| The Short, Swift Time of Gods on Earth: The Hohokam Chronicles Contributor(s): Bahr, Donald (Author), Smith, Juan (Author), Allison, William Smith (Author) |
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ISBN: 0520084683 ISBN-13: 9780520084681 Publisher: University of California Press OUR PRICE: $39.55 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: September 1994 Annotation: In the spring of 1935, at Snaketown, Arizona, two Pima Indians recounted and translated their entire traditional creation narrative. Now this extraordinary document is presented in its entirety for the first time. Beautifully expressed and composed of thirty-six separate stories, the narrative constitutes a kink of scripture for a native church, beginning with the creation of the universe out of the void and ending with the establishment in the sixteenth century of present-day villages. Central to the story is the murder / resurrection of a god-man, Siuuhu, who summoned the Pimas and Pimas and Papagos as his army of vengeance and brought about the conquest of his murders the ancient Hohokam. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Folklore & Mythology - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies |
| Dewey: 398.208 |
| LCCN: 93041131 |
| Physical Information: 0.8" H x 7.5" W x 9.2" (1.30 lbs) 352 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Native American |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In the spring of 1935, at Snaketown, Arizona, two Pima Indians recounted and translated their entire traditional creation narrative. Juan Smith, reputedly the last tribesman with extensive knowledge of the Pima version of this story, spoke and sang while William Smith Allison translated into English and Julian Hayden, an archaeologist, recorded Allison's words verbatim. The resulting document, the Hohokam Chronicles, is the most complete natively articulated Pima creation narrative ever written and a rare example of a single-narrator myth. Now this extraordinary work, composed of thirty-six separate stories, is presented in its entirety for the first time. Beautifully expressed, the narrative constitutes a kind of scripture for a native church, beginning with the creation of the universe out of the void and ending with the establishment in the sixteenth century of present-day villages. Central to the story is the murder/resurrection of a god-man, Siuuhu, who summoned the Pimas and Papagos (Tohono O'odham) as his army of vengeance and brought about the conquest of his murderers, the ancient Hohokam. Donald Bahr extensively annotates the text and supplements it with other Pima-Papago versions of similar stories. Important as a social and historic document, this book adds immeasurably to the growing body of Native American literature and to our knowledge of the development of Pima-Papago culture. |