History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

The Living Tradition of Yup'Ik Masks: Agayuliyararput : Our Way of Making Prayer

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Un veramente "grande libro

The Living Tradition of Yup'Ik Masks: Agayuliyararput : Our Way of Making Prayer
Ann Fienup-Riordan
Manufacturer: University of Washington Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0295975016

Customer Reviews:

Un veramente "grande libro.......2007-03-09

La magnifica veste grafica e l'ecezionale completezza del testo rendono questo libro uno staordinario documento oltrechè un dovuto omaggio alla cultura Inuit.A quando una ristampa?

Identity by Design: Tradition, Change, and Celebration in Native Women's Dresses

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Absolutely Fantastic!

Identity by Design: Tradition, Change, and Celebration in Native Women's Dresses
National Museum Of The American Indian
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0061153699
Release Date: 2007-02-06

Book Description

This beautiful book presents a fascinating array of complete women's and girls' outfits dating from the 1830s to the present, including dresses, shawls, shoes, belts, bags, fans, and hair accessories. Also included is historical and contemporary background information on Native life and Native women and their dress. To accompany a major exhibit of the same name at the NMAI in March 2007.

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely Fantastic! .......2007-03-18

I am a traditional dance dress artist, although not as prolific (or even as expert) as some of those featured in this book. If I could have given more than 5 stars it would receive them. The photos were beautifully clear, although there only one or two photos of some of the featured dresses, they showed the splendor and detail of artistry from the past. I hope this doesn't spawn more artifakes, especially those coming to the US from overseas. This book is a long-awaited dream come true.

Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America

Average customer rating:

HUMANS-COME TOGETHER!
Good Book, bad binding
very good
An anthropologist on Mars
The Story of a Man and an Epoch

Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America
Theodora Kroeber
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520240375

Book Description

The life story of Ishi, the last Yahi Indian, lone survivor of an exterminated tribe, is unique in the annals of North American anthropology. For more than forty years, Theodora Kroeber's biography has captivated readers. Now recent advances in technology make it possible to return to print the 1976 deluxe edition, filled with plates and historic photographs that enhance Ishi's story and bring it to life.
Ishi stumbled into the twentieth century on the morning of August 29, 1911, when, desperate with hunger and terrified of the white murderers of his family, he was found in the corral of a slaughter house near Oroville, California. Finally identified as a Yahi by an anthropologist, Ishi was brought to San Francisco by Professor T. T. Waterman and lived there the rest of his life under the care and protection of Alfred Kroeber and the staff of the University of California's Museum of Anthropology.
Karl Kroeber adds an informative tribute to the text, describing how the book came to be written and how Theodora Kroeber's approach to the project was a product of both her era and her special personal insight and empathy.

Customer Reviews:

HUMANS-COME TOGETHER!.......2007-09-28

ALL humans can benefit from reading this fact based book. ISHI was a real MAN, and his humbleness and genuine qualities are what young people should strive to match!

Good Book, bad binding.......2007-07-23

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and the story of Ishi. However, the binding on the new paperback fell apart before I was half way through it.

very good.......2007-02-10

This book is very enjoyable, informative, and enlightening. If you are interested in Native Americans, this is a must read. It truly describes the last "Wild Indian" that was brought into modern society. It explains both the natural heritage of Ishi along with the typical exploration of finding the last "Wild Indian". Truly, a story that had to be told

An anthropologist on Mars.......2006-03-16

At the beginning of the 20th century a half-starved 50-year-old Indian was found in a remote farm in California. He was the last surving Yaki Indian. Before the arrival of white settlers there had been probably more than 2000 Indians of that tribe in the area. They were wiped out in less than 80 years by the diseases carried by europeans, the reduction of their natural environment and periodical retaliatory expeditions organized by band of vigilantes to revenge a stolen cow or horse or the killing of one white settler. The last surviving Yaki was lucky enough to be "adopted" by the curators of the Museum of Berkeley University. There the Indian lived happily for 5 years, working as janitor and a sort of living exhibit. The anthropologist studied him and his world, and he studied the world of whites, showing a remarkable degree of adaptability to modern American society. He was called Ishi (=man) by the staff of the museum because he always refused to say his own name. Loved by everybody and friend of everybody, he died of the tubercolosis that his natural defence did not recognize. The story was written 50 years after his death by the daughter of the museum's director through the notes of her father (she had never met Ishi). Even being a perfectly scientific book, it has the power of moving of a novel and contains a terrible caveat for the modern man.

The Story of a Man and an Epoch.......2006-01-24

This is a very important book and a very sad book. It tells an extraordinary story of a man who was last man of his tribe. It also an honest history of the white man's inhumanity to the red man in California during the second half of the ninetheenth Century.
The story is: Ishi hid in the mountains nearly all of his life. After his Yahi tribesmen died, he drifted into a small town. He was rescued by an anthropologist and lived the remainder of his short life on the grounds of a San Francisco museum.

The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

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a white feminist finds eye-opening
Valuable but annoying.
Simply Brilliant

The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions
Paula Gunn Allen
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807046175

Book Description

This pioneering work, first published in 1986, documents the continuing vitality of American Indian traditions and the crucial role of women in those traditions.

Customer Reviews:

a white feminist finds eye-opening.......2000-02-08

This white feminist found The Sacred Hoop eye-opening and mind-expanding. While I cannot presume to be able to truly understand tribal thinking, I nonetheless found the concepts and philosophies described here to be completely pertinent to my place in existence. I am struggling to realize my place in a multifaced, complex web-world and have never felt comfortable with the typical feminist need to stand out in the foreground. It is also very empowering to see that there have been many versions of woman-based cultures. Unlike those in Crete, for example, tribal cultures were fully functioning in North America less than 500 years ago! It is unfortunate (though not at all surprising, given the difficulty of writing about concepts in the language of the patriarchy) that this gospel of hope and renewal is not reaching many, many people--especially our young people in colleges and universities. Don't take this wrong, Paula Gunn Allen, but you go, girl!

Valuable but annoying........1999-01-11

Being a white male (although one who's interested in Native American literature) certainly influenced my reaction to this book. That said, I think it's invaluable reading--probably a "must read" for those really interested in the field of Native American studies. I found it extremely interesting and useful. I also found it unsettling and even offensive in places. In spite of attacking white culture for reducing everything to ethnocentric formulas (a point she illustrates very persuasively), Allen seems to me to do the same thing throughout the book. While criticizing white academics for robbing Native Americans of thier complexity as individuals, she tends to see every possible issue through a polarized perspective--Native American=Good, White culture=bad. Doesn't this, in fact, rob Native Americans of their complexity as individuals and lead to the very romanticizing that Allen objects to?

Still, as irritating as I find this reductive way of arguing, I have to admit that this is a very valuable book.

Simply Brilliant.......1998-12-17

As a young American Indian woman, reading PGA's book was like finding my own personal bible. Finally, someone who was telling me the same things about myself that my mother had taught me. Excellent chapters like "The Red Roots of White Feminism" and "When Strong Women Throw Down Bundles" are not to be missed. PGA your my shimasaani!

Beyond Tradition: Contemporary Indian Art and Its Evolution

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One to Own
Knowlegeable Text and Outstanding Photography

Beyond Tradition: Contemporary Indian Art and Its Evolution
Jerry D. Jacka , and Lois Essary Jacka
Manufacturer: Northland Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0873584716

Customer Reviews:

One to Own.......2003-07-11

Lois and Jerry Jacka do an EXCELLENT job with every project they undertake. Certainly this book is no exception. The text by Lois is insightful and well written. Jerry's photography and layout are some of the best. With an historical introduction by Clara Lee Tanner, the book is COMPLETE from Preface to page 206. Works by many of today's MASTERS are illustrated and a brief description of each item is included. The number of Native American artists is far too extensive to list, so may a half dozen suffice: Charles Loloma, Grace Medicine Flower, Rondina Huma, Jesse Monongye, Loren Phillips and Doug Hyde. There are so many more! Since the book is now OUT OF PRINT, grab a copy; it truly is one to own.

Knowlegeable Text and Outstanding Photography.......1999-04-27

This is an excellent sourcebook for those wanting to learn more about quality Native art. The information provided will help you learn about the various associations that work with Native artists as well as wonderful insights into many of the artists themselves. "Anything by Lois and Jerry Jacka" is the recommendation given in the conclusion of The Native American Indian Artist Directory (a book that gives you actual contact information, i.e. phone numbers, mailing addresses, etc.) for good reason. The quality of their work has been recognized for many years. If you attend the major Native art events in the Southwest you're likely to see them there, keeping current on the latest in Native arts. One more terrific publication from the Lois & Jerry Jacka team!

More Than Moccasins: A Kid's Activity Guide to Traditional North American Indian Life (Kid's Guide series, A)

Average customer rating:

Awesome Book!!!
Great Resource!!
A Most for Any Indian Project
Museum of Native American art
EXCELLENT!

More Than Moccasins: A Kid's Activity Guide to Traditional North American Indian Life (Kid's Guide series, A)
Laurie Carlson
Manufacturer: Chicago Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1556522134

Book Description

Kids discover traditions and skills from the people who first settled this continent, including gardening, making useful pottery, and communicating through Navajo codes.

Customer Reviews:

Awesome Book!!!.......2007-03-18

In planning Native American Stand for a day camp...this book is awesome. Has wonderful games, crafts, foods etc and it breaks it down into which tribe was known for each...very educational and a wonderful resource.

Great Resource!!.......2007-01-10

I am a K teacher and I found this book a great resource for my Native American unit. It has so many activities for that could be used at any grade level! I learned many new things and loved that the children were making and learning about actual Native American games, garb and food. They loved it!

A Most for Any Indian Project.......2007-01-04

This was the most valuable toolwe found to help my 3rd grader make her diarama herself. The directions are clear and simple, she was able to build evereything herself. A MOst, Great!

Museum of Native American art.......2002-09-07

This is the best, most extensive book on Native American crafts for children I have ever seen. Teachers doing a unit on Native Americans will find this book a tremendous resource for creating all kinds of not authentic, but good semblances of Native American crafts. Using mostly ordinary materials, there's enough here that you can create a classroom museum and invite others to see it. In your display you can have: miniature teepees and wigwams, an "adobe" house, pottery, "bark" boxes (made of brown paper), chamois and bead pouch, coup stick, breechcloth, leggings, grass anklets (made of yarn), warbonnet, headband, breastplate, and much more. These clothing items can also be used in a play or other enactment. In addition, there are some interesting recipes, including: corn soup, steamed clover, fried squash blossoms, roasted pumpkin seeds, and other more familiar foods.

EXCELLENT!.......2000-01-15

More than Moccasins is this homeschooler's dream come true. Homeschooling a six year old, who is also a very hands-on learner, this book fits the bill. Each section, from Indian dwellings to pottery to traditional games, has activities that are fun and EASY TO DO! Very general household items can be turned into bakeable clay for pottery, teepees, etc. So many books with crafts require tedious materials that are difficult or cumbersome to obtain. Plus each section has a bit of information and history on that particular area of Native American culture ~ short enough for the younger set but detailed enough to provide accurate historical information to go along with the project. There are MORE activities, games, crafts and recipes than you could ever do in an entire unit. This is a book I will return to over and over. GREAT JOB!

The Cherokee Full Circle: A Practical Guide to Sacred Ceremonies and Traditions

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Part of my continual study!!!
Solid principles!
Fantastic
Book Balances the Experience
This is required reading for all self-determined people

The Cherokee Full Circle: A Practical Guide to Sacred Ceremonies and Traditions
J. T. Garrett , and Michael Tlanusta Garrett
Manufacturer: Bear & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1879181959
Release Date: 2002-08-01

Book Description

A comprehensive overview of Native American spiritual principles and their application for personal spirit-healing.

â€¢ Includes traditional sacred exercises, teaching tales, case studies, and suggested rituals for individual and group healing.

â€¢ Outlines the core principals of Native American traditional values and teaches how to apply them to the contemporary path of wellness and healing.

â€¢ Publication to coincide with annual Full Circle gathering in September 2002

The Four Directions, the four seasons, and the four elements that make up the sacred hoop of the full circle must be in right relationship with one another or disharmony will result. Native American ritual has always emphasized the restoration of balance through ceremonies that provide a forum for learning, transition, and expressions of personal growth. Now Cherokee authors J. T. and Michael Garrett share Native American traditions to explore interrelationships as a tool for growth and transformation.

The Cherokee Full Circle gathers techniques representing Native American cultures from across America--stories, exercises, and individual and group rituals--to teach the inherent dynamics of right relationship and apply them to the healing path. The authors provide a comprehensive overview of Native American spiritual principles and traditions and demonstrate how these ideas and methods can be applied universally to deal with life's situations--from depression and grieving to finding purpose and establishing positive relationships.

Customer Reviews:

Part of my continual study!!!.......2006-04-25

An amazing study book. Encourages me to continue in my Native American roots search. Thank you. I have all of Garretts books.

Solid principles!.......2004-05-20

An excellent presentation of Cherokee religion in respect to the harmony in the relationships of cycles. Easily readable, but goes into depth to give good solid understanding. A well done book on the subject!

Fantastic.......2003-08-08

Helps me with my meditation practices. Better to use this in the great outdoors but a very sprit building book!

Book Balances the Experience.......2003-04-07

I like this book because it is the answer to How Full Circle Works. It cannot replace the Experience of Full Circle. The Experience appeals to the feeling side of a person and the book balances the experience with intellectual understanding. I read it straight through in one evening.
The book tells about the wholistic and enjoyable approach the Garrett Family uses to help people into group transformational energy in the way of the Cherokee. It also tells about mainstream counseling techniques incorporated into Full Circle for insights and healing. An atmosphere of support, acceptance, non-interference, respect and love in an environment that includes nature is emphasized.
The Cherokee Full Circle book is a wonderful blend of Cherokee cultural teachings that make sense today, interesting drawings enhancing the Cherokee stories (could be used for children to color as a coloring book), and modern day group techniques. It is a book for personal growth and a book for the professional wanting to explore diversity and new/old ways and thoughts.
If any reader wants to implement a Full Circle, the actual experience would be helpful if not mandatory to success.

This is required reading for all self-determined people.......2002-12-19

Drs. JT & Michael Garrett have gifted us with yet another wonderful collection of great insights and practical ways of "be-ing." The Cherokee Full Circle provides the reader with suggested activities that help one move towards balance and harmony throughout one's daily and life-long trials. The authors show how ancient wisdom continues to have practical applications in today's world. In doing so, they illuminate the realities of truth to be timeless. JT & Michael provide a way to make choices that can connect us with the Universal Circle of Life. They remind us of the sacred in everyday life. In their book, they show how many things that we may take for granted can bring a new energy into our life ( as well as those around us ) by recognizing their relationship to us and all other things. Giving thanks,asking permission, sharing,showing respect, generosity, listening, and being a helper are just a few of the many teachings in this book. The beauty of their message relates to everyone no matter what age, background, spirituality,or location. Once the reader makes the choice to embrace "the Way of the Circle," they learn to honor all things, to listen, to see, and to act in a sacred manner. Wah Do

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Social memory

Cities of the Dead
Joseph Roach
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0231104618

Book Description

The colorful handmade costumes of beads and feathers swirl frenetically, as the Mardi Gras Indians dance through the streets of New Orleans in remembrance of a widely disputed cultural heritage. Iroquois Indians visit London in the early part of the eighteenth century and give birth to the "feathered people" in the British popular imagination.

What do these seemingly disparate strands of culture share over three hundred years and several thousand miles of ocean? Artfully interweaving theatrical, musical, and ritual performance from the eighteenth century to the present in London and New Orleans, Cities of the Dead takes a look at a rich continuum of intercultural exchange that reinvents, recreates, and restores history.

Complemented with fifty-five illustrations, including spectacular photos of the famed Mardi Gras Indians, this fascinating work employs an entirely unique approach to the study of culture. Rather than focusing on one region, Cities of the Dead explores broad cultural connections over place and time, showing through myriad examples how performance can revise the unwritten past.

Customer Reviews:

Social memory.......2002-08-08

Roach's use of Paul Connerton's "incorporating practice of memory" (from "How Societies Remember": buy this!) allows him to develop a theory of the genealogy of performance-which seems to me to be a sort of re-construction or re-tracing of origins. This approach allows him to do some extremely interesting analysis of legal ramifications of race, racial categories (the octaroon, for example), public performance of capitalism in the form of the slave markets, and "body ownership." It also reifies race and racial designations and works in many ways against his arguments. For instance, the multiple ethnicities of Native Americans merge together into one self-contained "Other" within the imagination of both African and Anglo Americans. How Africans appropriated these images in their performances of race seem more complex in reality than Roach makes them out to be-related to the idea of "first," land distribution, and the fact that the issue of legal ownership and status was ambivalent at best ("The slave-holding propensities of the Five Civilized Tribes (so-called by whites in part because they held slaves) emphasize the double, inverted nature of the Indian as a symbol for African Americans: the non-white sign of both power and disinheritance" p. 205).

Critique of black/white as a dualism in early American cultural hegemony is something to which Roach also (unwittingly?) succumbs. Although he claims that "the issue of race in America is hard to reimagine without considering Native Americans" (p. 189), Native American identity is seen not as the amalgam of various multi-ethnic groups but as a "buffer" between white and black, thereby reinforcing the stereotypes of white power structures. I guess I am asking if the complexities of racial identity in the United States may be much more complex than we have already seen-African Americans dressing as "big chiefs" could be as multi-layered and problematic in terms of race and identity as high schools using "Redskins" as football mascots, couldn't it?

Not only race, but class, plays an important part in Roach's analysis. In one of the most convincing arguments based on Connerton in the book, Roach discusses the "cities of the dead"-the invention of separation between the living and the dead (ancestors). The tie-in with suburbanization as a model of this physical separation and performance of whiteness seems right on. The section about Congo Square, and the Bataille theories about the economy of excess in violence were excellent. Here I could begin to see the application of the author's theory, however awkward.

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Author Brings Honor to his Subjects

Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave (We Are Still Here : Native Americans Today)
Monty Roessel
Manufacturer: Lerner Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Goat in the Rug

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Navajo Rugs and Blankets: A Coloring Book

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Weaving the Rainbow

ASIN: 0822597128

Customer Reviews:

Author Brings Honor to his Subjects.......2002-06-27

"Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave" is the BEST, most sensitive and comprehensive children's book on the subject. Photographer and writer, Monty Roessel, took a personal approach to creating this book when he chose his daughter and his mother as subjects. He documented his ten year old daughter, Jaclyn, as her grandmother taught her to weave. The fifth grader learned about the practical aspects of weaving; like shearing sheep, carding and spinning wool, natural dyes, and weaving techniques. Nali Ruth (Grandmother) also taught Jaclyn about important Navajo stories related to weaving and the significance of each tool.

This book has an informative, well written text and wonderful graphics. It has many photographs and informative diagrams. Small samples of different rug patterns appear in the margins every few pages, leading to a full page map of the regions associated with the patterns. The wooden Navajo loom is shown in a labeled drawing. The traditional stories of how weaving originated for the Navajo people are on separate pages from the rest of the text, bordered by a rug-type design. I would recommend this book for both adults and children over 8 as a delightful way to learn about this subject. He honors his mother, his daughter, and Navajo weaving with this book.

If you are buying this book for a child, "Navajo Rugs and Blankets: A Coloring Book" by Chuck and Andrea Mobley, with Sam Mike as illustrator, is a must have supplement. Children interested in "Songs From the Loom" will find themselves inspired to experience Navajo rugs and this coloring book is a great way to extend the story!

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