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Before the massive environmental change wrought by the European colonization of the South, hundreds of species of birds filled the region's flyways in immeasurable numbers. Before disease, war, and displacement altered the South's earliest human landscape, Native Americans hunted and ate birds and made tools and weapons from their beaks, bones, and talons. More significant to Shepard Krech III, Indians adorned themselves with feathers, invoked avian powers in ceremonies and dances, and incorporated bird imagery on pottery, carvings, and jewelry.

Krech, a renowned authority on Native American interactions with nature, reveals as never before the omnipresence of birds in Native American life. From the time of the earliest known renderings of winged creatures in stone and earthworks through the nineteenth century, when Native southerners took part in decimating bird species with highly valued, fashionable plumage, Spirits of the Air examines the complex and changeable influences of birds on the Native American worldview.

We learn of birds for which places and people were named; birds common in iconography and oral traditions; birds important in ritual and healing; and birds feared for their links to witches and other malevolent forces. Still other birds had no meaning for Native Americans. Krech shows us these invisible animals too, enriching our understanding of both the Indian-bird dynamic and the incredible diversity of winged life once found in the South. A crowning work drawing on Krech's distinguished career in anthropology and natural history, Spirits of the Air recovers vanished worlds and shows us our own anew. ... Read more

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"Spirits of the Air" is a most excellent book!
"Spirits of the Air" is a fascinating and enjoyable book, full of information about birds and their behaviors, native peoples and their traditions, and early American explorers and their observations. The very readable text by a leading authority is richly complemented by corresponding illustrations. I would have thought a book of this quality would have been much to costly for me, but the price is affordable.

A well-researched look at an Interesting topic
This book of "ethno-ornithology" is an interesting investigation of the connection between Indians and birds in the American South.

The author shows how Native Americans used birds for practical reasons, including food and many different uses of feathers. But they also had an association with birds beyond the utilitarian. Krech shows how birds and bird-like characters figured prominently in art, decoration, spirituality, politics, and stories. It was fascinating to see which birds figured prominently in Indian culture, and conversely, which ones did not.

This book is profusely illustrated with images of birds, Indians, and artifacts. Most of the bird species mentioned in the text are also shown in paintings by Audubon, Alexander Wilson, Mark Catesby, and a few others. Paintings and photographs of Indians depict examples of bird use (especially feathers).

I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in both birds and Native Americans.

Further, any birder living in the South, or anyone strongly interested in this region's birds, should find it of interest. As background, the author also presents an overview of the bird life of the South as it was in the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, mostly through accounts by European explorers and colonists. It was eye-opening to see both what has and has not changed since then. ... Read more

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From the Big-Game Hunters who appeared on the continent as far back as 12,000 years ago to the Inuits plying the Alaskan waters today, the Native peoples of North America produced a culture remarkable for its vibrancy, breadth, and diversity--and for its survival in the face of almost inconceivable trials. This book is at once a history of that culture and a celebration of its splendid variety. Rich in historical testimony and anecdotes and lavishly illustrated, it weaves a magnificent tapestry of Native American life reaching back to the earliest human records.

A recognized expert in North American studies, Jonathan King interweaves his account with Native histories, from the arrival of the first Native Americans by way of what is now Alaska to their later encounters with Europeans on the continent's opposite coast, from their exchanges with fur traders to their confrontations with settlers and an ever more voracious American government. To illustrate this history, King draws on the extensive collections of the British Museum--artwork, clothing, tools, and artifacts that demonstrate the wealth of ancient traditions as well as the vitality of contemporary Native culture. These illustrations, all described in detail, form a pictorial document of relations between Europeans and Native American peoples--peoples as profoundly different and as deeply related as the Algonquians and the Iroquois, the Chumash of California and the Inuipat of Alaska, the Cree and the Cherokee--from their first contact to their complicated coexistence today.

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First Peoples, First Contacts
In general I felt the book was a very patch account of Native American people which was, afterall, its stated subject matter.It fails for one thing, at least within the written text itself, to give proper attention tothe extreme diversity of that population.This is in large part due to thefact that the starting point of the work is the North American collectionsof the British Museum, which are necessarily finite and somewhat random,having more to do with the whims of the early collectors than to theconscious choices of curators, especially in the case of the earliestmaterial.The photo illustrations of this collection, however, are worththe price of the book.Some of the artwork is priceless and irreplaceable. Of interest too is the material on modern Native American artists stillworking within the cultural contexts, media and traditions of theirancestors. ... Read more

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Utilizing ethnographic and archaeological data and an updated paradigm derived from the best features of cultural ecology and ecological anthropology, this extensively illustrated book addresses over fifteen South American adaptive systems representing a broad cross section of band, village, chiefdom, and state societies throughout the continent over the past 13,000 years. Along the way, detailed presentations and critiques are made of a number of theories based on the South American data that have worldwide implications for our understanding of prehistoric and recent adaptive systems. ... Read more

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When Columbus arrived in the Americas there were, it is believed, as many as 2,000 distinct, mutually unintelligible tongues spoken in the western hemisphere, encompassing the entire area from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego. This astonishing fact has generally escaped the attention of historians, in part because many of these indigenous languages have since become extinct. And yet the burden of overcoming America's language barriers was perhaps the one problem faced by all peoples of the New World in the early modern era: African slaves and Native Americans in the Lower Mississippi Valley; Jesuit missionaries and Huron-speaking peoples in New France; Spanish conquistadors and the Aztec rulers. All of these groups confronted America's complex linguistic environment, and all of them had to devise ways of transcending that environment - a problem that arose often with life or death implications.For the first time, historians, anthropologists, literature specialists, and linguists have come together to reflect, in the fifteen original essays presented in this volume, on the various modes of contact and communication that took place between the Europeans and the "Natives."A particularly important aspect of this fascinating collection is the way it demonstrates the interactive nature of the encounter and how Native peoples found ways to shape and adapt imported systems of spoken and written communication to their own spiritual and material needs. ... Read more

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With more than 50,000 enrolled members, North Carolina's Lumbee Indians are the largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River. Malinda Maynor Lowery, a Lumbee herself, describes how, between Reconstruction and the 1950s, the Lumbee crafted and maintained a distinct identity in an era defined by racial segregation in the South and paternalistic policies for Indians throughout the nation. They did so against the backdrop of some of the central issues in American history, including race, class, politics, and citizenship.
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Lowery argues that "Indian" is a dynamic identity that, for outsiders, sometimes hinged on the presence of "Indian blood" (for federal New Deal policy makers) and sometimes on the absence of "black blood" (for southern white segregationists). Lumbee people themselves have constructed their identity in layers that tie together kin and place, race and class, tribe and nation; however, Indians have not always agreed on how to weave this fabric into a whole. Using photographs, letters, genealogy, federal and state records, and first-person family history, Lowery narrates this compelling conversation between insiders and outsiders, demonstrating how the Lumbee People challenged the boundaries of Indian, southern, and American identities.
With more than 50,000 enrolled members, North Carolina's Lumbee Indians are the largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River. Malinda Maynor Lowery, a Lumbee herself, describes how, between Reconstruction and the 1950s, the Lumbee crafted and maintained a distinct identity in an era defined by racial segregation in the South and paternalistic policies for Indians throughout the nation. They did so against the backdrop of some of the central issues in American history, including race, class, politics, and citizenship.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Review of Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South
Dr. Lowery's book is a significant contribution to a better understanding of America, particularly the American South, and is important in helping to break long-standing practices to "silence Indian people." Her own relationship to the subject adds depth and significance to the documentary record that the book is based on; her own recollections and family narratives are indispensable in telling the whole story of Lumbee identity.

Her portrayal of how the Lumbees developed an identity illustrates how culture and society affect our experiences and contributes to "the larger story of the American nation," particularly the effects of segregation and white supremacy that disempowered so many. As she states in her preface, "the historical evidence makes little sense without a Lumbee perspective." In addition, the book helps us to understand that as Indians affirm their identity, they are also affirming their identity as Americans.

Soon after the book was published, I asked Dr. Lowery to visit my humanities class on the American South at a N.C. community college. The students were fascinated by her examples and appalled that they (most of whom live within 90 minutes of Robeson County) had not realized that the Lumbee experiences are an important part of their culture as well and that they were so poorly informed about this cultural component of the American South. That several students have since purchased the book on their own demonstrates its value to them and lifelong learners who seek a broader and clearer focus on culture and history.

A complex and personal history of the struggle for Lumbee identity
Professor Maynor Lowery's fine history of the Lumbee experience in the Twentieth Century south is an important work.It is both a nuanced scholarly history of a frequently misunderstood and maligned group and a personal story of identity and survival from a historian who is herself from that community.Maynor Lowery effectively documents the changing and negotiated identity of the Lumbees, as both the community and outsiders applied different tribal names in attempts to define them as an Indian tribe.Maynor Lowery describes the complicated relationships within the Lumbee/Tuscarora community as well, as different groups used different strategies in the struggle to maintain independence in the face of southern racism.Maynor Lowery also documents the actions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the Indian Reorganization Act period not previously discussed in such detail, including the highly questionable use of then-accepted physical anthropology techniques to discern the "Indianness" of Lumbee individuals through measuring hair curliness, teeth shape, and skin tone.Ultimately, through a description of the complicated history of the Lumbees' struggle to define and maintain their distinct identity, a struggle that remains as the Lumbees continue to seek federal recognition as an Indian tribe, Maynor Lowery provokes important questions about race and what is it means to be "Indian" in Twentieth Century America.Those interested in southern race relations, federal Indian law and policy, and ethnohistory will get much out of this work.I recommend it highly.

An Authentic American Story.
Lowery has brilliantly taken the history of an under-recognized people and introduced them in such a way, that one feels a strong kinship with the Lumbee Indians well before the conclusion nears. Throughout the book, her readers are invited to take an earnest look at the struggle for identity and recognition, which spans the years of a divided South and continues to this day. Her pen passionately details important events in the tribe's timeline, and the proud characteristics of those who call themselves Lumbee. This is a must for history lovers everywhere, all who read will be enlightened.

A New Look at an Old Culture
Never heard of Lumbee Indians?How about Cherokee, Siouan,or Croatan Indians? These were some of the names applied to this significant (50,000) group of Southeastern Indians as they sought autonomy and recognition through the last 150 years.Malinda Maynor Lowery, a Lumbee herself,outlines the efforts of her people both to utilize and to overcomethe racially charged climate of the South in order to achieve educational and economic parity.Her work is throughly researched and meticulously documented, but even more important for the reader, she frames each chapter with a comfortable story ofher family and community which places her scholarship in a human, even homey, context.Extensive personal interviews and anecdotes flesh out the fascinating and moving historical account of the various ways Lumbees have tried to accommodate the Office of Indian Affairsand other government agencies.With her fresh point of view, Lowery's book would make an excellent resource for classes dealing with issues of race or poverty, as well as North Carolina history.

Some historians believe that Lumbee Indians may be descended from the Croatoans that the "Lost Colony" off Roanoke Islandfirst encountered in the sixteenth century.(That's just one of the questions of identity Lowery explores in her book.)Whatever the truth of that connection, there is no doubt that Lumbees have been around for hundreds, probably thousands, of years, and are sorely underrepresented in the historical literature.This book makes strides towards correcting that, and I am hoping we will hear morefrom Lowery in the future. ... Read more

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This book is the first in any language to provide an overview of Gran Chaco societies in Argentina in both historical and contemporary perspectives. It depicts a variety of strategies and actions utilized to regenerate traditional values and actions in the face of enormous pressures for assimilation. ... Read more

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Presenting 10 essays by experts in the fields of anthropology, ethnography, and ornithology on the native peoples of South America and their use of birds, this volume offers a fascinating view into the lives and customs of some of the indigenous peoples living in the rainforest and coastal areas of Brazil and Peru. This book includes color photographs of South American natives in festival and ritual celebrations and everyday activities, along with spectacular objects of featherwork, textiles, and pottery.

University Museum Monograph 75

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This in-depth study examines a number of levels: indigenous knowledge
and healing systems and how these have incorporated elements from other cultures, the practical uses of local medicinal plants, and the relationship between the environment and the belief system and how this strengthens ethnic identity and supports economic and political strategies for survival. It also explores constrasts between the two groups and their interrelationship.

The significance of this study extends far beyond these groups alone, and the book will be of interest to students of ethnicity, folklore, ethnobotany and epistemology. It shows how a threatened minority group can effectively help to shape its future and how small groups of disenfranchized individuals can recover their ethnic identity and human dignity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

buying my own book!
It is not appropriate to review my own book, so I'll just describe the experience of buying it from Amazon.com: it was great! painless, direct and quick! five stars!Of course, I give 5 stars to my book too.
Thank you,
Clarice Novaes da Mota ... Read more

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Yanomami Warfare: A Politcal History is the definitive study of the role of Western contact in generating disease, war and political strife among the Yanomami, from the slave raiding of the 17th century to the massacre at Haximu in 1993. Ferguson challenges the view of the Yanomami as the fierce people. He argues persuasively that in the Amazon region, as elsewhere, the influence of expanding neighboring state systems has increased the propensity for violence among tribal peoples. ... Read more

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The startling message of this book is that the so-called virgin forests of the world owe much to their symbiotic relationship with the indigenous peoples who live in and on the margins of the forests. Human activities have for millenia "managed" (consciously or unconsciously) the world's forests, resulting in a greatly enriched biodiversity.

The contributors to the book come from many different scientific disciplines, national and cultural backgrounds.Examples of forests are taken from Asia, Africa and South America, thus reflecting the global nature of the phenomenon.The book's conclusions will have far-reaching implications for all who are concerned with the conservation of forests and their indigenous human population. ... Read more

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The regions and the people of the southern cone of South America have been identified as wild and at the edge of the world. The present compilation of research by scholars, many of whom are members of the Argentine Academia, effectively summarizes the struggle of the Mapuche, Tehuelche, Rankuelche, and Selk'nam peoples for a continued sense of cultural identity distinct from the one of inferiority foisted upon them by Spanish conquerors. ... Read more

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One of the classics of Andean history. Best for specialists.
Ann Wightman's study of the bishopric of Cuzco argues, with a generation of other scholars of the Andes like Stern, Spalding and Sempat, that ethnic divisions within Spanish indigenous communities would slowly be replaced bysocial class-based relations to land and the Spanish economic system.Asolid piece of history; broad and mostly engaging. Ideal for students ofcolonial Latin American history, the Andes, or historians interested inindigenous identity. ... Read more

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Lakota (also Lakhota, Teton, Teton Sioux) is a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of the Sioux tribes. While generally taught and considered by speakers as a separate language, Lakota is mutually understandable with the other two languages, and is considered by most linguists one of the three major varieties of the Sioux language. The Lakota language represents one of the largest Native American language speech communities left in the United States, with approximately 6,000 speakers living mostly in northern plains states of North and South Dakota. The language was first put into written form by missionaries around 1840 and has since evolved to reflect contemporary needs and usage. ... Read more

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In June 1990, Indigenous peoples shocked Ecuadorian elites with a powerful uprising that paralyzed the country for a week. Militants insisted that the government address Indigenous demands for land ownership, education, and economic development. This uprising was a milestone in the history of Ecuador's social justice movements, and it inspired popular organizing efforts across Latin America. While the insurrection seemed to come out of nowhere, Marc Becker demonstrates that it emerged out of years of organizing and developing strategies to advance Indigenous rights. In this richly documented account, he chronicles a long history of Indigenous political activism in Ecuador, from the creation of the first local agricultural syndicates in the 1920s through the galvanizing protests of 1990. In so doing, he reveals the central role of women in Indigenous movements and the history of productive collaborations between rural Indigenous activists and urban leftist intellectuals.

Becker explains how rural laborers and urban activists worked together in Ecuador, merging ethnic and class-based struggles for social justice. Socialists were often the first to defend Indigenous languages, cultures, and social organizations. They introduced rural activists to new tactics, including demonstrations and strikes. Drawing on leftist influences, Indigenous peoples became adept at reacting to immediate, local forms of exploitation while at the same time addressing broader underlying structural inequities. Through an examination of strike activity in the 1930s, the establishment of a national-level Ecuadorian Federation of Indians in 1944, and agitation for agrarian reform in the 1960s, Becker shows that the history of Indigenous mobilizations in Ecuador is longer and deeper than many contemporary observers have recognized. ... Read more

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Vida material fundamentalmente
Este libro está centrado principalmente en la vida material de los Selk'nam, habitantes de la Tierra del Fuego, centrándose en aspectos como las estrategias adaptativas a las duras condiciones del ambiente fueguino, la alimentación, la caza, la territorialidad. Los aspectos ideológicos no son el tema central de este libro, siendo un bueno complemento el trabajo de Anne Chapman.
Muchos de los datos de este libro son de gran utilidad para los arqueólogos. ... Read more