| An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians: A New Edition, with an Introductory Study, Notes, and Appendices by José Juan Arrom Contributor(s): Pané, Fray Ramon (Author), Arrom, José Juan (Editor), Griswold, Susan C. (Translator) |
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ISBN: 0822323257 ISBN-13: 9780822323259 Publisher: Duke University Press OUR PRICE: $75.95 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: November 1999 Annotation: "[This is a] highly accessible English translation. . . [of] the earliest work dealing exclusively with the indigenous inhabitants of the New World."--Patricia Seed, Rice University "[This book] is important for the way in which it anticipates some of the main issues concerning the production of Latin American literature."--Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria, author of "Myth and Archive: A Theory of Latin American Narrative" |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Caribbean & West Indies - General - Social Science | Anthropology - General - History | Native American |
| Dewey: 972.93 |
| LCCN: 99019365 |
| Lexile Measure: 1320 |
| Series: Latin America in Translation |
| Physical Information: 0.53" H x 6.32" W x 9.4" (0.77 lbs) 104 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 15th Century - Chronological Period - 16th Century - Cultural Region - Caribbean & West Indies |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Accompanying Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1494 was a young Spanish friar named Ram n Pan . The friar's assignment was to live among the "Indians" whom Columbus had "discovered" on the island of Hispaniola (today the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic), to learn their language, and to write a record of their lives and beliefs. While the culture of these indigenous people--who came to be known as the Ta no--is now extinct, the written record completed by Pan around 1498 has survived. This volume makes Pan 's landmark Account--the first book written in a European language on American soil--available in an annotated English edition. Edited by the noted Hispanist Jos Juan Arrom, Pan 's report is the only surviving direct source of information about the myths, ceremonies, and lives of the New World inhabitants whom Columbus first encountered. The friar's text contains many linguistic and cultural observations, including descriptions of the Ta no people's healing rituals and their beliefs about their souls after death. Pan provides the first known description of the use of the hallucinogen cohoba, and he recounts the use of idols in ritual ceremonies. The names, functions, and attributes of native gods; the mythological origin of the aboriginal people's attitudes toward sex and gender; and their rich stories of creation are described as well. |