Central America Books

ESTE PINCHI LIBRO ESTA A TODA MADRE.VIVA EL NORTE

This description of the Caddo verb delves into some very interesting linguistic topics, including polysynthesis, agentive person marking (split intransitivity), absolutive person marking, the specification of an indefinite "defocusing" person, noun incorporation, and realis vs. irrealis modality.

Melnar ably demonstrates the wonderful richness of the Caddo verb (e.g. she describes 23 morphological position classes and 26 pronominal forms divided into realis and irrealis sets). However, despite this morphological complexity, Melnar manages to achieve remarkable technical clarity. For example, she identifies 123 Caddo markers of tense, aspect, and mood. Not only are all of the relevant concepts of these markers defined (e.g. andative, cislocative, durative, hortative, prioritive, etc.), at least one example of each marker's use is provided!

While this book is primarily geared toward linguists (and would make a great reference book for grammatical description - the index is very complete and there is ample cross-referencing), it also provides an invaluable insight to the logical expression of a conceptional system that is little documented and largely disappearing (and thus is of considerable interest to anthropologists, psychologists, and anyone interested in what it means to be human). If you adhere to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (that there is a systematic relationship between the grammatical categories of the language a person speaks and how that person both understands the world and behaves in it), you will appreciate Melnar's contribution to our understanding of Native American world-views - and humanity in general.

This is an exceptional book written by a scholar who lives in Cahokia and has devoted her life to the village as a resident, librarian, and mayor. Cahokia, Illinois, is rich in history and continues to be a thriving community. Cahokia was settled in 1699, making it one of America's oldest. History buffs and trivia buffs as well as anyone looking for something new and different will find this illustraton-packed book fascinating!

There is so much research and hard work contained in this book you can hardly believe it turns out easy to read as well as beautiful to look at. It has a fresh, original approach to an old science, describing the complete story of each culture: the environment, their beliefs, their techniques in art, construction, jewelry making, etc. It is very informative as well as compelling.

Show it off, it is THE coffetable book by excellence! This book on Calima and Malagana will immediately animate conversations and perhaps, set travel projects flowing!

This book took me on a deep journey through the indigenous peasant world of Campesino a Campesino, a fascinating movement working for food sovereignty and environmental sustainability. I had no idea of its existence or of the dramatic struggles of its protagonists. On one hand, it is told through the eyes of the peasants themselves as they brave repressive regimes, war, globalization and poverty. On the other, the author weaves in his own observations and thoughtful analysis of how and why these events occur. It is powerfully and passionately written, without losing any of its sharp analytical edge. I learned a lot from this book, and will use it in my teaching and simply to share in the wisdom of the peasants.

"Campesino" is pure dynamite for anyone interested in the Highland Maya and their historical plight. Interestingly enough, the book is also of great value to anyone studying the American Indian in general. There is a similarity between the Maya plight and that of Indians everywhere. The only difference from country to country is the level of inculturation. In this book we see the poverty, the stubborn resistence to change, the daily confusion, and the treachery and violence coming from within the Maya community itself. The author sees the futility of his life on occasion, but keeps up his hope for a better day for himself and his family.

The wonderful aspect of this book is that we go from day to day with a very ordinary Maya, who is only different from his brothers in that he is literate. He talks with great honesty about his plight which he takes as normal.

I highly recommend this book for its sensitive look at daily life among the Native Americans of Guatemala, Central America and in both North and South America.

Thomas J. Blumer, Lancaster, South Carolina

The United States and Canada have the world's largest border and trading relationship and so they share a long history of trade relations. Any college-level collection strong in Canada history in general and US-Canada relations in particular thus needs Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies, a 4th updated edition extensively rewritten and updated to reflect new scholarly arguments and discoveries on the nature and analysis of cultural, economic and political developments.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Author James Brooks has turned out a fascinating book about slavery among American Indians and the Spanish colonists of New Mexico. We see through his eyes the cultural synthesis in New Mexico that took place over a period of three centuries among Indian tribes and Spanish colonists.

Slavery worked in many ways in the borderlands. The Indians vied among themselves for captives that could be traded among themselves, put to work, or adopted into the tribe. Spanish captured Indians and made of them family members, slaves, or soldiers. Indians captured Spaniards with the same aim. The result was an ethnic stew.

What makes this book much better than the average scholarly endeavor is Brook's use of primary sources to come up with precise information and fascinating stories of individuals impacted by slavery. For example, we often hear authors talk in generalities about the Comanches as a warlike, raiding nation. Brooks quantifies their impact. He tells us that from 1771 to 1776 that Indians, mainly Comanches, killed 1,674 people in Mexico and stole 68,256 head of livestock. That gives us a vivid picture of the scope and scale of Comanche depredations and a reason to believe that the terror they inspired was not exaggerated. (He also includes extensive footnotes so one could check the sources of his information.)

Moreover, Brooks tells us about the fate of individuals swept up in Comanche raids. One Mexican boy, for example, was captured by the Comanches when he was eight, enslaved, and then sold to the Wichita when he was twenty. He then became an employee of the Spanish to deal with Indians on their borders and when last seen by history had amicably rejoined his Comanche enslavers and was enroute to New Mexico to visit his parents from whom he had been stolen twenty years before. Another woman abducted by Comanches in New Mexico ended up as a French matron in St. Louis. The ethnic stew boils and bubbles.

Brooks also looks at the internal New Mexican society and the relations among its social classes, including slaves, descendants of slaves, Christianized Indians, mestizos, and Spanish grandees. He examines slavery among the Navajo and describes their pastoral economy, as well as that developed by the New Mexicans. Along the way he looks into tidbits of Pawnee religious ceremonies, Kiowa society, the Ute and Apache, and the epidemics of European diseases that brought the high-flying Comanches down to earth.

Brooks concludes his book with a look at the coming of the Americans to New Mexico in the nineteenth century, the society they found, and their impact. He tells briefly a story about an American woman who, in 1909, found that she had inherited 32 Ute slaves -- perhaps the last slaves in the United States.

Smallchief

This is a well written biography of Carl Hayden that attempts to cover all aspects of Senator's life and career. Compared to the other commonly available biography of Hayden, Jack L. August's Vision in the Desert: Carl Hayden and Hydropolitics in the American Southwest, this book does not focus on one specific aspect of Hayden's career but instead provides as broad a coverage of Hayden's 57 years in congress as can be expected of a single book.

I just want to say that the thing I loved about this book was the illustrations. I LOVED how so many women were depicted carrying their babies around in various slings. Such a good message wrapped up in a sweet story.