed commentary and stage directions that reflect music and sound effects as well as positions of actors on stage and their stylized gestures and posturing, all of which are such a vital part of a live performance. A concise introduction includes the history of kabuki, its religious background and ties with prostitution, its themes and playwriting systems, and its performance conventions, actors, music, and dance. Appendixes provide a fascinating focus on various sound effects and music cues in performance. More than one hundred production photographs vividly convey the action and emotion of one of the world's greatest stage arts. First published in 1975, this volume remains a classic.A reprint to the 1975 edition. Accepted into the UNESCO Collection of Representative Works, Japanese Series.

Author: Jeremy Schipper
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190689803
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Before Harriet Tubman or Martin Luther King was identified with Moses, African Americans identified those who challenged racial oppression in America with Samson. In Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon, Nyasha Junior and Jeremy Schipper tell the story of how this biblical character became an icon of African American literature. Along the way, Schipper and Junior introduce readers to a cast of historical characters -- many of whom became American icons themselves -- including Fredrick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton and others. From stories of slave rebellions to the Harlem Renaissance to the civil rights era and the Black Power movement, invoking the biblical character of Samson became a powerful way for African American intellectuals, activists, and artists to voice strategies and opinions about race relations in America. As this provocative book reveals, the story of Black Samson became the story of our nation's contested racial history.