Thursday, November 22, 2007

The World Turned Upside Down

A Cornfield (Edward Curtis, 1908)

On Thanksgiving Day, it is appropriate to read writings about and by Native Americans. This is a book I used in my "History of Religion in America" class this year, at the recommendation of my friend and colleague, Elizabeth P. Rice-Smith, a historian who is also a United Church Christ minister and clinical psychologist. The World Turned Upside Down: Indian Voices from Early America is edited by the head of Native American Studies at Dartmouth, Colin Calloway, who is a Scot.

I am going to re-read a passage or two from that book and from another book that my friend recommended and I used for the course, The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America, ed. Allan Greer.

I'm also going to have a look at a book I own but have not yet read, Native American Religious Identity: Unforgotten Gods, edited by Jace Weaver (Cherokee).
Exhibit of * just-planted Native American cornfield, Henricus Historical Park, Virginia.

Yes, I am also going to enjoy a fine meal with close friends. L'un n'empêche pas l'autre.

6 comments:

johnieb said...

I used it once, too; there's a copy here somewhere. There's another good one in the series on the Cherokee expulsion. I would have used them more but I returned to post WWII U S courses. I used a number of books from the series on diverse topics; all were excellent.

Max Rainey said...

L'un n'empêche pas l'autre.
Yes, indeed.
Also:
L'estomac as des raisons, que le raison ne connait point.
Food and memories are truly exquisite...
providing they are artfully and lovingly prepared, and enjoyed in the company of friends.

yours in the struggle,
max

Jane R said...

Yes, JohnieB, great series from Bedford/St. Martin's Press. I only just discovered it last summer. Saw the Cherokee book. Is there nothing you don't know? You are a font of information in six different professions. Okay, so you don't do nuclear physics. Or do you? ;-)

Max, thanks for stopping by. Yes, good food with good friends. A precious gift. I was blessed with that yesterday.

johnieb said...

I'm a Historian, Jane; there's nothing human we're not interested in.

Except math and physics.

Jane R said...

C'mon, Johnie, there is such a field as History of Science and it is absolutely fascinating. And astrophysics is part of physics; surely you like to gaze at the stars.

johnieb said...

Well, I did enjoy James Glick's fine biography of Richard Feynman; I can't remember the title.

Yes, it's fun to see what scientists are up to, but not so fun to do it oneself. Star-gazing is something I don't do enough, living in town with all the lights. I used to wrap up in blankets or a sleeping bag and lie on the deck in Winter at a friend's place up in the NW corner, where such things weren't an obstacle.