American Indian Literature Flashcards
No written language
Belief in the sacredness of words
Life
Mystical adventure and making up songs and singing them it’s the most important business. Much of this was wholly religious activity, in which poetry transformed the soul to an awareness of the beauty and holiness of the “permanent real”
Ritual and magical
The chanted or spoken word
Recorded lit
White explores came to the new world
Missionaries used European alphabet to copy sounds.
Recently, NA singers have been recorded on disk and tape.
Translation requires soul of a poet.
Columbus came
Over 600 Indian cultures speaking different dialects.
Navajo
Largest Indian nation- apache related people today occupy Arizona.
Pima
Village farmers from prehistoric times in the region of Phoenix, Arizona
Ojibwa (Chippewa)
Live on the shores of Lake Superior and Lake Huron
Quechuan
Colorado river people (Yuma)
Dakota (Sioux)
Associated with the high plains of the West.
Poetry
Played a central role.
They relied on the sacred power of language to help them through life .
Chanting poems whenever they the need to align themselves to the mysterious powers that governed all aspects of daily life.
Poetry function
Celebrating, praising, explaining, mourning, communicating, remembering.
Hunting, planting, harvesting, dancing, making war, overcoming trouble, observing life and confronting death.
Property
Poetry possession of the tribe . Communally shared
Recitation
Was by group chanting and repeating in unison. Accompanied by drums.
Tell
Poems tell about the people who wrote them and their culture. People celebrated nature and saw enchantment in everyday occurrences.
Images or word pictures are drawn from the natural world .
